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Timişoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal
Volume 14 ♦ Issue 27 ♦ 2021
27
DOI:10.2478/tperj-2021-0011
Improving muscle size with Weider’s principle of progressive overload in
non-performance athletes
Vlad Adrian GEANTĂ
1
Viorel Petru Ardelean2
Abstract
Introduction: The concept of progressive overload is one of the most well known and well understood principles in strength
training around athletes. To gain muscle mass, this principle consists of progress in weight, number of repetitions, frequency
and sets. Aim: Although it is a widely used principle, trough our study, we wanted to ascertain if, after training sessions
applying Weider’s principle of progressive loading (PPO), we can highlight significant increases in some muscle groups (chest
Mc, and back Mb ), in non-performance subjects. Materials and methods: One sample ( N= 8 subjects, 8 men, with a mean age of
20.4 ± 0.74 years), trained for 12 weeks with a frequency of 4 workouts per week, in a sports center from Arad county.
Muscle perimeters were measured using a metric band. Subjects underwent bodybuilding-specific training with a
predominant focus on PPO. Measurements of the pectoral muscle (Mc) and back muscle (Mb) were carried out in two stages:
an initial test (Ci, Bi ) and a final test (Cf, Bf), to see at the end of the experiment, if there are improvements. Results: After 12
weeks of training, the final results indicate an increase of the average of both chest and back muscles (Ci 102.6, Cf 107.4 and Bi
109.6, Bf 113.8). Although the values of the T-test, at both groups, are identical, it seems that the PPO effective size (ω2) is
larger in the back (14%) compared to the chest (12%). Conclusion: Within the limits of our experiment, we consider that by
only using the PPO, significant improvements can be obtained on the targeted muscle groups.
Key words: strength training, muscle hypertrophy, human performance, training stimulus
Rezumat
Introducere : Conceptul de încărcare progresivă este unul dintre cele mai cunoscute principii ale antrenamentului de forță în
jurul sportivilor. Acest principiu constă în: progresul în greutate, numărul de repetări, frecvență și seturi. Scop : Desi este un
principiu foarte utilizat, prin studiul nostru, am dorit să constatăm, dacă în urma sesiunilor de antrenament, aplicând
principiul încărcării progresive (PPO) al lui Weider, putem evidenția creștereri semnificative pe unele grupe musculare
(pectorali Mc și dorsali Mb), la subiecții non performeri. Material și metode : Un eșantion (N=8 subiecți, 8 bărbați, cu vârsta
medie 20.4±0.74 ani) , s-au antrenat pe o perioadă de 12 săptămâni cu o frecvență de 4 antrenamente pe săptămână, într-o
sală de forță din Arad. Perimetrele musculare, s-au măsurat, folosind o bandă metrică. Subiecții au fost supuși unor
antrenamente specifice bodybuildingului cu accent preponderent pe PPO. Măsurătorile perimetrelor musculare pectorale
(Mc) și dorsale (Mb) ale subiecților, au fost măsurate în două etape : o testare inițială (Ci, Bi ) și una finală (Cf, Bf), pentru a
constata la finalul experimentului, dacă există îmbunătățiri. Rezultate : După 12 săptămâni de antrenament, rezultatele finale
ne indică o creștere a mediei, atât a musculaturii pectoralilor cât și a musculaturii dorsale (Ci 102.6, Cf 107.4 respectiv Bi
109.6, Bf 113.8). Atât T-test Mc cât și T-test Mb au valoarea 1.89 și sunt semnificative pentru p ≤ 0.05. Deși valorile la Testul T,
la ambele grupe sunt identice, se pare că PPO, este mai eficientă, datorită faptului, că mărimea efectului (ω2) este mai mare la
dorsali (14%) față de pectorali (12%). Concluzii : În limitele experimentului nostru, considerăm faptul că, utilizând doar PPO,
se pot obține îmbunătățiri semnificative asupra grupelor musculare vizate.
Cuvinte cheie: antrenament de forță, hipertrofie musculară, performanță umană, stimul de antrenament.
1
PhD Student, University of Pitesti, Faculty of Science, Physical Education and Informatics, Romania, vladu.geanta@gmail.com
2 Lecturer PhD, “Aurel Vlaicu” University of Arad, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Romania.
Timişoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal
Volume 14 ♦ Issue 27 ♦ 2021
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Introduction
Athletes use training to achieve specific goals,
because it is a process that prepares the
individual for the highest possible level of
efficiency. The human body, as a unit and
biological entity, can easily adapt to any stress
that is applied to it. Training, is the way that we
tell our body to build muscle. Through training
we improve well-being. Weight training is a
great way to combat the virus called sedentary
lifestyle. This lifestyle should make its presence
felt in most people around us due to the
development of technology. It would be
advisable for young people to be involved in
daily physical activities, to increase their fitness
and health. Weight training has the advantage of
maintaining the functions of the body, while also
shaping it. Through specific bodybuilding
training, the human body transmits stimuli to
the muscles, which make them react specifically,
making them grow, as an example, in the case of
our study.
