Making progress a piece of cake

A major gap in the fitness and training industry is teaching people how to actually progress their training.

The concept of progressive overload can be complex, largely because there are many ways to progress an exercise.

I see this issue all the time with clients who train the same sets and reps with a band that their physio prescribed a year ago.

Even outside the rehab space, most people struggle to progress their exercises and feel like their training isn't getting them anywhere.

But there is one easy strategy that will help you make phenomenal progress and feel like nothing can stop you.

It's simply prescribing your load for your next session, based on your current session.

For example, if you complete 3 sets of squats at 100kg, 95kg, and 90kg, you might prescribe yourself 105kg, 100kg, and 95kg for next week.

Or if you're trying to improve your running, and your session is to run 5 x 1km efforts at an average of 4:15 min/km pace, you might prescribe yourself a 4:12 min/km target next week.

That's all it is.

Doing this is free, it's low effort, it doesn't require any advanced training knowledge, and it only takes a tiny amount of time. All you need is a notebook or training app that lets you record the weights, reps, or time you completed today, and what you'll aim to do next time.

You don't necessarily have to stick to that prescription if you're not feeling it on the day. You might have had an awful night's sleep, or your body might be feeling beat up from a game on the weekend. But even a tentative progression plan is miles better than none at all.

As with any kind of athletic, fitness, or strength training, big changes don't happen overnight. Progress is made through the accumulation of training.

But using simple, easy strategies will astonish you with how far you can progress your training, and how fulfilling the journey can be.