Month: July 2021

If you were scouring the internet looking for a place where you can truly learn the sumo deadlift form, you have come to the right spot.

In this guide I am going to cover quite possibly my favorite strength training movement in the history of strength training movements.

The sumo deadlift is a display of raw strength, power, and bad a**-ness ( is that a word? I am making it one for this guide! ).

I am going to give you the most in depth information you can find on the internet in regards to sumo deadlift form, including not only how to do it, but how to warm up for it, how to keep yourself injury free, and much more.

Therefore I need you to remain locked into this guide in it’s entirety. No skimming around, checking messages, or taking your eyes off this page until you are done reading.

Do we have a deal?

Awesome, then we shall get started!

Sumo Deadlift Form

Sumo Deadlift vs Conventional Deadlift, Which Is Better?

When it comes to the sumo deadlift vs the conventional deadlift, people often ask which is better.

Just a quick reminder, the sumo deadlift looks like this.

** don’t mind my lifting face!! **

The conventional deadlift looks like this.

The truth is, one isn’t inherently “better” than the other. They both have their differences, pros, and cons.

Let’s cover some of them now, and we will be biasing the sumo deadlift form obviously as that is the star of this guide today!

Muscles Used & Stance Width

During a conventional deadlift where your feet are closer in stance and you tend to use more of your lower back / spinal erectors.

It is also generally speaking a more back dominant movement.

During a sumo deadlift, you tend to recruit more hips and adductor (inside groin).

This makes primarily a hip dominant movement.

Neither one is better or worse than the other, they just simply have their differences.

In my two cents, from personal experience, from coaching people for 5+ years, and from basic human anatomy, the sumo deadlift seems to be the more advantageous position.

This could be for a few reasons.

Number one, the wider your feet are out, the more external rotation you create in your hip.

Generally speaking the more external rotation you have in your hips, the more you femur can move freely through the socket without causing any hip impingement.

Number two, with the stance being wider, you don’t have to bend over as much through your lower back.

This can save people from some pretty serious low back injuries.

*There will be some people arguing with me here. Again, this is not for EVERYONE, but for the majority of people this is what I have seen through my years of coaching and research *.

Which brings me to my next point.

Risk Of Injury

Now listen, you could get out of your car in an awkward position and hurt your knee, ankle, foot, etc.

You also have to be conscious when doing exercises that you aren’t using too heavy of a load for what you can currently handle in order to protect yourself from injury.

Yet the point being, the sumo deadlift generally leads towards being the “safer”, less risk of injury variation of the two deadlifts.

This could mainly be for reasons as mentioned above.

When you have a wider stance, you create more room for your body to move. It is the same with a squat.

If you take a bit wider stance of a squat, you can usually get a bit deeper in the movement. Why? Because you are eating more external rotation and allowing your femurs to move a bit more freely.

Now this is not a one size fits all as literally everybody’s body structure is independent to that one individual, but again for majority of people, a wider stance tends to me a bit more safe.

As well as once more, in a conventional deadlift it can put a good amount of strain on the low back.

Through the nature of that movement, you have to bend over more and load your spine in a more direct manner.

With the sumo deadlift, you don’t have to bend straight down as much, rather you can use your hips for more leverage which ultimately puts less stress on your low back.

Can Pull More Weight

Once more, this is not a steadfast line for everyone, but generally speaking an individual can pull more weight with a sumo stance versus a conventional stance.

This is generally because of the decreased range of motion when it comes to the sumo deadlift form.

Now some people will fight to the death that sumo is “cheating!”.

Which, I am not sure how an exercise can “cheat”? Your ex girlfriend or boyfriend cheated back in 10th grade.. not a sumo deadlift! 😉

Yet for the most part, people tend to be stronger in the sumo deadlift variation compared to the conventional deadlift purely due to mechanics and how far the bar has to travel to lockout.

Sumo Deadlift Form : The Tutorial

Now that we have dove into the main differences between a sumo deadlift form and a conventional deadlift form, let’s now do our deep dive on specifically the sumo deadlift.

The sumo deadlift is a full body strength training movement. I mentioned above that it is a more hip dominant movement and also works more of the inner groin / adductor region, but overall it is a full body strength training movement.

