Ever notice how legendary feats of athleticism can often have a, well, legend, behind them? Take Milo of Croton, for example. He was a prolific wrestling champion in ancient Greece known for his superhuman strength. Legend has it that he would train by lifting a calf above his head each day, and eventually, he could lift a full-grown cow above his head. Of course, that is the legend part, because a full-grown cow can weigh as much as half a ton!
Although his strength training methods are a myth, they are an excellent example of a technical term we use in Exercise Physiology: progressive overload. This is when you do just a little more, week by week, to improve. If we try to do too much, we might suffer an injury. We are only human, after all! Progressive overload helps us get better by doing enough to cause our bodies to adapt, but not so much that we “fail” and get injured.
So how much is enough? It is an important question, but not always an easy one to answer. The best approach is to “start low, go slow.” That means if you are inactive now, you might start with activity on just two days a week (the “low” part), and just for 10 minutes at an easy walking pace (the slow part). Most people can safely increase the time they are active by around 10% each week. This means you can add one minute to your walking time on the days you walk each week. It might not seem like much, but the small increases add up. After a couple of months, you will be walking over 20 minutes each session, and you can continue to use progressive overload to build up to your goal. That might be to walk continuously for an hour, or it could be to walk five times a week for 30 minutes each day. No matter what your goal is, progressive overload can help you achieve it while reducing the risk of an injury.
Even when using progressive overload, how long you need to reach your goal depends on what you’re trying to achieve. For example, if you want to complete a 5k event, 12 weeks is long enough for most people to go from being sedentary to achieving that goal. If your goal is something longer like a half-marathon, then you might need up to six months of steady and incremental increases. It can also depend on how active you are now. If you are already able to walk or run a couple of miles, then steadily building up to three miles will not take more than a few weeks.
It can all seem a bit technical because it is! No matter your starting point, “start low and go slow” to ensure you achieve your goal with the lowest risk of injury.
With a PhD in Exercise Physiology, Jonathan Dugas spends his days thinking about how we can help more people be more active. With four Ironman finishes and 13 marathons and counting, he’ll see you out on the road.
