The progressive overload app that decides your next weight

What a progressive overload app has to get right

• The next weight, before you lift

  Every exercise opens with a weight and a rep target already set. The Dashboard shows the next session's loads, and Why this weight says what each one came from.

  

• Reps first, then load, judged on your weakest set

  When every working set reaches the top of the rep range, the weight goes up one step and reps reset to the bottom. Until then the weight holds, and the rep target climbs by one only when your weakest set hit it. Your target is never quietly overwritten by your best set. It's double progression, applied for you.

• Corrections between sets, not just between sessions

  More left in the tank than planned? The next set goes up. Fell below the rep range? It comes down. Pushed closer to failure but got the reps? It holds, so a hard set never costs you weight.

  

• Steps your equipment can actually make

  Every weight rounds to your plates, your dumbbell jumps or your machine's stack. Save a gym's machines and each one remembers its own loads.

• It notices when progress stops

  Three sessions without a new rep and the recap suggests about 10% lighter. You choose Deload or Not yet. A missed session never counts as a stall. More on that in how to break a lifting plateau.

• Proof it's working

  Progress shows each lift's estimated 1RM over time, so a held weight with more reps still reads as progress.

  

Progressive overload, set by set and week by week

Upper day: the first set was too easy

A year or two of lifting, running a 4-day upper/lower split. Bench is set at 185 lb for 6 reps with 2 left, in a 6–10 range.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Barbell Bench Press	Set 1: 185 lb × 6, 3 left	Set 2: 190 lb × 6	9 reps to failure against a target of 8: 185 × 38 ÷ 37 ≈ 190 lb.
Barbell Bench Press	Set 2: 190 lb × 6, 2 left	Set 3: 190 lb × 6	Exactly on plan, so it holds.
Barbell Bench Press	Set 3: 190 lb × 6, 1 left	Next session: 190 lb	Closer to failure than planned, but you got the reps. It holds rather than cutting you for pushing.

The first set measured today's strength and the rest of the session followed it. The bump is marked as a correction, not the plan.

Next upper day: three lifts, three different answers

Same split, a week later. Each exercise is judged on its own weakest working set.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Chest-Supported Row	100 lb, 12 / 12 / 12 reps, 1 left	105 lb × 8	Every set at the top of 8–12: one step up, reps back to the bottom.
Lat Pulldown	130 lb, 12 / 11 / 10 reps, 1 left	130 lb × 11	The weakest set hit this session's target of 10. Same weight, one more rep.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press	45 lb, 9 / 8 / 8 reps, 1 left	45 lb × 9	The weakest set missed its target of 9, so weight and target both stay.

Your best set doesn't set the bar. The weakest one does, so a lift only moves when every set has caught up.

Week 9: bench stops moving

Bench has sat at 205 lb for three sessions without a new rep on the weakest set.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Barbell Bench Press	205 lb × 7 / 6 / 6, three sessions running	185 lb × 6–10, if you tap Deload	About 10% lighter, rounded to your plates. Reps restart at the bottom and you build back up. Not yet keeps 205 lb.
Lat Pulldown	140 lb, 10 / 10 / 9 reps, 1 left	140 lb × 10	Still gaining a rep every week or two, so nothing is flagged.

The step back is a response to a measured stall, offered to you, not a deload scheduled because it's week 4.

Plans built for steady progressive overload

• The best workout routine for the days you can train

  4 days a week: upper/lower

  The split the examples use: bench, rows, pulldowns and presses twice a week.

  4× a week · 68 sets a week · ~40 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout plan for muscle gain, for where you are now

  Past a year of lifting, gains have stalled

  Progress slowed after a year? More weekly sets, heavy and volume days, a planned deload.

  4× a week · 76 sets a week · ~50 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout for full body, for your week

  Full gym, 3 days: heavy, moderate, light

  Three days with a heavy, moderate and light zone, each progressing on its own.

  3× a week · 50 sets a week · ~45 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Pick a pace

  Steady takes smaller, surer steps. Standard is double progression. Push takes bigger jumps and waits longer before suggesting a step back.

• Confirm before it saves

  Set Coach to Ask first and next session's weights appear on the recap for you to accept or edit.

• Set your real increments

  Choose your equipment so every jump is one you can load. With Pro, add custom plates and bar, and use Fine-tune to set the biggest step within and between sessions.

• Log RIR the same way every time

  Consistency matters more than precision, because your answer is compared with targets you judge the same way. The RIR guide shows what 0 to 4 feel like.

When a different app fits better

• You run a percentage-based peaking program for a meet. A powerlifting-specific app fits that block better.

Questions

Read next

• Progressive overload: a practical guide

  Every way to progress, and when to use each.

• How RIRLift picks your next weight

  The full rules behind the examples on this page.

• When to increase weight

  The signals, how much, and how often.

• Deload week

  The signs you need one and how to run it.

• Bench press progression calculator

  Project a lift's progress before you start.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• The workout app for intermediate lifters whose gains have slowed

  Progression past the beginner stage: jumps sized by RIR, stalls caught early, and years of history imported.

• The hypertrophy app that sets your load from reps in reserve

  RIR on every set, weekly sets per muscle, and deloads when a lift stalls instead of on a calendar.

• The RPE and RIR app where effort sets the weight

  Log reps in reserve on every set, and your effort decides the next set's weight and the next jump.

Every lifter and goal