5 Steps to Challenge Your Fitness

Hanging prominently on the wall in front of the squat rack inside my home gym is a giant black poster with bold white letters that says “If It Doesn't Challenge You, It Doesn't Change You.” These words serve as a constant reminder of a fundamental principle in strength training: progressive overload. 

Progressive overload is a principle stating that you must gradually challenge your body to go beyond what is familiar or comfortable for improvements to take place. For example, you stimulate muscle growth and strength gains by gradually increasing the weight, repetitions, or frequency of your training routine. 

Although the idea of progressive overload was developed for strength training, it can be applied to any type of exercise, including cardiovascular exercises like running and even flexibility exercises like stretching. Seems simple enough right? Gradually increase the challenge of your workouts over time and you’ll continue to improve. 

We like what’s familiar or comfortable and we generally try to avoid change as much as possible.

The Challenge of Change 

But what makes progressive overload elusive for most people, including myself at times, is the fact that change is difficult. We like what’s familiar or comfortable and we generally try to avoid change as much as possible. This is true in life and is especially true in fitness because, let’s face it, exercise is hard work that doesn’t feel so good most of the time.

I could get better results on my cardio days if I just upped my pace on the rowing machine. I know I’m physically capable of doing it, but about half the time, I don’t do it. The truth is, I have a healthy disdain for cardio and I’d rather not deal with the additional discomfort that comes with pushing myself harder. 

I know I’m not alone on this because I work with clients every week of all ages and fitness levels who have the same issue. In fact, changing our baseline physical activity level is so challenging that there are entire lines of research dedicated to investigating this in ...

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