Linear progression is one of the most common methods people think of when measuring progress with regards to strength and conditioning. If every week we just add 5 or 10 pounds to our lifts we’ll prove that we got stronger and don’t worry we plan to do it next week as well. This works great for novice trainees, but is this realistic over the long term?
Main Takeaway:
The bottom line is if training was as easy as just adding 5-10lbs a week to your lifts for your entire life you’d be benching 500lbs by about age 25 and nobody would ever need structured programming. This is the reason why people seek out our Human Performance Program as we have all at one point or another hit a wall in our training. One of the methods we use in our programming is measuring “total tonnage” over time to elicit a strength adaptation without necessarily maxing out every day in the gym.
Sometimes when people see a snippet of our programming they see a lot of work in submaximal lifts (50-85% of one’s max) and then pairing it sets and rep schemes they aren’t used to seeing. This article will provide context to these numbers. Remember, submaximal doesn’t always mean light...it just isn’t 90% or above of whatever your max lift is. So...if we aren’t always maxing out how to we push ourselves past where were to get better? Read below.
How to Measure Progress- Total Tonnage
Since it isn’t realistic to always just add weight to the bar, how can you measure progress and sneak in more volume (despite a crazy schedule) to ultimately get stronger and improve conditioning? This is where total tonnage can be a phenomenal tool.
Total tonnage refers to measuring the total amount of weight lifted multiplied by the amount of reps completed. To keep the math simple, lets say we dumbbell benched 100lb DBs for 5 sets of 5 reps in your first week of training. We will just use one DB for the math.
100 lbs x 5 reps = 500lbs
500lbs x 5 sets = 2500lbs
In week one for DB bench your total tonnage lifted was 2500lbs. Now in week two you can do a few things:
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You could add another set of 5, which would increase your total tonnage to 3000lbs
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You could add weight for the first two sets, and then finish with 3 sets of 100’s x 5. Still would have higher total tonnage at the end.
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You could do more reps per set with 100lbs.
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You could do LESS reps per set but MORE sets. Which usually means higher quality reps and less of a chance for injury. For example, if you did 10x3 that would be 30 reps which is 3000lbs of total tonnage.
The options our endless to get in more work and build your strength and work capacity. If you’re not feeling your best because of the stress of the job, you could even work up to one heavy set, and then do several back off sets with lighter load to still get the total tonnage up to equal/slightly higher than the prior week.
80 x 5 = 400
90 x 5 = 450
100 x 5 = 500
80 x 5 = 400
80 x 5 = 400
80 x 5 = 400
Total = 2550
At least in this example you edged out your last week and when you’re feeling more recovered the next week you could try a heavier weight or another rep and set scheme to keep moving forward. This is an incredibly flexible method, and it can be manipulated in so many ways.
Closing
When I write the strength and conditioning blocks for our our Human Performance Program, I often use this method in one way or another when progressing our trainees. Why? As stated earlier, you all work ridiculous schedules and also have to balance conditioning, BJJ, etc into your training. To pretend like you all can just continuously add weight forever would just be ignorant.
However, we still make measurable progress over time because we look at the big picture and not just what weight is on the bar when you complete your sets. In a future article I’ll explain how we also use something called “Prilepin's Chart” in our programming to monitor our overall load/volume and keep you not only progressing, but also at a high level of readiness so you can perform when it matters.
Any questions please reach out.
