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Progression

Why did the bar not go up?

Because the reps go up first. The bar only moves once you finish every set at the top of the rep range, and until then the target reps climb while the load holds.

weight machine with the pin inserted
Reckoner Written by Reckoner

A week where the number on the bar is the same as the one before is the commonest thing to read as nothing happening. It is usually the opposite: the prescription moved, and it moved in the place that is cheaper to pay for.

Reckoner has an order it works through, and load is second in it. Reps first, then load. Given a lift you finished comfortably with room left in its rep range, the honest change is another rep, not another two and a half kilos, because you have shown you can do more of what you just did and have shown nothing yet about a heavier bar.

What the engine did
Week 1 4 x 6 at 60 kg
Week 6 2 x 10 at 60 kg

You hit the top of the range at RPE 7, so the bar goes up 2.5 kg to 62.5 kg and reps reset to six. The lighter week is over, so this is back to four sets.

Real engine output, not an illustration. Both rows were produced by running the engine itself when this page was generated.

That is one real lift, five weeks apart, at the same weight. Nothing was added to the bar in any of them and the work went up by four reps a set. The bar moved in the week after, once the top of the range had actually been reached.

So when does it move?

When you hit the top of the range at the effort the lift was asked for. At that point there is nothing left to add in reps, so the load goes up and the reps reset to the bottom of the range to pay for it.

5 weeks of building before a lighter one
6 weeks in a block, start to finish
40% of the sets come off in the lighter week

The block closes on a lighter week, week six, and that is the other reason a load can sit still. Sets come off and the weight stays exactly where you earned it, so the week reads as easier without giving anything back.

That is the short version. The whole decision, with the numbers, is in How Reckoner decides to add weight.

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