For strength training, progressive resistance is a good option.

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Written By DerrickCalvert

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Progressive resistance is a strength-training technique that increases the overload to enable adaptation. Progressive resistance is essential for building muscle, losing weight, and becoming stronger.

What is Progressive Resistance Exercise?

Exercise adapts to your body. You need to keep your body challenged in order to continue muscle growth and improve your fitness. You might be able keep the strength and muscle you have built, but you won’t see any improvement if it is the same thing every single day. A weight loss plateau is when your weight loss slows down.

Methods to Develop Progressive Resistance

There are many ways to achieve progressive resistance

You can lift more weight. Each week, you should lift the same number of reps and sets but your weight will increase. Your RM load should not exceed 2 to 10%. Your RM load refers to the maximum weight you are able to lift at once. You should lift 50 pounds at a time. If you can do this, you should add 2-5 pounds each week. Do not increase your load too much.

Increase the reps by increasing the weight every week and decreasing the reps each week.

Reduce the number of reps. Intermediate to advanced trainers can lift heavier weights but do fewer reps. This is known as heavy loading. The time between sets can be increased to three to five seconds for heavy loading.

You can increase the number. A typical weight loss program will have between two to four sets of each progressive resistance exercise. One set may be enough to build strength or endurance for beginners. As you gain strength and endurance, you’ll want to increase your number of sets. Depending on your weight, each set should take between 20 and 60 seconds.

Reduce the time between sets. Straight sets (e.g. Straight sets (e.g., three sets of squats followed by three sets of pushups) will usually take between 10 and 60 seconds. By reducing the interval between sets, you can increase intensity and challenge your body. If your form is beginning to show signs of fatigue, you can increase the rest period or lose weight.