Most people should be able to add about 5-10 lbs a week on your compound lifes (squats, bench press, deadlift, etc.). Exactly how much depends mostly on your experience level and your exercise volume. Some workout programs are much more suited for adding weight than others.
How Experience Level Effects Progressive Overload
Your experience level is not how many months or years you’ve been working out. For weight lifting, experience level describes how long it takes to fully recover from max effort workout. A max effort workout is any workout where you try to push the weight as heavy as possible. This is usually represented by an X rep max (XRM) where the X represents however many reps you’re counting. For example, if 135lbs is the heaviest you can squat for 5 reps, that’s your 5RM. The more experienced you are, the longer it will take to fully recover. Also, when we say “fully recover,” we mean how long it takes to do the exact same weight again plus 5-10lbs more.
Beginner
Beginners can recover from a max effort workout within 24-72 hours. This means they can hit a 5 rep max of 135lbs on a Monday, then potentially do 145lbs on Wednesday, then 155lbs on Friday. That’s 20lbs in one week. There are two main reasons why beginners can add so much weight so quickly:
The CNS: Beginners have very little development of their central nervous system (CNS). The CNS is what makes recovery in general take so long. Even if you’re a world-class athlete, your muscles only need a few days the fully recover. The CNS, on the other hand, needs days, weeks, or months depending on how much work it performed. Since beginners have a weaker CNS, their CNS does not create enough damage to warrant weeks of recovery.
Technique: This is where the amount of month or years spent exercising plays somewhat of a role. Someone who has never squatted before will add weight simply because their technique gets better with time. Being that the squat, bench, and deadlift are extremely technical movements, you can build zero muscle but add significant weight to the bar simply because you’ve practice the movement often.
Because of these factors, lifters can spend between 1-6 months as a beginner. If adding 5 pounds for multiple workouts per week leads to bad form or failed reps, you know you’ve outgrown the beginner phase.
Intermediate
Intermediate weight lifters recover in 1-3 weeks. For example, benching 205 on a Monday means you can possibly do 210 or 215 next Monday. It could also mean they need to wait for the Monday 2 weeks from now to make that weight jump. This is when proper programming becomes vital. If this person tries a max effort lift on a Monday then again on Wednesday, they’ll either hurt themselves or slow down progress significantly.
So what do you do for the workouts between max effort days? The best way to ensure you’re not ruining your weekly recovery is to reduce the weight used on non-max-effort days. This weight decrease can be as much as 10-40% of what you plan to do for max day. For example, if you plan to do 205 on max day, you should only use between 125 and 185 throughout the week. The closer you get to your next max day, the lower that weight should be. Here’s a table describing the layout for weight changes:
Week 1: Bench Press
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday (Max) | Saturday |
| Rest | 185lbs | Rest | 125lbs | 205lbs |
Week 2: Bench Press
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday (Max) | Saturday |
| Rest | 195 | Rest | 135 | 215 |
The example focuses on bench press, but the same principal should be used for every other exercise. Additionally, you will likely stay in this experience level for years without needing to switch to advanced programing.
Lastly, non-max days might seem like a good time to do other exercises. However, doing the same compound lifts with lighter weight ensures you keep your technique. Just like any sport, frequent practice is key to optimal performance. By practicing the compound movement often, even when you’re not a beginner, you ensure you don’t lose your skill.
Advanced
Most gymgoers will never get to this level. This is usually reserved for professional athletes who’ve progressively overloaded for many years. At this stage, it can take months or years to full recover from max day. Because of this, you can to use a Macrocycle program – a workout program that has a different focus and intensity for each month.
Summary of Experience Level
Overall, how well you can recover from workouts will effect how much weight to progressively overload and how often to do so. People who’ve never consistently used progressive overload will be a beginner. Those with a little more knowhow will be considered Intermediate. However, it’s very unlikely you’ll be considered an advanced lifter, and should therefore use intermediate programming for most of you workouts.
This information also assumes you’re using an appropriate workout volume and recovery protocol. Details on workout volume are described below, and other factors that can slow down recovery (aside from experience level) include:
- Poor sleep
- Poor nutrition
- Too much daily stress (from work, life, relationships, etc.)
To find out if these silent workout killers are stalling your progress, read our article on overtraining and recovery.
How Exercise Volume Influences Progressive Overload
If you’re trying to add more weight to your workouts, you have to make sure your current exercise volume isn’t already high. Exercise volume describes how much work you put into each body part every week. You can calculate a specific number using this formula:
Volume = (Total Sets) x (Total Reps) x (Total Weight Used)
Technically you can progressively overload any workout routine by slowly increasing any of these variable, not just weights. Adding sets, reps, more exercises, or even more workout days will all increase volume. However, the more you add volume through sets and reps, the less you can add through weight. This is due to a phenomenon called the Intensity Curve.