Therefore, we need to treat it as such. You cannot just focus on the lower half of your body when it comes to performing a deadlift, your body is like one big chain.

All of the pieces have to link together top to bottom. With that being said, we will start with the major muscles besides the lower body ones we mentioned above and how to properly warm up for the sumo deadlift.

Sumo Deadlift Other Muscles Working

The two main muscles that we are going to concern ourself with for the sumo deadlift outside of the obvious lower body work that needs to happen is the core complex and the lats.

Some might argue the core and lower body could be combined into one, and they very well could because they have a ton of overlap.

Yet point being, your core being strong, rigid, and working properly is one of, if not the most important component of having a strong and safe sumo deadlift form.

I am going to link a quick video here below on how to properly brace your core.

The reason I am linking this video is because I would say 90% say of people are not bracing their core correctly when going into a sumo deadlift.

This then leads to not only lower back injuries but also a decreased amount of weight being lifted.

Properly working to have your core protect and propel you forward is a massive component of having a strong and safe sumo deadlift.

We will touch more on our core here in a second.

The second muscle group we are looking at is your lats.

Your lats are on the side / back on your body, they run from your bottom ribcage inserting into your humorous (upper arm).

The are the power house of any strong, safe lift whether it be squats, deadlifts, bench press, chin ups, etc.

Being able to properly activate and use your lats in a deadlift is again a key component to having a safe and strong deadlift.

Most often times when you see lower back rounding or injuries occur during the sumo deadlift it is due to the lats not being fired or the core not being braced.

In this tutorial we will make sure both of those are covered, but I just wanted to have you know that you need to take the approach of this truly being a full body movement, not just a lower body movement.

It was one mistake I made very early on in my career that led to a lot of injuries and decreased strength, so I do not want you making the same mistake.

Sumo Deadlift Form : How To Warm Up

Perfecting the sumo deadlift starts long before even touching the barbell.

It starts with a proper warm up to get the muscles activated, firing, and ready to work.

There were 3 main components of the sumo deadlift if you recall.

Your lower body, your core, and your lats.

A proper warm up for a sumo deadlift should encompass all 3 of those components to ensure safety and maximal strength output.

Keep in mind, this is a warm up. You are not taking these movements to failure. You are not going balls to the walls.

This is simply to activate the right muscles and get them firing, not fatiguing them completely.

Let’s talk about what that might look like below.

Exercise #1 – Activate Glutes, Adductors, Lower Body

We know that your lower body, glutes and adductors specifically, play a huge role in performing the sumo deadlift.

So, why don’t we fire those puppies up before hand?!

The adductor glute bridge is a great way to do just that.

The adductor glute bridge involves hip extension, aka extending your hips at the top of a glute bridge.

This is the same hip extension that has to occur at the top of a sumo deadlift when you lock out!

It also recruits the adductor muscles by squeezing the ball or object you place between your knees.

Getting the adductor muscles firing before heading into the sumo deadlift can quite possibly make all of the difference in the work.

How Many Reps & Sets

Sets – 2 sets

Reps – 6-10 reps

• Really focus on squeezing the ball hard, pushing your heels into the ground, and think about pinching a penny between your butt cheeks at the top*.

Exercise #2 – Activate Core

The next step in our process is to activate your core musculature.

Now, this is not your traditional sit up or crunches. We are looking for anti – movement based core exercises because when you go to do a deadlift, you want your core to not round or over extend right?

So why would you do a sit up that is going to round your back?

We want anti rotation / anti movement exercises that are meant to resist movement and maintain a neutral spine.

Two examples can be here below.

The pallof press is great because you are working to resist the movement as you push your hands out.

The side plank is a classic core stabilization movement that resists rotation in your spine.

How Many Sets & Reps?

Sets – 2 set

Reps – 6-8 each arm for the pallof press, 15-35 seconds for the side plank

• Remember, this is about maintaining a rigid core and resisting movement. You want to think of yourself as a concrete statue here!*

Exercise #3 – Lat Activation

Last but not least we want an exercise to activate your lats, those powerhouses we talked about earlier.

The straight arm band pullover is a perfect exercise for that.

You are using your lats to pull the band closer to your body, just like you will when you go to do your deadlift, keeping the bar close to your body.

How Many Sets and Reps?

Sets – 2 sets

Reps – 6-10 reps

• Really think about bringing your elbows and hands to your hips*.

Sumo Deadlift Form : Step By Step

Alright, now we are warmed up, muscles firing, and ready to tackle this sumo deadlift form!

I am going to break things down piece by piece, but first, I am going to link a tutorial video I did here on exactly how to execute the movement.

Now, let’s break it down step by step in writing !

Stance Width

Your stance width will be truly determined by your own specific limb length, joint structure, etc, therefore I can’t give you an exact answer.

That being said, I can give you a good recommendation and place to start.

Your stance width should be outside of your hip width to start.

From there it becomes variable, I am 6’4 and have long legs, my feet almost hit the plates as you can see here.

Yet this is what feels comfortable for me and what I find the most advantageous for strength and injury prevention.

Someone else may take not as wide of a stance and a more moderate approach.

I would encourage you to play around and see what feels best for you. Generally speaking your body will let you know what feels bet.

From here, slightly point your toes out. Not like a penguin, but a slight point outwards will do just fine.

Bending Over To Grab The Bar

Spoiler alert, we are going to touch on this a bit more in the Q&A section of this guide.

Yet for right now, when you get your stance width set up, I want you to push your hips back as you descend down the grab the bar.

Your shins should be damn near vertical the ground, meaning, you should not be squatting down the get the bar.

When you lead with your hips back first this allows your shins to stay vertical as you descend down the grab the bar.

You also do not want your hips too low to start, which, if you are squatting down, they will be.

We will touch on this soon!

Grip The Bar

There are two options here.

The first option is a double overhand grip. This is when both palms are facing you.

The second option is a mixed grip. This is when one palm is facing you and the other is an overhand grip.

Here is my two cents on these options.

The double overhand is my preferred option because of two reasons.

I can set my lats better ( we will touch on that here shortly ) and I wear wrist straps.

I feel that I can use my lats better in an overhand grip (this is purely personal preference!) and I am able to use wrist wraps so I do not lose any strength.

My favorite are versa Gripps, I can link them HERE.

Now, if I were not using wrist wraps, I would lean towards the mixed grip because typically you can lift heavier loads that way.

Either way, once again, I would try both out and see what works best for you!

Set Your Lats

This is a strategy that has helped me more than words can describe.

The component of setting and engaging your lats is one that that take your sumo deadlift to the next level.

You are going to want to pull your shoulders down and away from your ears and try and squeeze an orange between your arm pits.

You can see that in this video here. (This was a video taken from content inside My Clubhouse!).

This will ensure you can keep your nipples facing the wall in front of you and maintain a proper spine position.

Rip The Ground Apart With Your Feet

This cue is massive and once again, something that has helped myself and a ton of my clients.

I want you to think about ripping the ground apart with your feet like you are trying to create a volcano crack in the ground.

Or, imagine that there is a huge wad of cash underneath the ground below you and the only way to get that cash is to rip the ground apart with your feet.

You should be trying to break the outside seams of your shoes you are ripping the ground apart so hard.

Now, you still want to maintain your 3 points of contact. Meaning you still want your big toe, pinky toe, and heel touching the ground.

Yet ripping the ground apart with your feet is what you should be thinking about doing the entire time.

Most people think a deadlift is “down and up” when in reality you should be thinking about pushing your knees out as well as our next cue here below.

Push The Ground Away From You

Now that you have gotten set up, using your lats, the whole 9, you want to think about pushing the ground away from you as you simultaneously rip the ground apart.

Again, most people think “up!” When they want to pull the weight off the ground and understandably so.

But I actually want you to think about pushing the ground away from you as you rip the ground apart.

This will ensure you are rising your hips and your chest at the same time, keeping a proper back position, and using the right muscles.

Keep Your Chest Facing The Wall In Front Of You

If you have a logo on your shirt, that logo should be facing the wall in front of you the entire time.

You don’t ever want to look down towards the ground, this will end up rounding your back and lead to injury over time.

Make sure to have the logo on your chest facing the wall in front of you, or, just show your nipples to the wall in front of you!

Lock Your Hips And Knees Out

For the Sumo Deadlift form at the very top of the movement you want to think about locking your hips and knees out at the same time.

Sumo Deadlift Form Mistakes

Now that we covered the main principles of the sumo deadlift step by step, let’s cover some most common mistakes.

Hips Rising First

One common mistake I see being made with the sumo deadlift is that your hips hike up before you pull the bar off the ground.

This results in loss of power as well as leading to potential injury down the road.

How to fix this is simply starting with your hips up in a higher position.

If you record yourself lifting and you notice your hips always rise to a certain point first before even starting the movement, then simply just start with your hips there instead!

That is a simple fix most people can make.

Again, do not squat down to the bar. You want your shins vertical to the ground and you want to try wedge yourself between the bar.

If your hips start in a higher position then they will be less likely to hike up.

Over Extending Hips

People often hear “extend your hips” or “squeeze your glutes” and take that as a reason to hump the air as hard as humanly possible.

When you are looking to lock out your deadlift at the top, do not think about over extending your hips and squeezing your glutes super hard.

This will lead to over extending your lower back.

Rather, think about locking your knees and hips out at the same time, that will help.

Also think about your stomach / core being a bucket of water. If you over extend your hips and flare your ribs, that bucket of water is going to spill.

Be sure to keep your ribs over tup of your pelvis when you lock your deadlifts out.

Last but not least, as opposed to thinking “thrusting forward” at the top, think about pinching a penny between your butt cheeks.

I don’t know why you’d do that but here you are. That will help with the over extending of the hips at the top.

Back Rounding

Quite possibly the most common mistake which is that your back rounds during the movement.

I think most things we covered here today will help that, but just to recap.

• Keep your nipples facing the wall in front of you
• Don’t set your hips too low, start with your hips higher
• Engage your lats
• Brace your core like I am going to punch you, or like you gotta poop! ( But don’t poop!)

Trying To Lift With Arms

The last most common mistake I see people making with the sumo deadlift is trying to lift the bar with their arms.

Remember, your arms are just hooks. Your arms aren’t lifting the weights.

Your legs are pushing the ground away from you.

Your lats are what is holding the bar in place, not your biceps or your arms, your lats hold the bar in place (which is why setting your lats are so important!).

If you try to jerk the weight up with your arms, it won’t work.

Maintain a rigid core, use your lats, rip the ground apart, and push the ground away from you as you stand up.

Don’t focus on pulling with your arms.

Pro Tip : Don’t Quit

Oftentimes during the sumo deadlift, the weight isn’t going to immediately fly off the ground.

It is going to be a slow push off of the ground.

The pro tip for you is don’t quit. Most people don’t hit the numbers they want to hit on a sumo deadlift because they quit during the first 1-3 inches of the movement.

Once you push past that initial first 1-3 inches, it becomes easier and you will be able to use your hip drive to lock it out.

Just don’t get discouraged or quit when the weight doesn’t fly off the ground, that is totally normal and you should expect it!

Don’t rush it, stick with it, and you got it!

Sumo Deadlift Form : Final Pull

Well, that is finally the end of this guide.

I hope this information here today helped with your sumo deadlift form but also with all of the things surrounding the sumo deadlift.

The warm up, the set up, the mistakes, all of it.

If you are looking to take your sumo deadlift form and strength to the next level, I have a 60 day program to Demolish Your Deadlift that you just may be interested in.

You automatically gain access to it when you join My Clubhouse .

Inside the Clubhouse we also have an exercise database of literally hundreds of technique videos just like the ones you saw here in this article.

It will give you week by week workout programming to take your deadlift to the next level!

Feel free to check it out, beyond that, I hope you enjoyed the guide and happy deadlifting!

-E

How often to increase weight when lifting is one of the most common questions I get asked as a coach.

You want to be able to push yourself to continue to get stronger and see results, yet you also want to be sure you stay injury free.

Maybe you think you could lift heavier weight, but when are you supposed to?

Is there a specific routine to follow? Are there certain markers that let you know yes you should increase your weight or no you should not increase your weight?

Tons of questions, right?

Don’t worry, we are going to cover all of that and then some in this article here today.

We are going to do a deep dive into how often to increase weight when lifting so just be sure to take some notes.

I don’t want you missing anything and I certainly don’t want you confused. I want you to leave this article knowing exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.

I want you leaving this article confident, not confused. Both words that start with the letter c but vastly different meanings. I find that actually quite intriguing.

Anywho, let’s begin.

