dOUBLE PROGRESSION
A lot of people go to the gym without a plan. It’s common for people to not make any progress and still be lifting the same weight for an exercise for years. You should have a plan on how you're going to progress. A simple and good progression scheme is double progression.
A lot of people go to the gym without a plan. It’s common for people to not make any progress and still be lifting the same weight for an exercise for years. You should have a plan on how you're going to progress. A simple and good progression scheme is double progression.
With double progression, you increase the reps before you increase the weight. Pick a rep range of 2-3 reps that you will use for your work sets. For example, 1 to 3 reps, 3-5 reps, 4-6 reps, 6-8 reps, 8-10 reps and 10-12 reps. You’ll aim to all your sets with the same weight to the top of your rep range.
Let’s say you’ve decided to do straight sets and want to do 4 sets of 4 to 6 reps of the squat.
- Workout 1 – 120kg 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 You got all the reps. Increase the weight.
- Workout 2 – 125kg 6 - 5 - 5 - 4. Keep the weight the same for the next workout.
- Workout 3 – 125kg 6 - 6 - 5 - 5 Keep the weight the same for the next workout.
- Workout 4 – 125kg 6 - 6 - 6 - 5 Keep the weight the same for the next workout.
- Workout 5 – 125kg 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 You got all the reps. Increase the weight.
- Workout 6 – 130kg 6 - 5 - 5 - 4 Keep the weight the same for the next workout.
Only add weight when you do all the sets to the top of your rep ranges with good speed and form. If the reps for the last sets are grinders, don’t add more weight. Keep the weight to same and do all the reps perfectly. Don’t be in a rush to add weight.
You can also do this by ramping to a top set and then doing back off sets after.
The same principle applies, You'll have a rep range and only go up when you hit to the top of your rep range with good form.
For the back off sets I like to take 92.5% of the weight used for the top set and use that for the second set. For the second set, I would aim for one more rep than I got for the first set. The third set I would take 92.5% of the second set and aim for one more rep than the second set
First set - Rep range 6-8 (different rep ranges can be used)
Second set - 92.5% of the first set and one rep more than the second set
Third set - 92.5% of the first set and one rep more than the second set.
An example of how it would look like
- Workout 1 - 160kg x 6, 147.5kg x 7, 135kg x 8
- Workout 2 - 160kg x 7, 147.5kg x 8, 135kg x 9
- Workout 3 - 160kg x 7, 147.5kg x 8, 135kg x 9
- Workout 4 - 160kg x 8, 147.5kg x 9, 135kg x 10
- Workout 5 - 165kg x 6, 152.5kg x 7, 140kg x 8
If you’re doing a lift twice a week, you could use two different rep ranges. For example, 4 to 6 reps for the first workout, and 6-8 on the second workout.
I like to alternate between straight sets and ramping up to a top set while using double progression.
For example, do 6 weeks of straight sets for 4 x 4-6, and then do 6 weeks of ramping to a top set.
This is a very simple way to progress, but most people don’t need anything too complicated to start with.