What does progressive overload mean in resistance training?

• A. Progressive overload means gradually increasing workload to drive adaptation.
• B. Constantly keeping the same weight.
• C. Reducing reps to 2 per set.
• D. Only increasing rest periods.

Answer: (A)

Progressive overload means gradually increasing the workload placed on your muscles to provoke ongoing adaptations such as greater strength and size. As you train, muscles adapt to higher demands, so you must steadily raise the demand over time. You can do this by adding weight, performing more reps with the same weight, increasing the number of sets, adding training sessions, or adjusting tempo to keep the muscle under tension longer. The increases should be gradual and aligned with your ability to recover and maintain proper form. Keeping the same weight forever means the stimulus never gets stronger and progress stalls. Dramatically cutting reps to two per set reduces training volume and the stimulus, which doesn’t promote progressive overload. Simply increasing rest periods lowers overall training stress and doesn’t drive the workload up.