Double progression: when to increase the weight
Stay at a weight until your reps go past the top of a range. Then add the smallest step the bar allows. Your reps fall back, and the climb starts again.
Last reviewed
The rule
Pick a range, say 8 to 12 reps on the bench press. Keep the weight the same while your reps climb through it. When a set goes past the top, add weight. With the heavier bar your reps fall back towards 8, and the climb begins again.
Two things progress, reps and load, and never in the same session. That is the whole method, and it is why it lasts for years rather than weeks: there is always one small, specific thing to beat next time.
- First set: 13 reps, past the top. More weight next session.
- First set: 12 reps, at the top but not past it. Same weight; one more rep moves it.
- First set: 7 reps, under the bottom. The weight was too heavy for this range.
Why a range and not a number
A fixed target such as 3 × 10 has two outcomes: you hit it or you miss it. A range has room inside it. One more rep than last time is progress, even when the weight did not move.
That room is what makes coarse steps workable. On a lift where 2.5 kg is a big jump, the reps fill the gap between two plate steps: by the time your reps have gone past 12, you have grown into the next 2.5 kg. The arithmetic is on the progressive overload page.
Which sets have to reach the top
Programmes split here. The common rule says: add weight once every set reaches the top of the range. Others count one set, usually the first, when you are freshest, and move up when it goes past the top. The 2009 recommendation of the American College of Sports Medicine reads like the second: add 2 to 10 % once you can do one or two reps more than your target1.
The first rule is stricter about fatigue across sets; the second reacts sooner and is easier to check at the rack. Nobody has tested one against the other, and both are widely used. What does not work is switching between them depending on the day.
When the reps fall under the range, that is the rule working, not you failing: the load is wrong for the range, so the next step is down, not harder. What a real plateau looks like
Does adding reps build as much as adding weight?
It appears to. In an eight-week study of trained lifters, one group added load every session and the other added reps at the same load, and both improved by similar amounts2. Weight and reps are two routes to the same overload, which is the whole idea of the method.
Common questions
How many reps should I add each session?
One is enough. Some sessions you will add two, some none. The range only asks that the trend points up over a few weeks.
Is double progression good for beginners?
It is the most common way to start because it needs no maths: one range, one weight, one question per set. Beginners often go past the top quickly, which just means the weight moves often at first.
What rep range should I use for double progression?
A span of four or five reps is common: 6 to 10, 8 to 12, 10 to 15. A narrow range moves the weight more often; a wide one gives small lifts more room. Muscle grows across a wide span of reps, so pick a range you can progress in.
Sources
- American College of Sports Medicine (2009). American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Progression models in resistance training for healthy adults. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 41(3), 687–708. doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e3181915670
- Plotkin D, Coleman M, Van Every D, Maldonado J, et al. (2022). Progressive overload without progressing load? The effects of load or repetition progression on muscular adaptations. PeerJ 10, e14142. doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14142
The guide
Let StackUp do the counting
Free on Google Play. No ads, no account needed, and nothing to buy inside it.
How StackUp applies this
StackUp reads the first set by default; you can switch to the last set, the best set or the average, and when your sets carry different weights it reads the heaviest. It suggests more weight when that goes past the top of your range, and every suggestion shows the reason beside it.