There are two main facets of athletic development: excellent nutrition and progressive training. Assuming you have your nutrition plan tuned with the right amounts of calories, protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats, your training protocol is all that stands between you and reaching your full potential in both athletics and overall health and wellness. Unfortunately, when many people start a training regimen of any kind, they have little information to guide them in designing their exercise program. While there are an almost infinite number of strength training protocols available, this article discusses a principle that is central to all effective strength training programs. The concept of double progression is the foundation of continuous progression in strength and muscle gain, and yet it is an almost unheard of idea outside of serious weightlifting circles. Learn to understand double progression practice and how to incorporate it into your resistance training program and you will find the results are worth it!
The concept of double progression involves, as the name implies, two different but parallel routes to strength and muscle gain. The first is weight gain. If you can lift more weight this month (for the same number of repetitions, with the same style, etc.) as last month, your strength has increased in that time and in many cases so has your muscle mass. The second path of progression is in the number of repetitions of an exercise that can be performed. If you can lift the same weight for more reps this month than last month, then your strength has improved again with a similar increase in muscle mass.
Sadly, the fact is, you can’t gain weight or reps on your own indefinitely. If you try to add more weight each week, you will quickly find that your body cannot keep up, even when adding very small amounts of weight. Along the same lines, if you try to add more reps each week, you will also hit a wall in terms of progression, and for reasons beyond the scope of this article, you will also see little to no muscle growth as the reps add up. Luckily, there is a solution. Dual progression incorporates both weight gains and reps in a focused and disciplined manner, ensuring multiple paths of progression and providing the opportunity for virtually continuous improvement.
The first step in designing a dual progression plan for an individual exercise is to determine a rep range that you know will produce strength gains. Unfortunately, that optimal range varies between people and, in fact, can even differ between muscle groups within a single subject. The key to finding your range is to simply try different options and see which one works best. This process can be time consuming, but it produces extremely valuable information.
I’ll relate my personal rep ranges so you can develop an idea of how to start researching yours. From experience, I know that most of my back muscles (latissimus dorsi, trapezius, erector spinae, etc.) produce the most consistent strength gains over time using a three to six rep range. However, my shoulder muscles (delts) require a higher rep range of about five to eight. The difference in ranges may seem insignificant, but through trial and error I have found that, for example, my progress in rowing exercises slows down to a slow pace or even stops if I use sets with more than six reps. Trying to regain strength using sets of eight is essentially useless to me. Similarly, when performing the overhead press, which strongly activates the delts, I have found that performing sets of less than five reps leads to rapid stagnation. While sets containing five to eight reps are effective, sets of three produce little or no success. Experimentation is essential in determining your optimal repeat range, but the time invested is well worth the valuable data you’ll discover. On the other hand, if you are just starting out and are inexperienced, just choose a range between six and twelve reps. From there, you can try different ranges as you get more comfortable.
Once you’ve determined a productive rep range for each exercise, you should now find a weight at which you can begin to work on your progression. One method used to get to a starting weight is to discover your maximum capabilities in the desired rep range and then decrease from there. Of course, whenever you are working to the point where you can no longer lift a weight, an observer is required to ensure your safety. Once you have a secure human and / or mechanical restraint in place, put on the weight until you reach a point where you cannot successfully complete a set. For example, if I choose five to eight reps as my optimal range on the bench press, then I will have to figure out the maximum amount of weight I can lift for five reps, also known as my five repetitions maximum (5RM). After hiring an experienced observer to catch the bar when it fails, I will begin lifting in sets of five reps with adequate rest in between, increasing the weight by five to twenty percent each set. With some weight, let’s say 210 pounds, I won’t be able to complete all five reps safely. I could get three or four and then I would be forced to stop. The weight used in the old set is then my 5RM. For this example, we will say that he weighed 200 pounds.
Now that I know what my maximum weight is for a set of five, I need to find my starting weight for my progression. Usually one does more than one set of each exercise. So for this example, I’ll choose three sets of five to eight for the bench press. Total volume (set multiplied by repetitions) is another variable that you can modify over time to produce the best results. Some people respond better to a higher volume, and many do better at a lower volume. Start somewhere in between with two or four sets and work from there. When starting a new dual progressive cycle, it is best to underestimate your starting weight to give your body some time to adjust to the new regimen. With a 5RM of 200 pounds, I’ll start the cycle with 160 to 170 pounds, or 80% to 85% of my 5RM.
To perform the double progression, my first workout will consist of a good warm-up followed by three sets of five to eight reps with 160 pounds. During each set, I will try to complete all eight reps. If I can’t be successful with eight reps in all three sets, I’ll use the same weight next week and try again. However, if I complete eight reps in all three sets, I will increase the weight by five pounds during my next training session. I may be able to successfully perform all three sets of eight again at 165 pounds, prompting me to add another five pounds for the following week. However, at some point I will not be able to complete eight reps in all three sets. At that point, my goal would be to add at least one rep each week until reaching the goal of eight reps in three sets again. Then more weight will be added, the reps will drop again, and the cycle will continue.
Dual progression combats stagnation and allows multiple pathways of progression taking into account both increases in weight lifted and the number of reps performed. By setting a rep range that you know is effective for you, you can more efficiently achieve strength and muscle mass gains while constantly increasing your working weight to compensate for your new skills. Progressive resistance is essential to produce increases in strength and muscle mass. These assets are extremely valuable to both men and women, regardless of their age, condition, or previous activity level. You will gain confidence, functionality and self-esteem through the use of a properly designed progressive resistance and nutrition exercise program. Don’t be intimidated by the numbers or the challenges of the lift. Start slowly, do your best, and discover skills you never knew you had!