How to Make Progress With Your Training

Updated: 28th December, 2025

What follows are the exact initial guidelines on training progression that we give to our Ripped Body coaching clients. They are an abbreviated version of the Hypertrophy Progression System from the 3rd edition of The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Training 📘, which I co-authored with Eric Helms and Andrea Valdez.

These progression guidelines can work with any program, but are designed to go with our free training programs: 
👉 The Ripped Body Training Programs.
👉 The Muscle and Strength Pyramid Example Programs.

I’ll start with the how before diving into the why, because fewer people are interested in the theory.

CONTENTS:
(Click to jump to the corresponding section.)

1. Linear Progression
2. Autoregulated Double Progression
3. Why, When, and How To Deload
4. Training Dose and Progressive Overload
5. The Hypertrophy Progression System Explained
6. What To Do When You Plateau

Linear Progression: When You Can Make Load Increases Every Session

The following linear progression rules work well for exercises where you can make incremental weight increases each session. This will be the case if you are relatively new to lifting, new to an exercise, re-learning your form, or returning after time off.

How To Choose The Load You Initially Lift With

Every lift has a notation next to it that looks something like this: 3×10–15 @2–0

1. The first number is the number of sets you’ll perform.
2. The second number is the number of reps you’ll target in each set. (This may be a single number or a range.)
3. The third number is RIR (reps in reserve) and specifies how close to failure — the point where your form breaks down, or you can no longer move the load — you should train. (Ignore RIR for now. I’ll come back to it in a moment.)

Perform a few warm-up sets, then choose a load you are confident you’ll feel comfortable performing all the sets and reps (the highest number in the range, if there is one) listed. The first set will be easier than the subsequent sets as fatigue builds.

To minimize unnecessary fatigue and soreness and help you get used to the new routine, consider doing one set less than prescribed for all exercises for the first week.

Example: Your program days 3×10–15 @2–0. You think you can lift 40 lbs for 3 sets of 15, but you’re confident you can do 30 lbs, so you start with 30 lbs and do 2 sets of 15.

How To Progress After The First Session

1. If you did one set fewer, as advised, then in the next session, perform 3 sets with the same load, aiming for the upper end of the rep range for every set.
2. If you could do that with good form, in the third session, increase the load.

For compound movements that use a lot of muscle, consider increasing the load by 10 lbs each session. Other exercises might need to progress in 5-lb (or 2.5-lb increments when possible).

There will come a point when it is not possible to increase every session. If the set felt particularly difficult, aim to increase the weight every second session, focusing on the feeling of it being easier in the next session.

Try not to train to failure for any of your sets. If you think your next rep will fail, stop the set, even if this means you are short of your rep target. (Avoiding failure is better for skill acquisition, which is the goal right now.)

Once you are no longer able to progress like this, start using Autoregulated Double Progression. (This is part of our broader Hypertrophy Progression System, which I’ll explain in a later section.)

Autoregulated Double Progression: When You Cannot Make Load Increases Every Session

Training volume and intensity are the primary drivers of adaptation.

Autoregulated double progression is a system of progression that ensures overload continues to occur within your training structure [3].

In this system, each lift has a rep range and RIR (Reps in Reserve) range — e.g., 10–15 reps at 0–2 RIR, which we’ll use as an example.

Your goal is to select loads that consistently fall within this rep and RIR range, and to increase the load once it becomes too easy to stay within those limits.

What is RIR and How Do I Use It?

Training volume and intensity are the primary drivers of adaptation. RIR (reps in reserve) is a common way to quantify our proximity to failure, which is a measure of our training intensity.

When you see 0–2 RIR in your program, it means that your sets should all finish within 2 reps of failure.