The principles of the bodybuilding training of
the American professor Joe Weider, among
which we find the one from our study, are very
well structured and have an analytical approach
on the human body [1].
One major component in all training programs is
the principle of progressive overload (PPO)[2].
Progressive Overload is an important principle
in strength training [3]. Through the use of
progressive overload, an athlete builds upon
their work capacity, strength, and conditioning
level in a systematic and logical way [4]. This
principle of training is used by weightlifters and
those participating in a team sport. The overload
training principle (also called the progressive
overload principle) forces athletes out of their
comfort zones to gradually increase training
difficulty to see measured results [5]. The
human body will not change unless it is forced
to [6]. This principle simply refers to
progressive training in some capacity [7].
Increasing the load, the number of reps, or
increasing the number of sets performed for a
given exercise are some ways to achieve this [7].
Overloading is necessary to make gains in
fitness and athletic performance [8].
It is essential before we use this principle in
your training, or when we want to train in
another sport branch and use weights, because
it is essential to have the correct technique for
those exercises we want to perform. In the PPO
training, both muscle memory and the correct
execution technique play an important role to
perform any exercise flawlessly, without the risk
of injury. The PPO suggests the gradual use of
higher requirements than the normal ones that
the muscles exert. In order for progressive
loading to be possible, it is necessary to adapt
the body to the new effort provided by constant
training because, without the adaptation phase,
our body cannot continue to use a task that is
superior to its possibilities.
Adaptations represent improvements in muscle
size, strength, or endurance. The technique of
PPO pushes the body past its limits, further
breaking it down to force adaptations that lead
to performance gains [5].
In non-performance athletes, the PPO training
can bring visible gains in muscle size, but as its
level of conditioning improves, increased
training intensity is needed to continue to
achieve positive results. If an athlete continues
to lift the same weight, with the same number of
repetitions, sets, weekly, the body will adapt to
this type of training, and the plateau effect will
occur. The proper structuring of the training
load is directly related to the improvement of
the athlete's performance [9], this also being
possible in non-performance athletes. The load
can be seen as a combination of the intensity,
duration and frequency of training [10]. In the
literature, the load is determined by the degree
of specificity of the training and by developing
the athlete's efficiency [11]. The application of
an adequate load results in a set of physiological
reactions that allow the athlete to adapt to the
training stimulus, which increases his level of
fitness and tolerance to training and the ability
to perform[10][12]. Properly structured training
loads will increase gradually and will increase
the execution capacity [10]. To improve muscle
size, we should need to create a training
stimulus that elicits the three mechanisms for
muscle growth (i.e. hypertrophy): mechanical
tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress
[13]. Mechanical tension is exerted on the
muscles from movement and external load to
educe, produce or control force, and this, can be
Timişoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal
Volume 14 ♦ Issue 27 ♦ 2021
29
created either by lifting heavy loads for lower
volumes (i.e. lower numbers of repetitions), or
by lifting medium loads for higher volumes (i.e.
higher numbers of repetitions) [14]. Therefore,
we can create a stimulus for muscle growth.
Muscle damage refers to muscle tissue micro-
tears that occur when working muscles, which
tear and struggle to resist the weight while the
muscle fiber is lengthening eccentrically [14].
Metabolic stress represents increasing time
under tension and gives athletes an incredible
pump, or muscle-cell swelling [14]. With all of
the above, the idea of starting a study that
evaluates the PPO training efficiency applied on
non-performance athletes, has become the aim
of this paper.
Methods
Subjects and experimental design
The study was started in order to obtain a
conclusion regarding the fact that if, using
Weider’s PPO, non-performance subjects can
have significant increases of the selected body
perimeters, chest muscles (Mc), and back
muscles (Mb), although in their training routine
the other muscle groups were not neglected.
Each subject was tested before and after the
research period of the training program, by
measuring the perimeter of the muscles. To be
accepted in this study, participants should be at
least 18 years of age, have not participated in
any bodybuilding training program over the
past three months and be free of health
problems [15]. The subjects also signed an
agreement to participate in the study. To be
included in the analysis, the participants had to
attend at least 80%-90% of the training sessions
[16]. For the current investigation, the workout
training logs for each subject were analyzed
with the amount of intensity, volume, and
training frequency of each participant. A total of
8 subjects (N= 8 males, age = 20.4 ± 0.74 years)
were included in this study. The experiment
occurred in a sport center in Arad County,
having the necessary conditions for the study to
occur. The period in which the research was
performed was November-March 2019.
Material and methods
Measurements of the chest muscles (Mc) and
back muscles (Mb) were carried out in two
stages: an initial test (Ti) and a final test (Tf), to
see, at the end of the experiment, if there are
improvements. We used a metric band. The
technique involves placing a flexible measure
tape (metric band), made of cloth, over an area
of the body and measuring its girth [17].
Measurements are commonly taken at the
midpoint of the body area, but any site along the
muscle can be assessed [17].
