Although this is not a solution for your Progress Bar question:
when I am up against a large data  processing 'job', I will typically turn off
the screen updating & auto calculation options.

sub processData( )

Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.Calculation = xlManual

rowmax = activesheet. usedrange. rows.count

for i = 1 to rowmax
' my functionality
next

Application.Calculation = xlAutomatic
Application.ScreenUpdating = True

end sub