What rep range should I use for double progression?

6 to 10 is a reasonable default for compound lifts and 10 to 15 for isolation work. Pick one range and keep it until every working set reaches the top of it.

When do I add weight instead of reps?

Only once every working set hits the top of the range. Then add the smallest increment you have, often 2.5 kg on a barbell or 2 kg on a dumbbell pair, and start again at the bottom of the range.

Should I hold the weight after a bad session?

Hold it when the session was genuinely bad, not merely hard: poor sleep, a session cut short, or a joint that complained. Repeating a weight once costs a week; adding load on top of a bad session costs a month.

How do I choose a starting working weight for a new exercise?

Work up to it. Do a light set of 8 to 10 reps to rehearse the movement, then add small increments over two or three short warm-up sets of 4 to 6 reps. Stop at the weight where the set still has 2 to 3 clean reps left in it, and start there.

What if the starting weight turns out to be wrong?

Too heavy looks like form breaking down early, shaking, or missing the target reps: take weight off in that same session. Too light looks like sailing past 15 to 20 reps without effort, or holding a conversation while you do it: add a little on the next set.

Double progression vs linear progression: which is better after 30?

Double progression is the better default for most men once they are past the beginner window. Linear progression works for a beginner and then stops, usually inside three months. A weekly add forces a heavier bar whatever the session was, while double progression lets a hard week end in a held weight or one more rep instead of a failed lift.

Double progression: the only rep scheme most men need

Most men who lift have no rep scheme. They pick a weight that felt right last time, do three sets of something between six and twelve, and go home. Progress happens by accident, and stops the same way.

Double progression fixes that with two rules.

The two rules

Pick a rep range. 6 to 10 is a reasonable default for compound lifts and 10 to 15 for isolation work. The best rep range for muscle covers how to choose the band and how long to rest between sets. Then:

Progress reps first. Keep the weight the same until every working set hits the top of the range.
Then progress load. Add the smallest increment you have, often 2.5 kg on a barbell or 2 kg on a dumbbell pair, and start again at the bottom of the range.

That is the whole method. Two variables, one moving at a time.

It is not a gym superstition. The American College of Sports Medicine’s 2009 position stand on progression says the same thing in its own words: raise the load 2 to 10 percent once the current weight goes for one or two reps over the target. The top of the range is that signal.

Picking the weight you start with

Both rules assume a weight is already on the bar. The method starts from two choices, a rep range and a starting weight you can lift inside that range. The rules above only cover the first.

Work up to it instead of choosing it cold. Do a light first set of 8 to 10 reps to rehearse the movement, then add small increments across two or three short warm-up sets of 4 to 6 reps. Stop at the weight where the set still has 2 to 3 clean reps left in it; the full routine, with a step size by lift, is in starting weight and weekly increases. On a movement that is new to you, begin lighter than feels right: an empty bar, a light dumbbell, or body weight for the first attempt.

Then read the first working set. Reps 1 through 6 should move smoothly, and the last 2 to 3 should be hard without shaking, straining or slowing down badly. If form breaks early, if you shake, or if you miss the target reps, the weight is too heavy and it comes down in that session. If you sail past 15 to 20 reps without effort, or could hold a conversation while you do it, add a little on the next set.

Getting that first number exactly right on day one matters less than starting, because the two rules move it from there. Who picks it for you is one of the differences in AI trainer vs human trainer, for men.

Why adding weight every week stops working

Linear progression works for a beginner and then stops, usually inside three months. When it stops, the weight is still going up on paper, so the lifter grinds reps with worse technique, misses sets, and calls it a plateau.

Double progression gives the body somewhere to go when load cannot move yet. A set of 8 at 80 kg becoming a set of 10 at 80 kg is progress. It is measurable, it is recorded, and it earns the jump to 82.5 kg when it arrives. If the reps stay stuck for weeks on end, the cause can be fatigue rather than a true plateau, and that is when to take a deload week. The same rule runs the lifting in the skinny fat plan.

Running it honestly

The failure mode is bookkeeping. Double progression only works if you know what every set did last time: not the top set, every set. Three sets of 8, 8, 6 is not “three sets of 8”, and the difference decides whether the weight moves this week. Which app does that bookkeeping, and who decides the next weight from it, is the comparison in Fitbod vs Caliber vs AI coaches for men.

That is the part an app should own. You do the set and report the reps; the program decides whether the load moves. Tracking every single set and rep is a stated requirement of the method, alongside progress that can feel slow on smaller isolation movements. We compare the best apps for progressive overload tracking and who decides the next weight in each. The three tests that separate an app that decides from one that only stores the history are in Best AI workout apps for men.

When to hold the weight

Hold it when the last session was genuinely bad instead of merely hard: poor sleep, a session cut short, a joint that complained. Repeating a weight once costs a week. Adding load on top of a bad session costs a month. Plain muscle soreness is a separate case, and should you work out when sore covers it. When it is one joint on one lift and not general fatigue, what to substitute instead is its own question. Food is the input this post leaves alone, and how much protein to lose fat without losing muscle is the separate question.

What it looks like in GreekBody

The app stores the working weight per movement and the reps you reported per set. When every set hits the top of the range, the next session shows the next weight, by the smallest step your equipment allows, tempered by the soreness, sleep and energy you logged. You never decide what the weight should be. You report what happened.

It adopts what you actually lifted, not what was planned. When it holds a weight or takes some off, it says so and why; a lighter day is never called the new working weight. Sets are written on the phone first and sync when the signal returns, so a dead spot in the gym does not cost you the record the next weight is decided from.

Source: American College of Sports Medicine, Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults, Med Sci Sports Exerc 2009 (doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181915670). The app cites the same paper under Settings > Sources.