How Often To Increase Weight When Lifting

Why Do You Need To Increase Weight When Lifting

Before we talk about the exact how to’s of how often to increase weight when lifting, let’s first take some time to talk about why you need to increase the weight you are lifting.

I think the first and most obvious reason is you want to get stronger, duh.

Who doesn’t want to be able to confidently and safely lift more weight?

I have never met someone in my life who said “Man, you know what… I am just TOO strong!”.

I don’t think that phrase has ever been said in the existence of man kind (other than jokingly in this article.. I really think that’s the only time ever).

Of course you want to get stronger, who doesn’t.

Yet even beyond that I think it is important to discuss why you need to increase the weight you are lifting in order to see progress in your physique.

If you are looking to change the way your body looks, ie lose fat, build muscle, etc, there is one concept you need to understand and master.

This is the concept of progressive overload.

In layman’s terms, this simply just means doing more over a period of time.

I won’t dive too in depth on progressive overload right here because I wrote an entire separate article on progressive overload HERE.

I highly, highly suggest you check that article out after reading this one as those two back to back will teach you more about this topic than most people will ever learn in their life.

Yet I believe the concept of progressive overload applies here to increasing weights because it is literally how your body changes.

More on this now.

How Your Body Changes

If you are reading this article right now, you are probably looking to see your body change.

You want to transform your body. Get stronger, lose fat, build muscle definition, the whole 9 yards.

I think it is important to break this down in the most simplest form of how this actually occurs.

First and foremost to lose body fat you need to be in an overall calorie deficit. I won’t belabor this point because I have written tons of article and recorded tons of YouTube videos around this, feel free to check some of those out if you’d like.

For the purpose of this article, we are going to talk about how your body changes when it comes to getting stronger, building muscle, and seeing your physique change.

There is one simple cycle that your body goes through in order to change.

Stress > Recovery > Adaptation

This is the cycle your body goes through to change.

There is a stress placed on your body, in this case it is the amount of weight you are lifting.

Your body says “oh sh*t, this is not good. Something is trying to harm us, better adapt to be able to withstand this the next time to stay alive”.

Think about sweating for example. Yes sweating.

The heat is a stress on the human body. What did our bodies do? Find a way to cool us down so that we can stay alive.

Thus comes sweating into the picture.

There was a stress (heating), the body recovered, then it adapted (sweating).

Stress > Recovery > Adaptation.

In order for your body to change, it is going to need a stress placed upon it great enough to induce this change.

Otherwise, our bodies will not change. Our bodies like homeostasis, which is just essentially staying even keel. Not changing up too much and staying exactly as is, because that is what is the easiest to maintain.

Your body doesn’t care that you want to get stronger or build muscle, it only cares about keeping you alive.

Therefore staying at homeostasis makes it this easiest and most efficient way to stay alive because it does not waste extra time, energy, calories, etc on changing. It can solely focus on running the operating system.

Therefore, To Change Your Body, You Have To PUSH!

This is often why chaining your body is hard. It requires stepping outside of your comfort zone and quite literally going against what your body wants.

Yet this is what is required of you if you want to see change.

This is where how often to increase weight when lifting comes into play.

When you first start lifting weights, 5lbs is a stress to your body.

You are new, hell 1lb would be a stress to your body. You have never done it before.

Let’s say you lift 5lb dumbbells for 8 reps.

Your body says “Alert, there is a stress being placed on me. Let’s recovery and adapt to this so that if this happens again, we are going to be able to withstand it”.

Therefore that 5lb dumbbell for 8 reps is going to be a stress great enough that your body has to go through the stress > recovery > adapt cycle.

You lift the weight, you recover, and you grow stronger, more defined muscles.

Yet, that is the whole point. Once your body has adapted to this stress, that stress is no longer great enough for your body to adapt and change.

It will say “Well, hell, we have seen this before. We have already adapted to this, so why waste any extra time on it?”.

This is where lifting more weights comes into play because quite literally if you don’t lift more weights, your body has no reason to adapt and change.

It has already adapted to your 5lb dumbbells for 8 reps, so if 6 months from now you are still lifting 5lb dumbbells for 8 reps, your body has no reason to change.

Therefore don’t expect your body to look or perform any different either.

Now that we know why we need to be lifting more weight over a period of time and how it is essential for seeing change in your body, let’s talk now about how often to increase weight when lifting.

How Often To Increase Weight When Lifting : The How

We learned above about why increasing the weight you are lifting is important to seeing your physique change.

Without it, you are limited to how far you can take your physique. This is why bodyweight workouts or only using 5 or 10lb dumbbells will only get you so far.

Don’t get me wrong, bodyweight workouts or 5-10lb dumbbells is amazing, and certainly better than nothing.

Yet the limit will be capped much sooner due to this simple fact of you needing to create a stress great enough on your body that your body is forced to respond to.

The more external load (weights) you have, the easier you can continue to apply said stress to your muscles.

Now when it comes to actually how often should you increase your weight when lifting, let’s first talk about what not to do.

Form > Everything

I thought about not including this section in this article and just diving right into the meat and potatoes of it, but this has to be said.

When talking about when to increase weight, we must first have to clearly lay out the order of importance here.

If you are lifting weights, your form is the most important thing. That is the bottom of the pyramid, that is your foundation.

I would never tell my client or anyone else to increase weight if their form is not already there.

This is for two reasons.

Number one is going to be if you increase weight with improper form, you are going to get injured.

If you get injured you won’t be able to workout for weeks, months, or even sometimes years at a time. Good luck getting stronger or changing your body then.

Number two is if you have the incorrect form, you won’t be using the correct muscles anyway.

So if you are doing a bicep curl, yet doing nothing but humping the air and swinging the weight up, you aren’t actually using your bicep.

Therefore your bicep won’t grow, get stronger, and become more defined because it isn’t actually getting the work.

Your hips humping the air will, which if you are trying to get better at thrusting for your partner in bed, that’s one thing. If you are trying to work your bicep, not getting too much done.

All of this to say if you don’t have proper form first, increasing weights is a distant second because this groundwork and foundation need to be laid first for any future weight increasing endeavors.

You wouldn’t build your house without drywall and a foundation, right? You can’t have your exercises built off of terrible form.

Take the time, get your form down first, then once you feel confident in it, you can take things from there with increasing the weights you are using.

Don’t Listen To Your Body

Okay so this is kind of weird, yes I want you to listen to your body.

For example if you are doing a movement, and your lower back is screaming to you in pain, you probably want to take a look at your form for that movement and get it right.

What I mean when I say “don’t listen to your body” is what we talked about earlier. Remember, your body doesn’t want to change.

Your body likes homeostasis, therefore you trying to come in and change it is actually the opposite of what your body wants.

So when you go into the workouts, your brain is going to tell you “No, don’t do this” “Too heavy” “You can’t do this” etc.

I will talk about this here a bit later in this article, but if there is one thing I have seen coaching people for the past 5 years is that you are way stronger than you think.

The amount of times I have told a client to do a certain amount of weight or reps, then they look at me like I have 3 heads.

Only to.. kindly suggest again they pick the weight up (ahem). Then they go on to do it with ease and more reps than I even wanted.

Then I look at them like “see MF, told you!”.

Your brain is trying to talk you out of it because it does not want you causing stress on your system.

Plus, some days are going to feel better or worse than others.

Some days you might feel like you can take on the entire world and lift all of the weights.

Others you might feel like the weight is lifting you and you can’t do it for sh*t.

This is completely normal and something we call *being a human being*.

Therefore solely going by how you feel can be volatile and inconsistent.

I am not saying go try to hit a 1RM when you got no sleep, have a cold, and feel like sh*t. No, that isn’t smart.

But any lifter will tell you that even on days where you walk in and might not feel 100% the best, you have some of your best lifts that day!

Then on the days you feel great, you might not have a great workout.

Simply how it goes sometimes, therefore having a concrete system in place for how often to increase weight when lifting can be incredibly beneficial.

Which, we are going to talk about, right now.

How Often To Increase Weight When Lifting : Two Main Ways

When it comes to the actual how to of increasing your weights, there are two main principles of progression you can follow.

A linear progress scheme.

And a double progression scheme.

This can give you a road map to follow for your movements, so let’s dive into them right now.

Linear Progress Scheme

This is by far the most OG, old school, tried and true ways of increasing the weights you are lifting.

Essentially what the linear progression scheme looks like it exactly how it sounds.

Over time, you are simply adding more weight little by little.

Let’s take a barbell back squat for example.

Let’s say week 1 you are doing just the empty barbell, no weights on it, which would be 45 lbs.

Let’s say you do this for 5 reps.

If you were follow a linear progression scheme, you would essentially add 5-10lbs to the bar each time.

*Note, this would mean either adding 2.5lb plates to each side or subsequently 5lb plates to the bar each time.

So it would look something like this.

Week 1 – 45lbs (empty bar) x 5 reps

Week 2 – 50lbs (bar + 2.5lbs each side) x 5

Week 3 – 55lbs (bar + 5lbs each side) x 5

Week 4 – 60lbs (bar + 7.5lbs each side) x 5

And on and on and on.

Slowly but surely, each week, you add weight to the bar.

This works incredibly well for Novice lifters and for bigger compound movements like

• Squat
• Deadlift
• Bench press
• Overhead press
• Chin ups

And so on.

Once again, assuming you have your form down and are confident in it, this is one way to increase the weight you are lifting week by week.

Notes On Linear Progression

As mentioned above, this is best for Novice lifters and or for your bigger, compound movements.

In fact, I am not a Novice lifter as I have been lifting for 9+ years at this point, yet I still use linear progression on my lifts to this day.

I followed a linear progression scheme to take my RDL from 275lbs to 425lbs, simply by adding 5lbs to the bar each week.

Yet what I want to say on linear progression is that number one, you may find yourself sacrificing form for weight a time or two.

Listen, we all do it. You want to lift more and you get caught up in adding 5-10lbs each week. It fuels you want you want to keep going.

Just be sure that after a few weeks of doing this you double check the form to make sure it is looking good. The more you increase weight the harder it becomes to maintain form.

You are getting proper range of motion, you aren’t doing things like rounding back on your deadlifts, you aren’t completely out of control with the weights.

Be sure to be honest and objective with yourself when it comes to applying linear progression and your form over time.

Number two is don’t try to rush it. There may be periods of times where you want to add 10, 15, 20lbs to the bar week after week.

This is sub optimal for many reasons. The first in which there is more to your body than just your muscles.

You have your tendons, ligaments, connective tissue, etc. If you are increasing weight at a rapid weight, your muscles might be able to handle it, but the other parts of your body aren’t ready yet because you haven’t taken the time to build them up.

In the same way you don’t want to lose weight rapidly, you don’t want to increase the weight you are lifting rapidly either.

Slow, steady, and progressively over time wins the race.

To wrap up linear progression

• Works with bigger compound movements
• Works incredibly well for novices
• Keep your form in check
• Don’t try and rush the process

Now, the only issue with linear progression is that for all movements that’s not realistic.

Let’s take a bicep curl for example. You aren’t going to go from lifting 10lbs one week, to 15 the next, to 20 the next. You’d be curling 100lb dumbbells in like 8 weeks or something. That’s not realistic.

So, what do you do for other movements for how often to increase weight when lifting?

Enter something called double progression scheme.

Double Progression Scheme

I came across the double progression scheme when reading Eric Helms book The Muscle & Strength Pyramids. I highly suggest you check them out, you will not be sorry you did.

The double progression scheme is a way to increase the weight you are lifting on literally any exercise.

Yet the way you do this is by increasing reps AND weight over time. Let me show you.

Let’s say you are doing reverse lunges for 6-8 reps.

First off, notice the rep range? It is not just one rep you are shooting for, there is a rep range.

Why is this important?

Let’s say you are lifting 10lb dumbbells on your reverse lunges for 6 reps.

A double progression scheme looks like this.

Week 1 – 10lbs for 6 reps

Week 2 – 10lbs for 7 reps

Week 3 – 10lbs for 8 reps

*Week 4 – 12.5 lbs for 6 reps

Week 5 – 12.5 lbs fr 7 reps

And on and on.

Can you see the difference here?

In a double progression scheme, you are increasing reps first, which in turns is going to lead to you increasing weight over a period of time.

You have a given rep range, and once you get to the top of that rep range with a given weight, you simply drop the reps back down to the bottom of the range while increasing the weight.

Then, you do it all over again until you get to the top of the rep range again in which then you would drop the reps, up the weight, and continue the cycle.

