WHAT IT IS&ldquo;Put simply, progression is challenging your body greater than its current capacity,&rdquo; says Jim &ldquo;Smitty&rdquo; Smith, C.P.P.S., owner of Diesel Strength and Conditioning (dieselsc.com). &ldquo;You can progress with the load on the bar, you can progress by using different implements, you can progress by shortening rest periods&mdash;there are a lot of different ways.&rdquo;MASTER THE BASICS According to Smith, linear progression&mdash;where you add more reps or increase the load week to week&mdash;is the most basic and effective way for lifters to add strength and size. He advises that beginners start out with a lower-weight approach to allow them to master the form. &ldquo;The key is to get lifters to grow neurologically by mastering the pattern and becoming stable with it,&rdquo; Smith explains. Say you&rsquo;re doing a dumbbell bench press with 20kg. You&rsquo;ll do five sets of five reps, focusing on keeping your elbows tucked in at 45 degrees, maintaining a slight arch in your back, and firmly planting your feet on the floor. &ldquo;For Week 2, you&rsquo;ll do five sets of seven reps,&rdquo; Smith says. &ldquo;For Week 3, you&rsquo;re hitting five sets of 10 reps.&rdquo; Then you&rsquo;ll reset Week 4 and up the weight to 25kg, repeating the same set and rep scheme. &ldquo;With this model, you&rsquo;re not increasing the weight each week but the volume,&rdquo; says Smith. &ldquo;This allows the lifter to kind of slow-cook their ability to perform more efficient movement patterns.&rdquo;OTHER WAYS TO PROGRESSSmith breaks down three more ways lifters can eke out gains.MASTER MOVEMENTOne approach is to progress with key movement patterns. &ldquo;You have a hip hinge, a push, a pull, a squat, and some sort of locomotion like farmer carries, to improve your ability to control your core while your extremities are in motion,&rdquo; Smith says. Start out by doing a bodyweight version of each, like an air squat, bear crawl, inverted row, hip hinge, and push-up, and then add weight from there.<img src="https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/2609/341535/5cb101d49d0fa/1555104165584.jpg"" owidth=776 oheight=1546" style="height:1546px; width:776px" />TIME WARPYou can also toy around with the speed in which you lift to increase strength or build muscle. For the deadlift, you can lower the weight and pull explosively to improve your power from the jump. Or you can pause right below the knees to bolster your power mid pull and strengthen your spinal erectors. Finally, try lowering the weight to a count of five to eight, which &ldquo;increases work capacity because they&rsquo;re going to accumulate more time under tension,&rdquo; Smith adds.NO REST FOR THE WICKEDTo increase your heart rate and your muscle&rsquo;s time under tension, Smith likes supersets, trisets, and quadsets. &ldquo;Pick a load that has you failing for the number of reps prescribed on each move,&rdquo; Smith says.

Progression

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