Double progression: when to add weight vs reps, with a worked example

1. Pick a rep range. For example, 6 to 10 reps on a barbell lift.
2. Pick a starting weight. Choose a weight you can lift for the bottom of the range on every set, with about two reps left in you. On the RPE scale, that is RPE 8. We explain the scale in RPE vs RIR.
3. Add reps. Keep the weight and try for one more rep than last time.
4. Add weight at the top. When every set reaches the top of the range, add the smallest jump your equipment can make. Your reps drop back to the bottom of the range, and the climb starts again.
5. Take weight off if you fall out. If a set falls below the bottom of the range, the weight is too heavy. Take off one jump and climb again.

Say your bench press range is 6 to 10 reps for three sets, and you start at 60 kg.

In week one you get 6, 6 and 6. Every set is in the range, so you keep 60 kg. In week two you get 7, 7 and 6. In week three you get 8, 7 and 7. The sets do not climb together, and that is normal. You keep 60 kg until all three sets reach 10.

In week six you get 10, 10 and 10. Now you add weight. Plates go on in pairs, so on a rack whose smallest plates are 1.25 kg, the smallest jump is 2.5 kg. You go to 62.5 kg and get 7, 6 and 6. The reps are lower, but the weight is higher, and you climb the same ladder again from there.

Progress needs more work over time. This is progressive overload. The American College of Sports Medicine's 2026 position stand, an overview of 137 systematic reviews, says you can get results without it, but that you likely need it to keep progressing over the longer term. Its 2009 stand gave a version of what coaches call the 2-for-2 rule: add 2 to 10% to the load once you could do one or two reps more than your target on two sessions in a row, with the smaller jumps on small-muscle lifts. The 2026 update does not repeat a number.

Adding reps is progress too. In an eight-week trial by Plotkin and colleagues (2022), 43 trained adults did the same leg training twice a week. One group added reps at a fixed weight. The other added weight and stayed at 8 to 12 reps. Both groups grew their leg muscles by similar amounts. The add-weight group gained about 2 kg more on the squat 1RM, a difference the authors called of questionable practical significance. A 10-week trial in beginners found the same pattern. Neither trial tested double progression itself, but they tested its two levers, and both levers work.

The range can be wide. A meta-analysis by Schoenfeld and colleagues (2017) found similar muscle growth from heavy and light loads when sets were taken to failure, while heavier loads built more 1RM strength. So a range such as 8 to 12 builds muscle across its whole span, and a lower, heavier range suits a strength goal.

The reps must be hard reps. A set of 10 that could have been 15 is not the top of anything. Rate each set by effort, so that the top of your range means the same thing every week. RPE 8 means about two reps were left, and RPE 10 means none.

Match the range to the jump. A 2.5 kg jump is 2.5% of a 100 kg squat, but a 2 kg jump is 17% of a 12 kg dumbbell curl. When you add weight to a small lift, your reps can drop by four or five, so small lifts need a wider range to take the jump. Big barbell lifts can use a narrower range, such as 5 to 8 or 6 to 10. Small single-joint lifts do better with 10 to 15. No study has tested how big the jumps should be, so this is coaching practice. It matches the 2009 stand's advice to use smaller jumps on small-muscle lifts.

The jumps are common gym steps: twice a 1.25 kg plate on a barbell, 2 kg between dumbbells, and 2.5 kg on a cable or machine, or 5 lb for all of them. The lb loads are the nearest common weights, not exact conversions. The ranges are the ones Shojin Coach sets for a muscle-building goal (see below). Read down the % column: the bigger the jump is as a share of the load, the wider the range needs to be.

Use the smallest jump you have. On a barbell, the smallest jump is twice your smallest plate. Dumbbells, cables and machines move in their own steps, and some machine stacks jump 5 kg or more at a time.

Keep the effort the same. Aim for the same effort on every session of the climb. If the effort drifts up, the extra reps come from grinding harder, and they say less about your strength.

Know the strict and loose versions. The strict version, used above, waits until every set reaches the top of the range. A looser version only asks the first set to reach it, and some lifters then add weight to all sets. Both are coaching conventions. No trial compares them.

Every Shojin Coach program uses double progression.

It sets your range. Coach picks each lift's range from your goal and the kind of lift. If your goal is to build muscle, a barbell compound lift gets 6 to 10 reps, a dumbbell, machine or cable compound gets 8 to 12, and a single-joint lift such as a curl gets 10 to 15. The target effort stays the same for the whole block: RPE 8 on barbell, dumbbell and bodyweight compounds, and RPE 9 on machine, cable and single-joint lifts.

It writes the climb on your calendar. Each lift starts at the bottom of its range, with a weight worked out from your own logged sets. A lift you have never logged, or not logged for 90 days, starts with an empty box, and your first session sets the weight. Week by week, the plan asks for one more rep, up to the top of the range. Then it adds weight and goes back to the bottom. A bodyweight lift with no weight to add climbs to the top of its range and stays there. A block runs 4, 6, 8 or 12 weeks. You pick the length, or let Coach pick it. When Coach picks, the last week is a lighter deload, with one set fewer and 10% less weight.

It moves with what you actually lift. After each session, Coach reads every working set of each lift and rewrites the weeks ahead.

• Every set reached the top of the range, and none was an RPE 10: the weight goes up, and the reps go back to the bottom of the range.
• Every set reached today's rep target, none reached the top, and none was an RPE 10: same weight, one more rep next time.
• A set fell below the range: the weight comes down. It also comes down when a set felt 1.5 RPE or more harder than the target and you did not do the session as written (a set missed, or done with fewer reps or less weight than planned). On machine, cable and single-joint lifts the target is RPE 9, so the weight comes down only when a set falls below the range.
• You did every set as written, but one was an RPE 10: same weight, same reps next time. After a session done in full, effort alone never brings the weight down.
• Anything else, such as one set a rep short of the target: the plan holds.

If you do not log RPE, reps alone decide. Every weight change is a jump your own plates can make, because you tell Shojin your bar and plates once. And during the session, if a set feels far easier than the target, the rest timer offers more weight for the sets you have left. On a free-weight or bodyweight compound, it also offers less weight when a set feels far harder.

Shojin is one subscription with no cap on sets. Shojin Coach is part of it: it writes your program from your own lifts and adjusts it after every session you log.

New subscribers get one month free, then A$5 a month or A$35 a year, billed by the App Store in your local currency. The subscription renews until you cancel. Cancel any time in Settings. You subscribe in the iPhone app. If you stop, your history stays, and Coach stops adjusting your program.

Every number in this article traces to one of these. Where the evidence is contested or thin, the article says so rather than picking a side.