The first time I held a newborn, I was terrified.
I wasn’t prepared for how floppy her little head would be. Her neck was like an overcooked piece of spaghetti with no strength to support her tiny head.
Within weeks of eating and sleeping like it was her full-time job (I guess it actually was), she had the strength and coordination to hold up the weight of her own head.
There’s a legendary story about a Greek man named Milo of Croton.
He was a strength and athletic standout who won a bunch of gold medals in wrestling back in the B.C. days before streaming TV.
Legend has it that he built his strength in an unusual way.
He spotted a newborn calf on a farm near his home. I’m guessing he didn’t live in a studio loft in downtown Athens.
Anyways, he picked that baby calf up (we’ll call her Bessie), slung it upon his shoulders, and carried her.
Then he did it the next day.
And the next.
Every day for the next four years Milo returned to his neighbor’s farm, picked up the cow, and carried it.
By that time, Bessie was huge.
It’s unclear in the tale if his neighbors ever questioned his sanity, although based on this artist’s rendering of Mr. Croton, I’m guessing they had their thoughts.
My man, Milo
Crazy Milo and the newborn’s ability to support its head are both examples of the same principle.
Progressive overload.
You start out weak, you do a little work, you recover, and then you get stronger.
If you do it right, the work you do each time gets a little bit harder, and that keeps the progress rolling so long as you don’t skip the recovery part.
The baby’s head gets a little bit heavier.
Bessie grows a little bit bigger.
Incrementally, your strength increases relative to the challenge you put on yourself.
At its most basic level, this is how all of your fitness progress is made.
Progressive overload.
You don’t accomplish a marathon by buying a pair of Hoka’s on Monday and running 26.2 on Tuesday.
You build up slowly so your body has time to adapt.
You don’t set a goal to deadlift twice your body weight and immediately load it up on the bar. It would never budge.
You do 3 Hard Sets, adding 5 pounds every workout.
This is how I took my squat from 185lbs to 370lbs in about 3 months.
Progressive overload.
There are a lot of nuanced ways to use progressive overload, and an experienced coach knows when, why, and how to use them.
I won’t go into all of the details here.
The point of this email is to get your mind working.
Progressive overload is the principle that makes your fitness increase.
It’s the principle that causes you to get stronger.
It’s how running long distances gets easier.
It’s what causes your physique to change as you build muscle.
But it doesn’t happen by chance.
It also doesn’t happen if your workouts are random.
It also doesn't happen if you repeat the same routine or circuit with the same weights over and over.
It only happens by design as part of a program that starts at your current ability, and gets a little bit harder over time.
If you’re working out consistently, but aren’t seeing noticeable results…
There’s a good chance progressive overload is the missing piece.
And yes, it’s one of the ways we help our clients stop spinning their wheels and get better results than ever.
Want a free 5-Week workout program that uses progressive overload? Click the button below.
Jonathan
