Libsyn Directory

Progressive Overload: How to Keep Getting Stronger

Release Date: 11/04/2024

Pre-Workout Nutrition for Early Morning Training Sessions

Fuel Your Strength

If you train early in the morning, you might be wondering what to eat before your session to arrive fueled and perform well. In this episode, you'll learn how to approach pre-workout nutrition for early morning workouts, especially when you’re short on time but still want enough fuel to make it through your session without gassing out. You'll learn how to factor in training intensity, how much time you have before your session, hydration, and what you did the day before. This is a practical episode for athletes over 40. What you’ll learn in this episode: How to fuel early morning...

How to Strength Train as a Hobbyist Athlete

Fuel Your Strength

If you’re a hobbyist athlete over 40 who loves your sport – cycling, running, pickleball, martial arts to name a few – but you’ve been hesitating to start strength training, this episode is for you. In today’s episode of the Fuel Your Strength podcast, you'll hear exactly how to strength train as an athletic woman over 40 without sacrificing time for your sport. This is a simple, sustainable blueprint for building muscle, improving power, preventing injury, and staying in the game long-term – without living in the gym five days a week. What you’ll learn in this...

How to Stop Quitting the Gym

Fuel Your Strength

Story time! I'm sharing a personal story from my early triathlon days that still shapes how I coaches lifters today. What started as a scary open-water swim became a powerful lesson about progress, patience, and why perfection is not required to move forward. In this episode, you'll reframe how you think about missed workouts, imperfect weeks, and all-or-nothing thinking in fitness. If you’ve ever felt like skipping one session meant you blew it, this episode offers a grounding reminder: that forward progress counts, even when it doesn’t look pretty. What you’ll learn in this episode: ...

Strength Training Lessons from 15 Years of Lifting Weights

Fuel Your Strength

If I could go back and talk to beginner-me in 2010, there are a handful of strength training lessons I would absolutely whisper in her ear. Not because I did everything wrong, but because so much frustration, second-guessing, and spinning my wheels could’ve been avoided with a little context and coaching. In this episode, I’m reflecting on more than 15 years of consistent lifting, coaching, and learning the hard way. Whether you’re brand new to strength training, a few years in, or coming back after a break, these lessons will help you train smarter, progress more confidently, and stop...

Rebuilding Strength After 80? Change How You See Aging

Fuel Your Strength

Is it really never too late to start strength training – even if you’re in your 80s and you’ve never touched a barbell? You'll hear from journalist Clare Johnston of the “Rebuilding Mum and Dad” project, about what happens when older adults begin true progressive strength training from scratch – and why the results can feel straight-up miraculous (without being magic). Clare shares how her parents started lifting in their 80s after years of mobility decline, osteoporosis concerns, and “we’ve tried everything” frustration. Together, they built a simple garage setup, worked...

Women’s Fitness Over 40: Cutting Through the Confusion with Nikki Naab-Levy

Fuel Your Strength

If you’ve been feeling like women’s fitness over 40 is a nonstop back-and-forth debate - like you’re courtside at Wimbledon watching the ball whip from one hot take to another - you’re not imagining it. Social media is loud right now, especially when it comes to what women should or shouldn’t be doing in midlife. That noise can make it hard to trust your instincts or know what actually matters for building strength and aging athletically. In this episode, I’m joined by strength for hypermobility & nutrition coach Nikki Naab-Levy. Together, we unpack the most confusing fitness...

How to Be More Consistent in the Gym Over 40

Fuel Your Strength

Life is life-ing especially in midlife. One day you’re fired up, smashing your lifts, and thinking the whole week will be a highlight reel; two days later you’re sleep-deprived, stressed, and wondering who parked a bus on your quads. In this episode, you'll learn a structured-yet-flexible strategy to use with your lifting to ride the wave of real-life energy swings so you can keep showing up, build muscle, and actually enjoy the process. We’ll break down how to anchor your week with strength, layer in cardio, and use auto-regulation (RPE/RIR) to dial intensity up or down without ditching...

The 5 Hard Truths Your Lifting Needs After 40

Fuel Your Strength

If you’ve ever heard a coach say “it’s not wrong, but it’s not right either,” you’ll resonate with this episode. Dive into the nuance that gets lost in punchy social media hot takes – especially for athletic women over 40 who want strength, muscle, and better performance without the fluff. Get insight into why your progress may feel stuck, what to do about it, and how to build muscle with less frustration. Get practical coaching on progressive overload, program hopping, hypertrophy, auto-regulation, and why DIY training isn’t actually “free.” What you’ll learn in this...

How to Adjust Workouts When You’re Short on Time

Fuel Your Strength

Life doesn’t always respect your perfectly planned training week. If you’re a woman over 40 following a strength training program, you might be juggling sleep swings, work crunches, hormonal shifts, caretaking, and everything in between. This episode breaks down how to keep your momentum without falling into the all-or-nothing trap so you still get a damn good training stimulus on busy days. Steph explains a simple framework for structured flexibility – keeping the big-picture plan while adapting the day’s session. You’ll learn three practical ways to modify workouts using RPE / RIR,...

The Over-40 Lifting Formula I’d Follow If I Started Again Tomorrow

Fuel Your Strength

Feeling like the Tin Man when your feet hit the floor – and winded on a single flight of stairs – doesn’t have to be “just your 40s.” In this episode, we call BS on the idea that midlife means inevitable decline and lays out a clear, doable plan for rebuilding strength, muscle, and pep in your step over the next six months. No doom and gloom here – just evidence-informed training that respects your real life. You’ll learn exactly how to structure your workouts for results: which compound lifts to prioritize, how to sprinkle in isolation work the smart way, and why adding power...

More Episodes

Whether you are new to strength training or a seasoned lifter, progressive overload is two common words you have probably heard before. But what do they really mean, and how can you apply them both as a lifter and as a coach? If you are feeling stuck because you are not seeing the gains you are hoping for in your programming, progressive overload could be the puzzle piece you still need to include.

Key Takeaways

If you are interested in progressive overload, you should:

Work with a coach or find a strength training plan that is custom to you
Gradually build up strength and vary your movements to build your adaptation ability
Remember that this is a great investment in your health if you are honest with yourself

The Key to Long-Term Strength Gains

You see relatively continuous improvement by gradually tweaking the dials of your training and the demands placed on your body over time. If you fail to challenge your body, you will fail to adapt. One of the hardest and most important things you can do is advance your lifting in a way that makes the most of your time and moves you in the right direction. The key is having a plan for your lifting that saves you time and worry when you get into the gym.

Know Why It Matters

Training, coaching, lifting, and recovering are a science and an art. But to really see results, it takes new challenges and an understanding of one's motivation behind the movements.

Increasing weights or adding more reps, paying attention to rest time, and utilizing different exercises and tempos are all key components to seeing the results you are hoping for. Patience and repetition are the basis of long-term strength training; all you need is the right program!

What role does progressive overload play in your strength training program? Let me know your thoughts in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

What is progressive overload, and what does it mean (2:25)
Breaking down the science of adaptation and general adaptation syndrome (13:20)
How to apply progressive overload in your strength training program (20:26)
Common pitfalls when learning how to manage your progress over time (32:35)
Best practice advice for those who want to integrate progressive overload into their strength training program (43:05)

Quotes

“When it comes to your strength training, progressive overload is the cornerstone that guides, the guiding principle that steers your training program and training plan.” (2:56)

“To put this into common words, we need a stressor, that’s our training, and we need recovery, which is where we finally experience that adaptation.” (15:56)

“Training is a science and an art. Coaching is a science and an art. Implementing this is a science and an art, and getting to know yourself and/or your clients is really important. (22:37)

“We need to pump the breaks a bit, and find a way to keep you moving forward without accelerating things to the point where you can't recover.” (34:17)

“If you have been lifting the same weights for months and months and months on end, it is time, my friend, you have got to move up in weight.” (39:25)