January 27, 2026 //
Thomas Conway //
Gym News //
8 min read
How to use progressive overload for long term progress
Progressive Overload is something that has stood the test of time when it comes to strength training. It always works to create results but there are some common mistakes that people make when trying to follow it.
To help illustrate what it is, we look to greek mythology which is also tied to our gym branding.
Those of you that have been to P13 may know a little bit about our origins story and the idea behind the name. Long story short we drew inspiration from Greek mythology which is why a lot of our swag has design elements related to that and why we do our named workouts based on the 12 labours of hercules.
If you want to know more about it. Listen to a podcast episode we did about the name here.
But, today we’re talking about another lesson in which the earliest origins of the concept tie into another greek myth.
The legend of Milo of Croton and the Bull.
The story of Milo of Croton is a legend about a wrestler who developed immense strength by progressively lifting a newborn calf every day. As the calf grew into a full-sized bull over several years, Milo’s strength grew with it, eventually allowing him to carry the mature bull.
That story is still used to this day to help represent a well known concept in strength training known as progressive overload.
Before I dive into the importance of it and how it works, I want to reiterate something from that story of Milo so you have the right frame of mind.
The brief description of the story says “As the calf grew into a full-sized bull over several years, Milo’s strength grew with it”. Keep that in mind as I talk about how progressive overload works.
And remember, time is our most valuable asset and the biggest factor in this overall equation.
So what is Progressive overload?
To keep it basic and simple, progressive overload is essentially doing just a bit more in your training over time to create adaptation.
That “bit more” can look a lot of different ways. That could be doing more weight (most common), doing more reps of the same weight, holding a position longer, doing a given amount of cardio distance faster, doing a greater amount of cardio overall, and there are probably more ways but those are the most simple to understand.
By doing this, you are exposing your body to a greater stimulus as you go from session to session thereby getting stronger as you go.
But, I often see people get this approach wrong in one of two ways.
They just don’t progressive overload
This happens especially when people train on their own. They go to the gym and the just always do 3 sets of 8 of the same weight and phone it in.
Now look, at the end of the day if someone is consistently going to the gym that’s great.
At least they’re physically active and they are likely at least maintaining strength and maybe in some cases getting a little bit stronger.
But I don’t know about you but I personally like to improve at things and optimize something that I am spending time on.
I don’t need to be the best or the strongest and I’m not training for the 2028 games in LA, but I want to be improving from my baseline or my previous self.
And while that goal may be unique to me and some may be content just staying about the same I do think there is something to be said about progress as a motivator.
Regardless of if that is truly your goal, it feels good to progress.
And that motivation can keep you in your routine.
They progressive overload too quickly
Going back to the story of Milo, if you recall I reiterated the sentence that mentioned the length of time “YEARS”.
This is an important concept to grasp and it is a lesson I have learned many times over and finally at the ripe old age of 34 I figured it out.
But what I typically see here is that people are impatient and they end up progressively overloading too quickly which can lead to injury.
Graded exposure is a concept we always need to keep in mind when it comes to adaptation.
Just because you do a bench press workout with 135 lbs does not mean that next week you can do it with 225.
That’s obviously an exaggeration that no one would do but to make the point I think you understand.
How this looks in practice and how we do it at Project 13 Gyms is if we are in a training cycle that’s 6 weeks, we will start with a baseline test. Let’s say when we do that you get a 1 reps max on bench press of 200 lbs.
Then across the next 4 weeks we’d start your 5 sets of 3 reps at 75-80% of your one rep max. So if we do the math on that it’s starting your first week of 5×3 at 150-160 lbs.
Then every week we look to add simply 5-10 lbs each week (10 may be more than needed). So essentially your last week before you max again you might be doing a 5×3 at 165-180 lbs.
When you go back to test it’s very likely that you’ve added 10-20 lbs to your 1 rep max.
You could also do that across a longer phase but I typically don’t recommend more than 8 weeks for a phase before you deload.
But as I’ve worked with many people I see they tend to get impatient.
Say we take that same example but someone tries to increase 20 lbs because the first week feels easy (which by the way it should).
Then across 4 weeks they’ve attempted to add 80 lbs.
First off, they won’t be able to do it so there’s a psychological element of giving yourself enough of a runway so you win the workout week over week.
Secondly, increases like that are where you can get into trouble with injury simply because the body and tissues are not provided the amount of time they need to adapt.
Where this concept gets REALLY Magical
As I mentioned earlier, time is our most valuable asset and the biggest factor in this overall equation.
Now, to give you some context, I’ve been training seriously for about 15 years since I was 22 years old.
During that time, I’ve essentially never taken extended breaks.
Yes I get sick.
Yes I’ll take some days off when I travel (sometimes not though just depends).
Yes life has gotten busy and I’ve missed a few days.
But in general I’ve always done some sort of training. And this is more for another article, but, even if that means I have to adjust things based on schedule, time allotment or how I’m feeling, I’ll do that.
And during that time, have I progressed in a linear fashion?
Absolutely not, if I did I’d be like Thor Bjornsen.
But what has happened is I’ve continued to get stronger across the board. Maybe I’ve changed my emphasis from time to time (which I think is also important) but I’ve always seen gains.
A good recent example is I didn’t train DB bench Press a lot when I was younger.
I’ve shifted focus to it a bit more recently and hit a PR of 90# DB’s for 5 sets of 5 Reps.
The main reason that I can credit that to is that I continued to train over time.
And for that specific example, there were periods of time where I trained pushups more. Then other times I trained barbell bench press more, then other times where I trained ISOs more, times when I did more volume, times where I focused on more weight, times where I shifted to overhead press more.
All that to say is that the two consistent things are that I was training my upper body and time.
So, don’t feel rushed.
Focus on some kind of progressive overload. And as coach Boone from Remember The Titans said “it’s like novacaine, give it time and it always works”.
Want to see how we incorporate progressive overload at P13? Come check out a class with us! Take a look at what we offer here: P13 Home Page
Interested in learning more about progressive overload? Check out these links below for a deeper dive:
