A Note on Progressive Overload

Every juiced-up animal on social media will tell you that the key to muscle hypertrophy, and thus size gainz, is progressive overload, which isn’t inaccurate by any means. The problem is that, for someone who has hit their ceiling in terms of both muscular strength & size, there is no capacity for progressively overloading the muscle without also concomitantly increasing the risk for serious injury (breaking form, doing drop-sets, etc.). And it’s understandable why these influencers would hyperfixate on progressive overload; AAS (Androgenic Anabolic Steroids), through actions on the androgen receptor itself, often increase the capacity of the muscle to overcome resistances. Some of the most androgenic steroids known to man, like Halotestin (8.5x more androgenic than testosterone), increase your strength within mere weeks, even in the absence of size gains. In this circumstance, the androgen receptor-mediated strength increases allow for the progressive overload that can then invite muscle hypertrophy.