This is by far my favorite way to increase the weight you are lifting over time.

Notes On Double Progression Scheme

As mentioned above, you can use this with any movement.

It all depends on how your program is set up and what your sets and reps look like , but you can never go wrong with a double progression scheme.

Keep in mind with this progression scheme as well that just do one more rep, on one more set, is still considered progressive overload and you are still going to change your body.

So for example, let’s use the scenario above.

Let’s say you start off doing reverse lunges with 10lbs for 3×6 in a rep range of 6-8 reps.

This could potentially look like

Week 1 – 3×6 @ 10lbs

Week 2 – 1×7 @ 10lbs, 2×6 @ 10lbs

Week 3 2×7 @ 10lbs, 1×6 @ 10lbs

Week 4 3×7 @ 10lbs

You see how each week you just added one rep to one set to get you from 3 total sets of 6 to 3 total sets of 7?

This may not seem like much at the time, but over time this adds up to building a ton of strength and change in your physique.

This is also a great way to challenge yourself when you go into the gym and do more than what you did last time.

Even if it just one rep on one set, if you do more, you won for that day.

Let Me Be Clear

In the examples above we talked about essentially how to increase weight or reps every single week you go into the gym.

Realistically, this won’t happen every single time.

Can it happens a lot of times? Especially with realizing even if you just do one more rep on one more set that is considered progress? Yes, it absolutely can.

Yet as we talked about above some days you are going to just not have it, you might be fighting a cold didn’t get the best sleep, whatever the case may be.

If you don’t increase one week, that is absolutely 100% okay. It doesn’t mean you are a failure or you aren’t making progress.

Remember one week doesn’t make or break anyone. It matters what you do over a long period of time and as long as you are improving over a period of time, that is what matters most.

Therefore yes look to push yourself each week with one of these progression schemes, but don’t beat yourself up if you have a week where you just don’t got it.

Trust me, it happens to the best of us and always will. This is why consistency is the most important factor of this equation, you just keep going and never quit.

How Often To Increase Weight When Lifting : Progressive Overload

We just went over the two best ways to increase the weight you are lifting in your workouts.

Now, let’s circle back around to the concept of progressive overload.

While this article is about increasing the weight you are lifting because that is what is going to drive the change in your physique.

There are other ways to apply this progressive overload principle without necessarily lifting more weight or doing more reps.

For example, let’s say you are squatting.

Let’s say your range of motion right now only allows you to get 1/4 of a full rep squat.

If you can eventually work your way to a proper, 90 degree range of motion squat, this is a form of progressive overload.

Improving and increasing your range of motion will allow you to put more stress on your muscles over a period of time which is going to lead to you changing your physique and getting stronger.

Let’s also say you are are lifting 100lbs for 5 reps on the deadlift and it is a STRUGGLLEE.

In 4 weeks, let’s say you are still lifting 100lbs for 5 reps, yet this time around, it is moving smooth.

The bar is moving fast, you are having great form, you feel strong.

That is a form of progressive overload where you are getting stronger and your body will see change from that.

*Yet, at this point, you probably want to increase the weight! 😉

There are ways to get stronger and see change in your body outside of just lifitng more weight or doing more reps, like

• having better form
• Having increased range of motion
• Having more control over the weight
• Having better speed with movements
• Doing more sets

To name a few.

Yet the bread and butter of what you should be looking to do is increasing reps or weight or both over a period of time in order to see the most change.

How Often To Increase Weight When Lifting : Final Word

I want to end this information packed article with something I touched on earlier which is, don’t be afraid to push yourself.

So many times I see people put these glass ceilings on themselves thinking they can’t do this, they will never be able to lift that weight, they aren’t strong enough.

For lack of better terms, it’s bullsh*t.

You are strong enough. You can do it.

If you go into it thinking you can’t, well what do you think your result is going to be.

Yet if you go into it thinking you are going to push past your limits and give it all you got no matter the outcome, well now that outcome is going to look a lot different.

Again, do it safely, I don’t want you getting injured. Yet please, I am begging you, do not put glass ceilings on yourself. You can do this, I promise.

Hope this article helped out. If it did feel free to let me know below.

If you want some extra help with your journey, feel free to head HERE to see if we may be a good fit for coaching.

Chat soon,

-E