October has been a particularly hectic month for me, both in terms of competitions and coaching responsibilities. With the RPS meet on the 8th and 9th, followed by the USAPL Nationals in Atlanta, I’ve been having several in-depth conversations with athletes about volume, intensity, tapering, and trusting the process. These discussions made me realize that many coaches still struggle with applying the scientific principle of overload in a way that’s effective for real-world training. Strength programming isn’t as simple as it might seem, and it’s crucial to understand how to stress the body appropriately to build strength.

The overload principle is at the heart of strength training. It states that to grow stronger, you need to push your body beyond its current limits, give it time to recover, and then challenge it again. Hans Selye, a pioneer in stress research, identified the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) in 1929, which explained that an optimal level of stress is required for adaptation. Too little stress results in no change, while too much can lead to injury. The key is finding the right balance of stress across different systems of the body, including the fuel system, nervous system, hormones, and tissues, all of which respond differently to training.

For example, fuel stores, such as carbohydrates, recover quickly, provided you’re eating properly. However, tissues (like muscles and tendons) take longer to recover, and that’s why we need lighter training days to prevent accumulation of fatigue that could result in injury. Similarly, the nervous system can be easily overwhelmed by high-intensity training. If the intensity is too high too often, it can leave you mentally and physically drained. Finding the right balance is essential for ensuring long-term progress.

Genetics, training age, recovery (sleep, nutrition, stress), and technique all influence how you respond to stress. For instance, the better your technique, the less energy is expended to lift the weight. This allows you to train harder and more frequently without accumulating as much fatigue.

Fatigue is also influenced by the exercises you perform. For example, deadlifts are more taxing than squats due to the high involvement of the hamstrings, which have a higher percentage of type 2 muscle fibers (fibers that generate force but take longer to recover). Additionally, the closer you train to failure, the more fatigue you build up. Performing AMRAP (as many reps as possible) sets or using heavy weights for low reps can lead to significant fatigue, which, if done too frequently, can compromise technique.

That’s why technique is the most important variable in training. Poor technique leads to more fatigue, which means you’re not only wasting energy but also increasing the risk of injury. In contrast, overly light sessions, like using 135lbs for deadlifts, may not challenge your system enough to invoke the overload principle. Strength training requires both sufficient volume and intensity to make real progress.

So, how do we begin to design an effective program? I use the Russian Strength Classification Chart, which categorizes lifters based on their body weight and total lifts. This chart gives a good starting point for determining the volume each lifter should aim for each month. Novice lifters (class 3) should aim for about 900 lifts per month, while competitive lifters (class 1-2) should be doing around 1000 lifts. More advanced athletes, like those aiming for Master of Sport status, need to be doing 1200 lifts or more.

These numbers serve as general guidelines, but they’re not set in stone. The key is to listen to how your body responds and adjust accordingly. For novice to intermediate lifters, 20% of the training volume should be focused on competition lifts, 60% on variations of those lifts (such as pauses or tempo work), and the remainder on general physical preparedness (GPP). Advanced lifters, however, may focus more on the main lifts and less on variations.

Next, we need to break up the training volume over a specific period. I like to work in 4-week blocks, which keeps things simple. For example, if you train 4 days per week, you’ll have 16 training sessions in a block. Divide the total number of lifts (say, 1000 lifts for the month) by the number of training days (16), and you get an average of 63 lifts per day. Some days will be higher volume, while others will be lighter.

The important thing to remember is that volume and intensity are inversely related. As volume increases, intensity should decrease, and vice versa. Mixing heavy days with lighter recovery days is crucial for avoiding burnout and managing fatigue. Over time, you’ll learn how to balance these aspects to ensure that you continue making progress without overtraining.

To make sure your program is sustainable, it’s also important to vary your training from week to week. You should have a mix of heavy and light weeks. For example, you might have a high-volume week (around 30% of your total monthly volume), followed by a lighter week (around 15%). This cycle allows you to manage fatigue and continue improving. The term “deload” is often used here, but I prefer not to use it, as it sometimes gives people the wrong impression that they should decrease effort during these lighter weeks. Instead, the goal should be to maintain high intensity while reducing overall volume.

Exercise selection can also help manage fatigue. For example, you don’t always need to increase the weight on the bar to make a session more challenging. Adding accommodating resistance, like bands or chains, or incorporating pauses can provide a sufficient intensity boost without overwhelming the body.

Here’s an example of how this might look in practice: Day 1 could be a lighter squat session, focusing on technique with 5 sets of 4 at 70% of your 1RM. Then, you could come back to squats later in the week and add chains or perform a 2-second pause at the bottom of the lift to increase the challenge.

In general, the majority of strength work should be done in the 70-80% range for maximal strength, with technique and hypertrophy work in the 60-70% range. It’s essential to have some heavier days (80-90%) in your program, particularly during a peaking phase, to build maximal force production.

By following these principles and ensuring a mix of volume and intensity, you can effectively build strength over time. Make sure to listen to your body, take appropriate rest, and adjust as necessary to avoid excessive fatigue and promote long-term progress. Getting stronger is challenging, but with the right approach, it’s definitely achievable.