Ways to Progress or Regress Exercises

When performing an exercise, have you ever felt like the exercise was too easy or too hard? That’s where progressions and regressions come in! Progressions and regressions are small changes you can make to an exercise to make it harder or easier, respectively.

Knowing how to progress and regress an exercise allows you to work at your appropriate skill or strength level, which helps you avoid injury and ultimately progress more efficiently.

So what are the ways that you can modify exercises? Let’s take a look, shall we?

Intensity or Load

This is pretty straightforward…if you’re lifting something, lift something heavier or lighter. If you’re using a band, change to a band with more or less resistance. If you want to build muscle and strength, you need to gradually increase your load over time. However, if you’re performing a move with bad form, chances are you need to slow your roll and reduce the load.

Movin’ on up! Oh yeahhhh…

Range of Motion (ROM)

If you have limited mobility around certain joints (hips, shoulders, knee, etc), you want to slowly try to increase your range of motion over time. If you’re recovering from an injury, however, you may need to reduce your range of motion to stay pain-free.

A prime example is squatting; you may not be able to squat very low, but over time you work to squat to parallel, or maybe even lower. As another example, you may work on raising your leg straight in front of you, all the way to parallel to the floor.

Working to get a leg up on the competition…

Height

Changing the height can be akin to changing the resistance of a move. For example, if you’re doing step-ups or feet-elevated glute bridge, you can raise the height to increase the intensity.

Heels up for more hamstring engagement. Feel the burn.

Height can also be used to decrease intensity; for example, if you’re trying to do your first push-up, you can start with your hands elevated on a surface and, as you build strength, place your hands on lower and lower surfaces until you’re doing a pushup on the ground.

Balance or Stability

Performing moves on one foot (especially for upper body) is a great way to modify an exercise by requiring more core stability. A simple example is to perform bicep curls on one foot or an unstable surface like a BOSU ball. From there, you can move both arms at the same time.

For even more of a challenge, perform the curls with the arms in either a reciprocating (one arm goes up while the other goes down) or an alternating (move one arm at a time) motion. You’ll feel your core kick in as the weight distribution shifts back and forth.

You can also add stability to upper body moves that you perform on a bench or floor by performing them with your legs in table top position, or while holding a table-top position on an exercise ball.

Balance curls from L-R:bilateral (both arms), reciprocating, alternating.

Alternating chest press + tabletop position = fun new challenge!

Other examples of ways to increase or decrease stability for a move: in plank position, move your feet close together (harder) or wider than shoulder width (easier). For a lunge, keep your feet shoulder width apart (easier) or move your feet in line with each other (harder). Moves like deadlifts and squats can be performed on one foot to focus on balance—just be sure to lighten the load from what you would normally lift with two feet!

Adding movements

Sometimes when I run circuit training, I’ll start with a simple move like a squat, then add on more complexity to each round. So if I start with a squat, I may then add a curl at the bottom of the squat. Then I may add a jump in-between. This can be a challenge for the brain as well—especially if it’s an early morning workout! :D

I’ll take your squat and raise you a curl…and a jump!

Speed

Adjusting speed can be a great way to increase intensity. For example, if you’re performing a power move like a med ball slam, performing the move faster will increase the intensity and your heart rate. You can also slow things down during a strength move; it will help you focus on form and keep the muscles under tension for longer, which can lead to quite the burn!

Eccentrics

Eccentrics are great for moves that require a lot of strength to build up to them. For example, if you're trying to do your first pull-up, you might first work on an eccentric pull-up. Here you jump up to the bar and slowly lower yourself down (as opposed to pulling yourself up). This helps you build strength in the muscle while you are lengthening it instead of contracting it.

Body position

Finally, moving your body around into different positions to perform a similar exercise can help you progress or regress a move. For example, if you can’t perform a pushup on your feet, you can perform them on your knees or against a wall to reduce the weight your arms and shoulders need to support. Or your elbows may flare when you try to perform an overhead tricep extension, so you perform them lying on the ground (ie, skullcrushers) instead.

Who doesn’t love push-ups? Push-ups are there for you, no matter your skill level…

Elbows flaring on your overhead tricep extensions? Why not try a skullcrusher instead?

(Tip of the day: don’t smash yer face.)

There are countless ways to modify your workout routine and home in on the exercises that are perfect for you; I just gave you eight! So start experimenting and have fun with it!