Ilona Maher and JJ Virgin explain why women plateau in strength training. Most stick with the same weight instead of pushing harder each set. Real gains come from progressive overload: add weight or reps until your form starts to slip, then stop.
Girls love to comment, Ilona, you're so strong, I want to be strong like you. You know how you can be strong like me is to continue to add more weight. Sometimes when I'm in like classes or watching women lift, they pick up a weight and say, oh, I can do it, and they continue to do that weight for every set.
One thing I think we should all live by is you are so much stronger than you think. There is a principle in resistance training called progressive overload. In order to continue to improve, get stronger, build muscle, you have to do more than what your body is used to so it can adapt and get stronger. So yes, continue to push it a little bit more. Here's my rule of thumb: when you get to the point where your form feels like it's going to suffer and you're slowing way down, that's the point you want to get to. I think for most of us, we're just kind of getting to the gym and figuring that counts. No, you gotta push, push yourself, progressively overload. Don't phone it in.
