To “overload” during exercise means to exert greater pressure on your body than it is used to. Your body eventually adapts to the increase in demand, which increases your fitness level. You can overload by increasing the frequency, intensity or duration of your workouts in small increments. Always stay within your comfort level -- too much overload too fast can be dangerous and can result in injury. Consult a doctor before beginning any new exercise program or before you overload your current routine.
Exercising More Often
Frequency is the number of times you exercise in a certain time period, such as per week. When you increase the frequency of your workouts, you work out more often, which overloads your body. Keeping track of and creating a schedule for your workouts can help you increase their frequency. For example, if you currently ride a bike twice a week, you might plan on your calendar to ride three times the following week to overload.
Working Out Harder
Intensity is the effort you exert when you work out. A higher heart rate represents a greater intensity in aerobic exercises, such as swimming. The amount of resistance your muscles face determines the intensity in resistance exercises. You can overload an exercise by increasing its intensity. For example, you could increase your running speed from 6 mph to 7 mph to boost your heart rate. You might lift 15-pound dumbbells instead of 12-pound dumbbells to overload your resistance training.
Exercising Longer
Duration measures the total time you spend on an endurance workout or the number of repetitions or sets you perform in resistance exercises. Duration is inversely related to intensity, which means you have the ability to exercise for a longer duration at a lower intensity or at a higher intensity for a shorter duration. To overload, you can increase duration using the same or greater intensity. For example, you might overload by lifting a 10-pound weight 12 times instead of 10 times.
Considerations
Maintaining your current workout routine will only maintain your current fitness level. You must progressively overload your workouts to improve your fitness level, but too much overload too fast can result in injury. Small increments in overload are safer for your body and can result in big improvements over time. For example, it is safer to increase your running frequency from twice per week to five times per week slowly over six months instead of increasing it from twice one week to five times the next week.
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