One of the hardest things about training that no one talks about is balance. Go too hard and you’ll burn out, but on the other hand if you don’t push yourself you’ll never make progress. Somewhere in the middle there’s a sweet spot, where you train hard enough that you make a good amount of progress, but your body is still getting the necessary amount of rest it needs.

The secret ingredient here is progressive overload. It’s a simple but effective way to get results in your training, whether you’re looking to increase muscle size, mass or improve your endurance performance, progressive overload is an essential part of any training.

What you need to know about the progressive overload principle

The thing is about progress, it’s slow and that means you may need to swallow your pride and pick up the smaller plates if you want to get stronger. Progressive overload takes time, but it’s worth it when you finally break that PB you’ve been working so hard for.

What are fractional plates?

If you want to make marginal gains when training then you should be using Fractional Plates. These lightweight plates are used to gradually increase the weight on the bar. Fractional plates range from 0.25-1kg, whereas normal bumper plates often start at 5kg and increase up to 25kg.

You should be using fractional plates when you’re struggling to reach the desired rep range and you can’t lift a kilogram heavier, but maybe you can lift an extra 0.5kg.

They also come in handy when you’re aiming for a personal best and you need to increase the weight by small increments until you reach your one repetition max. It’s even possible to use them as part of a warm up or mobility routine, you can take your body to a full range of motion without adding too much weight.

Fractional plates vs Change plates

Did you realise there were this many options of weight plates available? Change Plates fill the void between fractional plates and traditional bumper plates. If you’re struggling to do a 75kg back squat, but 70kg feels too light then change plates might come in handy for you.

Change plates usually start at 0.5kg and go up to 2.5kg, making them heavier than fractional plates but lighter than normal ones. Say one day you’re feeling strong and you’ve got more energy than usual, you could try adding a change plate to your usual weight to see if you can push just that little bit more.

The only difference between these two plates is their weight. If you are really struggling you might only want to add a fractional plate, if you’ve got more in the tank today, stick on a change plate.

When it comes to training, it’s all about those marginal gains and the way to achieve progressive overload is by incrementally increasing the weight week by week. Don’t have fractional weights at the gym? No problem, our weights come with a travel bag so you can make progress wherever you are.

Written by guest author Eryn Barber

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Tags: Equipment > PBars & Weight Plates ; Exercise Type > Strength