To progress with your training, whether it is strength or endurance based, you must do more than you have done previously.
Your body will adapt to the stimulus placed upon it and progress will plateau. To overcome this you must increase the stimulus placed on the body. This is known as progressive overload and is essential to improve your strength, build muscle or increase fitness levels.
Milo of Croton was a famous wrestler back in ancient Greece and the story of him and his cow is a perfect example of progressive overload.
Milo started carrying a baby cow every day since it was born. As the cow got bigger and heavier, Milo got stronger and managed to continue to carry the cow.
If he had just continued to find a small cow and carry that he wouldn’t have progressed. His body would have adapted to lifting a baby cow and his strength would have ceased to develop.
Milo became a strength legend due to the basic principles of progressive overload that you should seek within your own training.
You don’t have to go to the trouble of finding and lifting a cow. However, you should be looking to find ways in your training to continually progress and grow.
There are many ways you can achieve this:
✅ Increase weight lifted
✅ Increase volume lifted
✅ Increase distance covered
✅ Increase frequency of training
✅ Increase pace of run / cycle / row
These are just a few examples of how you can use progressive overload in your own training.
If you haven’t made any improvements in the gym lately, audit your routine.
Have you been doing the same thing for months? When was the last time you tried a heavier Kettlebell? When did you last increase your miles on your run?
Be more Milo – minus the cow.
Coach Milligan 