To most people, progressive overload means increasing the amount of weight on a bar etc. From a hypertrophy point of view, this is garbage, unless… your form stays exactly the same, which it doesn’t for the majority of people. This is a huge influencing factor on the amount of torque going through an individual muscle.
Moment Arm x Load = Torque (currency for growth).
If you have no concept of moment arm and what that means, you literally have no business focusing on load. Moment arm is half the equation of torque and represents the distance of load from the axis.
Anyone who wants to be functionally strong, athletic, and pain free should never sacrifice tension for load especially throughout phases of skill acquisition and guess what? Mastering each individual movement pattern as its own skill takes a lot of mindful consideration, and a lot of practice. Increasing load can often result in detriment to your progress.
On a physiological level, creating tension and maximally challenging a muscle, creates a systemic hormonal response within your entire body and makes muscle cells more receptive to nutrients, insulin & amino acids. When your focus prioritises load, tension is lost through momentum (no stimuli), likelihood of injury increases, and faulty mechanical movement patterns exacerbate imbalances that lead to chronic pain.
Failing to consider this means losing the greatest opportunity to improve. Don’t be so willing to accept ‘progressive overload’ as the be all and end all #king of training. It’s a term thrown around loosely with complete misunderstanding of its appropriate application and its execution.
