Double progression

#The rule

Each exercise has a rep range. Work up to the top of it for all prescribed sets at the target RIR. Then add load and drop back to the bottom.

Worked example, incline dumbbell press, 3 × 6–8:

#Increments

• Upper body isolation: 1–2 kg
• Upper body compound: 2.5 kg
• Lower body: 5 kg
• Dumbbells: whatever the next pair is, usually 2–2.5 kg per hand

If the jump is too big, add reps beyond the top of the range for a week first — 3×9 at 30 kg before 3×6 at 32.5 kg. Small gyms with 5 kg dumbbell jumps make this necessary.

#When you cannot add anything

One week of no progress is noise. Two consecutive weeks on the same exercise means something.

In order:

1. Check sleep and food. They are the answer far more often than programming is.
2. Check your RIR calibration. Drift is the second most common cause.
3. Add one set to that exercise, up to a maximum of five per muscle per session.
4. Deload (next lesson).
5. Substitute the exercise. Sometimes a movement stops fitting your leverages as you get stronger.

Note the order. Adding volume is fourth, not first.

#What progression is not

Not adding weight every session — that is linear progression and it is for novices, who should use it while it lasts.

Not adding exercises. Not adding days. Not adding "intensity techniques."

It is the same movements getting heavier over months. That is the entire mechanism, and it is far more boring than the content economy needs it to be.