RIR and RIR-based RPE TABLE

How To Use Autoregulated Double Progression

1. Choose a Load for Set 1
   After warming up, select a weight you expect to land near the top of the RIR range and the middle or lower end of the rep range. For example, you might pick a weight you think you can do for 12 reps at 2 RIR — i.e., your ~14RM.
2. Stop at the RIR Target
   Perform the set, stopping once you hit the upper RIR boundary — in this case, 2 RIR — even if you could do more reps.
3. Repeat with the Same Load (If Within Range)
   If your first set lands within the rep range (e.g., 12 reps), stick with that load for all remaining sets and aim to maintain the same reps. Your RIR will naturally decrease across sets due to cumulative fatigue, but don’t exceed the lower RIR boundary. If after a few sets, your reps fall below the target rep range, that’s fine; these sets are still doing their job. 
4. Adjust the Load (If Outside Range)
   If your reps on your first set were below or above the target rep range, adjust the load on the next set, up or down, making your best guess of what load would put you in the rep range on the next set. If unsure, adjust load ~4% up or down for every rep outside the range. Then perform each subsequent set with this same load.
5. Progress Load When Ready
   When you can hit the top end of the rep range at the lowest end of the RIR range (e.g., 15 reps at 2 RIR) in your first set, increase the load next session.
6. Allow for Fluctuations
   Performance won’t always progress linearly. Some weeks will regress slightly — that’s normal. Think in terms of trends, not single sessions.
   As you train week to week, you sometimes might think you are at a higher RIR than you really are during a set, and then accidentally hit a 1 RIR on your first set when you meant to hit a 2 RIR. That’s totally fine. Being a little aggressive, trying to see if you can get more reps, and being a little overzealous now and again is not a bad thing.

The following table shows an example of what this might look like for a novice lifter.

The following table shows an example of what this might look like for an intermediate lifter. However, realistically, performance fluctuates at times, and you may regress one week before making a larger progression the next week.

Novice, intermediate, and advanced lifters experience progression at different rates using this system. In the intermediate example, it took five sessions for the trainee to progress the load. This is how this model operates when everything is dialed in properly for an intermediate. A novice can increase the load at a faster rate; on the other hand, an advanced lifter might take twice as long to increase the load.

This is just an example, and obviously, you will want to adjust according to how you progress.

Why, When, and How To Deload

Why To Deload

Deloads are a recovery tool usually taking the form of a short (usually one-week) period of reduced volume and/or intensity, placed between blocks of harder training. The goal of a deload is to:

• Manage fatigue and promote recovery.
• Facilitate long-term progression.

We recommend deloads on an as-needed basis rather than as pre-planned components of all programs.

When TO Deload

Reactive deloads are an autoregulated recovery tool.

So, how might you do a reactive deload, one based on how you’re actually feeling rather than a pre-set schedule? We recommend using a weekly self-assessment, ideally including both training and rest days, to evaluate your recovery status.

A simple checklist based on Overtraining Syndrome research can help guide this decision.

How To Deload

You have a few options. There aren’t specific guidelines for what is “optimal” because recovery is dynamic and context-specific. Ultimately, the broad principles of deloading come from tapering, but conceptually, deloads should be a bit more conservative. Specifically, you want to reduce fatigue without detraining. Therefore, don’t reduce volume as much as you would in a taper (~50–80%); instead, reduce sets on all exercises by ~30–50%. This roughly one-third to one-half reduction is what we’d describe as a standard deload, and it’s useful when you feel generally beat up and under-recovered.

The general guidelines for a standard deload can be summarized as follows:

• Volume: Reduce sets by ~30–50% across all exercises.
• Intensity: Maintain normal loading and proximity to failure.
• Frequency: Keep the same number of sessions per week.

However, you won’t always feel equally recovered throughout your body. It’s not uncommon to feel fine but have lingering lumbar soreness (or soreness in another body region). Using the checklist, this shows up as saying “yes” to experiencing more aches and pains than normal but “no” to the other questions. If that’s the case, you simply deload the exercises that train that area or even remove certain exercises, depending on the severity of your experience. 

For example, if you feel great overall but have lingering, substantial lumbar soreness, you can do a targeted deload, keeping hack squats, leg extensions, leg curls, and hip thrusts at their normal volume, but remove deadlifts and/or back squats completely next training week.

Further, you can mix and match these strategies if you are under-recovered generally and have localized aches and pains. For example, if your lumbar is fatigued and you feel wrecked generally, you can reduce overall volume by 30–50% in a purposefully unbalanced manner, cut out all your sets of squats and deadlifts, but only cut a few sets off your other lower body lifts, and reduce your upper body sets symmetrically. 

Finally, just because we generally recommend maintaining frequency and intensity (i.e.,  load and proximity to failure) during a deload doesn’t mean there isn’t a time and a place for adjusting them. For example, if it feels like a waste of time to commute to the gym to train for 30 minutes doing half as many sets, you can restructure your training into fewer days to reduce volume. Let’s say you had a four-day upper/lower split. If the two upper and lower body days were similar in exercise selection and volume, you could do one upper and one lower day, training just twice that week. 

