The Primary Principle of Strength Training

In 600 BC or so, the Greek strongman Milos started lifting the same calf every day and continued doing so until he was lifting a full-grown cow. It is the principle of “progressive resistance training,” nowadays called by scientists “the overload principle,” and it’s the foundation of any kind of strength training: if you push the muscles beyond where they’ve gone in the past (not to point of injury) AND you allow the muscles to rest 24 hours, they will program themselves to rebuild stronger. That’s why serious weight lifters will often do work upper body M/Wed/Fri and lower body Tues/Thur/Sat. How do you tell how much weight to lift? Choose a weight so that with the last rep (repetition) of a set you are straining. For example if you’re doing 8 reps of a biceps curl, you select dumbbells heavy enough so that the last rep will be a strain. Then rest those muscles a day, and you’ll be able to lift progressively more.