Progressive Overload and Ratchet Loading: Making Small Increases Count

Feb 23, 2024

3 min read

Updated: 23 hours ago

Small increases can make a training programme easier to manage. The useful question is not whether every session feels harder, but whether you are building the capacity to do more good-quality work over time.

What does “ratchet loading” mean here?

In this article, the term describes incremental increases in resistance. It is a coaching description, not a claim that one uniquely validated protocol guarantees better results. The earlier version combined this idea with an ascending sequence of sets; these are two different decisions.

A sequence such as light, moderate and heavy sets describes the organisation of one workout. Progressive overload describes how training demands develop across sessions. Adding plates during a warm-up is not, by itself, evidence that you have become stronger.

You can progress repetitions as well as weight

Plotkin and colleagues compared load progression with repetition progression over eight weeks in resistance-trained adults. Both approaches produced useful adaptations, with generally small differences between groups. This supports having more than one route to progression; it does not establish that all programmes or trainees respond identically. [1]

The ACSM’s 2009 position stand also describes increasing resistance when a trainee can exceed a target repetition count. Its recommendations depend on training experience and goals, rather than requiring a fixed increase every workout. [2]

A practical example: earn the next increase

The following is an illustrative coaching framework, not the protocol tested in the study. Choose an exercise you can perform consistently and set a working range, such as 8–12 repetitions. Record the load, repetitions and how difficult the set felt.

If you perform 10 controlled repetitions today, your next target might be 11 with the same load. Once the planned sets reach the top of the range with comparable technique and effort, try the smallest practical increase and work up again. If the next available dumbbell is too large a jump, holding the weight and building repetitions is a reasonable option.

Keep the comparison honest. A shorter range of motion, extra assistance or substantially longer rest can change what a performance means. Record those changes instead of treating every higher number as equivalent progress.

What to avoid

Do not turn every session into a maximum attempt. This article no longer recommends a routine of brief rests followed by near-maximal bench pressing to failure. A loading method should serve the session’s purpose and your ability to execute it well.

For heavy strength work, the ACSM position stand recommends longer rests, commonly three to five minutes. [2] Use suitable rack safeties or a competent spotter when bench pressing; stop a set when you cannot maintain control.

The coaching perspective

A training log turns the broad ambition of getting stronger into specific decisions: repeat, add a repetition, add a small amount of load, or reduce the demand for the day. These are programming choices, not guarantees against injury, fatigue or plateaus.

For a broader view of bodybuilding practice and culture, Schwarzenegger and Dobbins’ encyclopedia is useful further reading. It is included as coaching literature, not as experimental proof of the particular progression example above. [3]