Progressive overload

We attended "back to school" night for our high schoolers last week, and something we heard in the girls' choir class stood out to me. 

"You'll see your students' grades kind of go like this," their teacher said, making an up-and-down motion with her hand. "This is by design."

Sensing the rising intrigue, she explained further.

"I will assess your students throughout the semester. As they show me they've mastered a concept, I will give them something a little bit harder. This is when you'll see their grade dip back down. We'll work and practice, then you'll watch it go up again. Then we repeat, as their skills increase."

Her hand did the up-and-down motion again, but this time her arm raised gradually higher with each dip.

So when you see the grade drop, it's not because they're getting worse; it's because I'm pushing them harder and they're getting stronger."

My metaphor-loving mind was blown.

I've seen this pattern in my life over and over, and still see it today. 

It's the way of the masterful educator.

We're intentionally shown our weaknesses, then lovingly tutored as they become strengths.

As the student, this can feel really tough. We wonder, "I was doing so well! What the heck is wrong with me??" Or, "Gosh. I keep ending up in these dips. I must be doing something wrong."

Nope.

I've actually been learning about this concept in the fitness sense, as well.

To build strength, you don't keep up the same workout routine. That will help you maintain your level of strength, but it won't increase it. You also don't start doing Jazzercise while holding a 100-pound barbell. This will cause you injury and set you back for a good long time.

If you want to get stronger (note: this is a total oversimplification and I am in NO way claiming personal fitness expertise), you first get totally clear on proper form, and then lift as heavy as you can for as many reps as you can. Then a couple of days later, lift the same weight but for a few more reps. Once you can do 12-15, it's time to increase the weight again. Your rep count will go down, and you'll repeat. A few more reps, a few more pounds at a time.

Its technical name is "progressive overload." Weakness becomes strength with patient practice. Then more weakness shows up and becomes even greater strength. 

But what if we are exhausted and don't want to even think about getting stronger right now? What if the idea of progressive overload is just too much, and we feel like pushing any more will break us? 

Listen to it.

There is space for this, as well. 

In fact, a critical part of this process is rest and recovery. Those "couple of days" I mentioned are when muscles repair themselves, rebuilding to support the heavier load. It's actually in the rest where the new growth happens.

It's a brilliant, beautiful, loving design. When things feel hard and we find our muscles trembling just to lift our daily load (yet again!), we can take comfort in the fact that both the weight we're lifting as well as the required recovery are helping us grow.