The reliability of circumference assessments is
acceptable and is better than the one reported
with skinfold testing [18]. The measurements
were expressed in cm. Through this
measurement method, we will be able to
estimate, from an anthropometric perspective,
how much the subjects have increased the
perimeter of their muscles. A statistical analysis
was performed using SPSS (v.20.0). We
calculated the mean, standard deviation, t-test
dependent, and omega square ω2, for p ≤ 0.05.
Exercise training program
Throughout the 12-week intervention, subjects
met twice per week in the first one, for their
body to get used to the effort, and after, the
training routine increased from twice to four
times per week (for approximately 45-60
min/session). Each training session was
preceded by general warm-up, and a specific
workout with moderate weights. Training
routines were monitored by the researcher and
fitness staff responsible for training
implementation. Throughout the research, we
tried to apply the PPO training, by alternating,
either by adding weights, repetitions or sets.
The specific progression of weekly training (i.e.:
barbell bench press) included weeks 1–4: three
sets of 10 repetitions, weeks 5-9: four sets of 12
repetitions, weeks 10-12: five sets of 10-12
repetitions [19]. For every workout, the load
increases occurred gradually (0.5-1-2 kg) if a
subject managed to complete two or more
repetitions above his repetition goal assigned
for each routine exercise, in the last set, for two
consecutive workouts, respectively (the “2-for-2
rule”) [20]. There is also a study that compared
basic and isolation exercises, which generated
interesting results [21].
Timişoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal
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Results
Table I. The values of the subjects' measurements for the two muscle groups, both at the initial test (Ci, Bi) and at the final
test (Cf, Bf).
ID
Ci (cm)
Cf (cm)
Bi (cm)
Bf (cm)
G.A
104
107
110
114.8
V.F
100
104
107
113
S.O
103.5
108
112
116
G.D
100.5
106.4
106
110
C.C
104
113
117
120.8
D.S
104.5
109
112
116
P.O
103
107
106
110
C.L
101
105
106.5
109.7
M
102.6
107.4
109.6
113.8
SD
1.67
2.57
3.69
3.64
Legend: C = chest, Ci = initial, Cf = final
B = back, Bi = initial, Bf = final
Obviously, the interest of the study refers not only to muscular hypertrophy, but to whether this development
can be attributed to the method used. At the end of the experiment, an improvement of the perimeters can be
observed (Fig. 1, and Fig. 2).
Figure 1. Graphical representation of the initial (Ci) and final (Cf) testing for the Chest group.
Figure 2. Graphical representation of the initial (Bi) and final (Bf) testing for the Back group.
102.6
107.4
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
Ci Cf
Perimeter of the chest (cm)
Chest
109.6
113.8
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
Bi Bf
Perimeter of the back (cm)
Back
Timişoara Physical Education and Rehabilitation Journal
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The association between the improvement of the
targeted perimeters and the working method (PPO),
is highlighted by the dependent T-test, obtaining the
following values (T=1.89). The relatively small
values of omega squared (ω2), both for the chest
and for the back (ω2c = 12%, ω2b = 14%), are not
suggestive if only one method is used (in our case
PPO); increases are not significant. It is
recommended to use several methods. Using only
the PPO, without food supplements, it is assumed
that this increase is natural.
Discussions
Weight training has become a popular sport among
the young population, because most teenagers want
a beautifully shaped body. Muscle hypertrophy
occurs when skeletal muscles are subjected to an
overload stimulus because it causes perturbations
in myofibers and the related extracellular matrix
[22]. Through this method of training (PPO), we
also tried avoiding the plateau effects in our
subjects. The way an individual trains is essential
for his performance. The larger the muscle, the
larger the strength capacity [23]. Once subjects fall
into a comfort zone and the workouts are no longer
challenging, the plateau effects will occur [6]. Our
goal was to demonstrate a hypertrophic effect with
this method of training in non-athlete subjects. At
the final measurements, there were increases in all
muscle groups. Through the usual use of physical
exercises, we noticed in subjects an increase in the
mental state through good mood, but also in the
physical condition through increases in muscle
mass. Also, from the results obtained, the message
behind our study is to incite the young population
to physical activity of all kinds, to avoid a sedentary
lifestyle, showing that through regular exercise,
good results can be obtained.
Conclusions
In our study, because the subjects were relatively
young, and they also practiced in this sport as a
leisure activity, they had muscle memory, which
helped them grow faster in the muscle perimeters
targeted for measurement. The limit of the study
was not only the use of the principle, but also the
intake of nutrients and other factors that the
literature puts in relation to the increase in muscle
mass, including anabolic substances. Certainly, our
study could have been much more developed if we
had access to laboratory equipment, for much more
detailed monitoring of the muscles. Subjects will
evolve in terms of training level, and they will need
new training plans, based on new training
principles specific to bodybuilding, which can have
much more visible results. It is recommended to use
several methods to see which method has the best
efficiency.
Acknowledgment
The author wants to express his great appreciation
to all the subjects who participated in this study.
The experiment was performed through and with
the logistical support of the Research Center for
Physical Activities from F.E.F.S-U.A.V., and,
therefore, the author wants to thank them.
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