“The gyms are closed and all the kettlebells in the country seem to have vanished – so I’m never going to gain strength at home”. How many of us have had that thought over the past year? As someone who thrives on performing heavy deadlifts and adding weights to the bar, the prospect of going through another gym-less lockdown was daunting – until I realised that the core principle for making strength gains was as applicable to home workouts as it is to those in a weights room: progressive overloading. 

According to Sara Catriona, a London-based strength and conditioning coach, progressive overloading “stimulates greater muscle fibre recruitment which helps to build muscle strength and power”. But what exactly is progressive overloading, and how can we do it?

Strength and conditioning coach Kate Whapples says that “progressive overloading is the gradual increase of demand that your training is putting on your musculoskeletal system.” Our bodies respond and adapt to whatever we put them through, so we need to continuously challenge them in order to make progress. This is where progressive overloading comes in. “If you don’t provide a progressively harder stimulus, there is no reason for your muscles to make any adaptations as they can already meet the demands of your training,” says Kate.