Intensity here represents the weight used per exercise. According to this graph, you cannot have both high weight and high volume for optimal programming.
When Workout Volume is Too High for Weights
How much volume is too much? This 100% depends on the person, but the most obvious sign is the inability to add weight despite being fully recovered.
For example, you can bench 135lbs on a Monday, then again on Wednesday, then Friday. The fact that you can do the same weight each day means you’re fully recovered, but you may still be fatigued from the rest of your chest workout. Dumbbell chest presses, cable flies, svend presses, etc, are all popular additions to a “chest day.” However, all these extra exercises can be fatiguing the chest so much that it cannot handle any more volume. This explains why you can do 135 each time, but can’t add weight on any of these days.
The easiest way to fix this is by reducing volume from sets, reps, and exercises. By reducing the amount of accessory exercises you do (such as chest exercises that are not the bench press), you’ll save more energy for adding weight to the main lifts. In fact, if your primary goal is to be as strong as possible, you should spend the first months or even years just focusing on the big three compound lifts; squat, bench, and deadlift. Below is the easiest workout program to follow for a pure strength goal.
Easiest Workout Programs for Progressive Overload
The following programs are based off Mark Rippetoe’s Practical Strength Programing, which you can check out at the link here (https://amzn.to/3yQbmvO). This program was made to maximize progressive overload for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters. It also walks through how to optimize workout volume so you’re not sacrificing potential strength increases. Here is an overview of his beginner and intermediate programs:
Beginner
Note: Sets and reps are notated as (Sets)x(Reps) next to each exercise
Week 1:
| Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
| Squat 3×5 Bench 3×5 Deadlifts 1×5 | Squat 3×5 Overhead Press 3×5 Deadlifts 1×5 | Squat 3×5 Bench 3×5 Deadlifts 1×5 |
Week 2:
| Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
| Squat 3×5 Overhead Press 3×5 Deadlifts 1×5 | Squat 3×5 Bench 3×5 Deadlifts 1×5 | Squat 3×5 Overhead Press 3×5 Deadlifts 1×5 |
About the Beginner Programs:
- The goal is to add 5-10 pounds to each exercise every day. Do this until you can’t keep up with this rapid weight increase (which can last for weeks or months). At that point, move on to the intermediate program
- Remember that to maximize strength gains, you want to limit unnecessary volume from extra exercises, sets, and reps. This is why you only workout 3 days a week. As a beginner, you should be using in-between days for active rest (walking, hiking, etc.).
- Bench and Overhead Press alternate because their so similar in movement. Also, for optimal performance, you want to develop your pressing power both horizontally and vertically
- Lastly, deadlifts are only done for one set because they’re extremely taxing on the body, even for beginners. 3 sets would create so much stress on the body that you likely won’t recover for the next workout.
Intermediate
Note: Sets and reps are notated as (Sets)x(Reps) next to each exercise
Week 1:
| Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
| Squat 3×5 (80-90% of this Friday) Bench 3×5 (80-90% of this Friday) Power Cleans 1×5 | Squat 3×5 (60-70% of this Friday) Overhead Press 3×5 (80-90% of this Friday) Power Snatches 1×5 | Squat 3×5 (Add 5-10 from last Friday) Bench 3×5 (Add 5-10 from last Friday) Deadlifts 1×5 (Add 5-10 from last Friday) |
Week 2:
| Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
| Squat 3×5 (80-90% of this Friday) Overhead Press3x5 (80-90% of this Friday) Power Snatches 1×5 | Squat 3×5 (60-70% of this Friday) Bench 3×5 (80-90% of this Friday) Power Cleans 1×5 | Squat 3×5 (Add 5-10 from last Friday) Overhead Press 3×5 (Add 5-10 from last Friday) Deadlifts 1×5 (Add 5-10 from last Friday) |
About the Intermediate Program:
- The percentages can get confusing, but here’s an example. Let’s say you squatted 285 for 5 reps last Friday. That means this Friday, the goal is to get 295. Using this goal, you can figure out Monday and Wednesday for that same week. Monday should be about 250, and Wednesday should be about 190.
- Some deadlifts are replaced with cleans and snatches because as the deadlift gets heavier, it becomes significantly more taxing compared to the other exercises. It needs to be limited to once a week to maximize recovery. If you’re not familiar with cleans and snatches, you can instead do pullups or barbell rows to strengthen the back
- As mentioned, the advanced program is not shown because you’ll likely stay here for the rest of your strength-pursuing career.
Important Note On These Programs
Mark Rippetoe’s actual programs are MUCH more sophisticated than this. Although we’ve laid out the basics (3 days a week, focus on compound lifts, 5×3 format, etc.), his book covers much more detail on what to do or change at certain points of the program. Try these programs by themselves, and if you like the results you’re seeing, definitely check out his book to ensure you’re programming yourself the best way possible.
