How much progressive overload is enough in training?
A simple guide
Progressive overload - this sounds complicated, right?
The chances are, you already know this technique and have used it, even if you don’t know it by name. It is the basis of much athletic training. And no, it has nothing to do with getting sick of woke culture and wanting to “own the libs” on social media.
The basic idea is that you give your body increasing training loads, steadily build up, and get stronger and stronger. A simple example is how the length of your long run increases week-to-week when training for a marathon.
For a first-timer, it feels daunting to move up from, say, a half marathon to the full distance, and the answer is to increase the weekly long run in small increments. That is progressive overload - pushing yourself in some way each time, so that over time your body adapts and can cope with the next step.
In some ways, it’s easier to think of it in the context of strength training.
Imagine a simple leg workout involving bodyweight squats, where you do three sets, ten squats per set, with a minute’s rest between sets. There are various ways you could progress in your next workout, such as:
Add an extra set
Increase the number of squats in a set, to say 12
Hold some light dumbbells while doing the squats
Decrease the rest time between sets.
An important part of progressive overload is that you only change one variable at a time. You can imagine that if, after your basic workout, you change all these factors at once, you are at risk of injury. You could apply the same to running - progression might involve increasing the pace, or the distance, or the elevation gain, but pick one, not all three.
It’s also important to make the progressions fairly small. In our weight training example, doubling the number of reps, or adding 10kg in one go, is likely to backfire. A commonly stated rule for runners is the ‘10% rule’, usually in the sense that you should only increase weekly distance by 10% per week.
This is a rough guide to the increase your body can handle which builds your fitness without presenting an unacceptable injury risk.
This training works because overloading your muscles causes them to adapt. Having taken a bit of a pasting and breaking some fibres, they get their act together and build back stronger. (Or to be more accurate, new muscle fibres are recruited as the body’s response to the stress you put it under.)
It follows that after your workout, you need some rest time while this rebuilding happens. Therefore, after a hard session involving progressive overload, which might be pushing your distance OR your pace (not both at once), give yourself an easy day which could be rest or light active recovery.
As well as resting after a hard workout, it also works better to give yourself an easier week every now and then - usually about every fourth week. This gives you a chance to recover overall and make the most of the progressive overloading.
Furthermore, you can’t train productively all year, so give yourself some easier times, for example, in the school summer holidays for family time, or in the bleakest midwinter to miss out on some grimness.
The concept works better if applied to one thing at a time. I started with the marathon training example, where the key objective is to be able to run the distance. Later in your running career, you might work on your time, so the progressive overload would be about increasing pace, OR maintaining a given pace for longer (not both at once).
When training for something like the Bob Graham Round, weekly elevation becomes the progressive overload goal.
Let’s summarise with some pointers for effective progressive overload.
Progress one aspect at a time, whether that be maximum distance, pace, elevation, or something else. You’d normally work on this over several weeks as a training goal
Make the increases small - e.g. a 10% increase week-on-week. (Note this is easier for some targets, e.g. max distance or elevation, harder to apply to pace.)
Give yourself an easier week for general recovery, say 1 in 4, and an easier period sometime in the year when you’re not training.
To give an example of this in practice, I have a coaching client who is building towards a big mountain challenge in 2026, but also has some chunky races in 2025 and wants to get better at technical descents.
She asked for help sequencing her training goals, as she was feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all the things she might need to do over 18 months or so. What we agreed was:
An 8-week training block focusing on technical descents - using interval sessions to build cadence, and apply it to downhill running
Two spells of building overall volume ahead of big races in May and October, with some rest after the May race
And then a block of solid training over winter/spring, focusing on increasing elevation.
The key part of this plan was one thing at a time, and so far, it is working!
Progressive overload is a simple but powerful idea, well worth incorporating into your training, if you haven’t already.
For additional training tips & advice, contact Richard link below or reply to this email.
Richard Kendall is a father of two, a keen and highly accomplished ultra-distance mountain runner and coach. He is based in the Peak District. In his spare time he is a civil servant.
targetultra.com
Further reading:
Training your mental shield - can physical pain be reduced by embracing discomfort?
What do your children think of your running challenges and active pursuits?
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