Similarly, if you experience aches and pains that flare up with heavier loads, but not at higher reps, you could do higher reps for a week for those movements.

Ultimately, deloading is about smart fatigue management, not ticking boxes. Let your body (and context) guide the adjustments.

Training Dose and Progressive Overload

As mentioned earlier, volume and intensity are the primary drivers of adaptation. Together, they determine your overall training dose. Frequency, while sometimes considered separately, is closely tied to both — it’s the primary tool for distributing that dose effectively.

VOLUME represents the work performed in training and shares a non-linear relationship with adaptation. It can be expressed as volume load (sets x reps x load) or simply as the number of sets.

INTENSITY is a critical but often misunderstood training variable. Many people equate it with how sore they get or how “hardcore” a session feels. But objectively, intensity refers to two specific factors: 

1. Load — typically defined as a percentage of your one-rep max (% of 1RM)
2. Proximity to failure — commonly expressed as rating of perceived exertion (RPE) in powerlifting circles or repetitions in reserve (RIR) in bodybuilding circles. 

For hypertrophy, both volume and proximity to failure (RIR) are key. You need to train close enough to failure for the set to provide a meaningful growth stimulus, especially at lower loads.

For strength, however, your 1RM isn’t influenced by how close you are to failure in each set. Instead, specificity is the driving factor, specifically the load you use and the specificity of the movement.

Progression and progressive overload are not the same thing

Many people believe that progression means doing more than last time — more sets, more reps, more weight, pushing closer to failure. But that’s only half the story. Progression isn’t about what you did last session; it’s about whether that stimulus is still enough to challenge you now. You can apply more stimulus than is needed, but that doesn’t mean you’re “locked in” to having to do even more next time. The idea that overload must always be proactively increased is a misconception. 

Put another way: progressive overload is not the proactive process of progressing the overload (i.e., increasing the sets, reps, or load lifted); it should be viewed in reverse: if you are able to progress, it’s because overload occurred [1, 2]. 

Therefore, a good training program must regularly meet the stimulus threshold needed to produce gains, and this threshold is based on what you’ve already adapted to.

• In strength training, this means establishing an appropriate volume (on average, which may change over a training plan) and increasing the load as you get stronger to maintain an appropriate intensity. (For example, what starts as 80% of your 1RM becomes 70%, then 60%, then 50% if you don’t adjust the load.)
• In hypertrophy training, this means establishing a given volume (which can also fluctuate) and increasing load or reps as you make progress to maintain the appropriate proximity to failure. (Otherwise, what was 1 RIR becomes 3, 4, and 5 RIR as you progress).

Volume and intensity guidelines are covered in our Guide to Program Building.

The Hypertrophy Progression System Explained

This system emphasizes two key features:

• Rep range variation, which may enhance hypertrophy by stimulating different muscle fibers, leveraging different growth mechanisms, and reducing joint stress and fatigue.
  
• Autoregulated double progression, a method of progression that helps you stay within the right proximity to failure while driving increases in reps and load over time. (We covered this earlier.)

Specialization cycles for advanced lifters are covered in the book, but outside the scope of the article.

Rep Range Variation

Rep range variation is built into our Ripped Body Training Programs and the bodybuilding-focused Muscle and Strength Pyramid example programs.

There are many effective ways to incorporate rep range variation into your hypertrophy training. While rep range variation beyond the “traditional hypertrophy” range of 8–12 seems to be beneficial, no evidence indicates that any specific structure is superior to another. 

For example, while these differences were not significant, Schoenfeld and colleagues [3] and Dos Santos and colleagues [4] reported greater hypertrophy effect sizes favoring groups training with 2–30RM and 5–15RM, respectively, compared to groups training exclusively with 8–12RM. Specifically, Schoenfeld compared training every day with 8–12RM, against a daily undulating structure of heavy (2–4RM), moderate (8–12RM), and low-load (20–30RM) across the week. Dos Santos, on the other hand, compared two within-session structures of pyramid training: either 12RM, followed by 10RM, followed by 8RM, or 15RM, followed by 10RM, followed by 5RM. Finally, Carvalho and colleagues [5] reported significantly — albeit slightly — greater increases in quadriceps hypertrophy in a group that trained with a block structure to vary rep ranges, compared to a constant 8–12RM group. Specifically, the block structure was three weeks of 8–12RM, followed by three weeks of 1–3RM, and a final 5-week block of 8–12RM. 

However, you want to avoid spending too long (longer than ~3 weeks) exclusively training outside of hypertrophy guidelines. For instance, Bartolomei and colleagues [6] reported greater hypertrophy in a group of trained men who performed hypertrophy, strength, and power work in every session for 10 weeks, compared to a group that performed the same total volume over 10 weeks, but that organized training into three blocks: a 4-week hypertrophy block (10 x 10 at 1RIR on each exercise), followed by a 4-week strength block (6 x 3 at 2 RIR on each exercise), then a final 2-week power block (explosive exercises and plyometrics done with 5 RIR, or further from failure). The block-based group did about three-quarters of their volume in the first 4-week block, resulting in six weeks of subsequent, lower volume training, with the last two weeks of this six-week period, right before they measured hypertrophy, having the lowest volume and highest RIR — likely resulting in muscle loss. 

Together, these findings suggest two key principles:

1. Rep range variation is probably beneficial for hypertrophy.
2. Avoid long stretches of training completely outside hypertrophy guidelines (e.g., <6 reps with high RIR). 

Beyond that, you have a lot of flexibility in designing hypertrophy protocols. 

As a demonstration of this flexibility, Antretter and colleagues [7] found no significant differences in hypertrophy between groups that trained across the spectrum of 4–25RM, regardless of whether they did so in each session or with a different repetition target within this range on a week-to-week basis.   

This means you can vary reps:

• Within each session (with different rep ranges on different lifts).
• Between sessions (low-rep days and high-rep days within a week).
• Alternating by week.
• Alternating by mesocycle (provided each block includes hypertrophy-relevant rep ranges).

You can see an example of how to do this in the Progression section of our Guide to Program Building.

What To Do When You Plateau

You’ll need to consider what to do when progress plateaus. Remember, the first step is determining whether you’re actually plateaued, which starts with realistic expectations for progression based on your training status, as shown in the table below.

If you have determined that you’re actually plateaued, see: How To Break Training Plateaus.

If you have found this helpful, you might be pleased to know it is just a small section adapted from our best-selling Muscle and Strength Pyramid books.

Join 200,000 other readers, get your copies here.

Thank you for reading. Questions welcomed in the comments.

– Andy

References

1. Helms, E.R. Chapter 6: Principles of Training. In Advanced Personal Training: Science to Practice, 2021. Nov 14 (pp. 81–91). Routledge. 
2. Minor, B., Helms, E.R., Schepis, J. RE: Mesocycle progression in hypertrophy: Volume versus intensity. Str Cond J, 2020. 42(5): p. 121–4.
3. Schoenfeld, B.J., Contreras, B., Ogborn, D., Galpin, A., Krieger, J., Sonmez, G.T. Effects of Varied Versus Constant Loading Zones on Muscular Adaptations in Trained Men. Int J Sports Med, 2016. 37(6): p. 442–7.
4. Dos Santos, L., Ribeiro, A.S., Cavalcante, E.F., et al. Effects of Modified Pyramid System on Muscular Strength and Hypertrophy in Older Women. Int J Sports Med, 2018. 39(8): p. 613–8.
5. Carvalho, L., Junior, R.M., Truffi, G., et al. Is stronger better? Influence of a strength phase followed by a hypertrophy phase on muscular adaptations in resistance-trained men. Res Sports Med, 2021. 29(6): p. 536–46.
6. Bartolomei, S., Zaniboni, F., Verzieri, N., Hoffman, J.R. New Perspectives in Resistance Training Periodization: Mixed Session vs. Block Periodized Programs in Trained Men. J Strength Cond Res, 2023. 37(3): p. 537–45.
7. Antretter, M., Färber, S., Immler, L., Perktold, M., Posch, D., Raschner, C., Wachholz, F., Burtscher, M. The Hatfield-system versus the weekly undulating periodised resistance training in trained males. Int J Sports Sci Coach, 2018. 13(1): p. 95–103.

Read Next:

• The Intermediate Powerlifting Sample Program
• The Intermediate Bodybuilding Sample Program
• How to Break Training Plateaus
• What is Realistic Progress While Cutting?