Progressive overload: how much load do you add per week?

A fixed step of 2.5 kg means something completely different on a leg press than on a lateral raise. On a 200 kg leg press it is barely over one percent, invisible in the effort. On an 8 kg lateral raise it is more than thirty percent, which is not a progression but a new exercise the client fails at.

A percentage scales with the exercise. That is why RungGym records progression as a percentage relative to week 1 rather than as an absolute weight: the plan says +10%, and the trainer converts that to whatever the equipment actually allows.

Around 5% per week is the step that works for most clients on most compound exercises. Across a four-week block that lands near 15% above week 1; across six weeks it caps out around 25%. Those numbers sound modest until you total them: a client who repeats that over three blocks has moved a long way without a single heroic session.

The published guidance is broader than one number. The American College of Sports Medicine describes load increases in the range of roughly 2 to 10% once the target repetitions are met with good form, with the smaller end for upper body and isolation work and the larger end for lower body compounds. Five percent sits inside that range and has the practical advantage of being one number a trainer can actually apply on a Tuesday evening.

Where the increment does not fit the equipment, the rule bends. If the smallest dumbbell jump is 2 kg on an 8 kg exercise, you cannot add 5%. Then you add reps first and take the weight jump a week later.

Trainers reach for weight because it is the most visible variable, but it is one of five. Reps within the prescribed range, an extra set, a fuller range of motion, a shorter rest interval and a slower controlled eccentric all raise the demand without touching the load.

The order matters for beginners. In the first weeks, the biggest gains come from the nervous system learning the movement, not from tissue adapting to load. Adding weight to a squat a client cannot yet keep upright buys nothing and costs technique. Progress the movement first, then the load.

• Reps: same weight, one or two more reps within the target range
• Sets: one extra working set on the main exercise, not on everything at once
• Range: to a deeper position under control before adding load
• Rest: shorter intervals for endurance goals, never for strength goals
• Tempo: a controlled 2 to 3 second lowering phase before the weight goes up

Three situations where the answer is to hold, not to progress. First: the client did not complete last week at the prescribed quality. Repeating a week is a legitimate programming decision, not a failure. Second: sleep, stress or illness has visibly changed what they show up with. Load added on a bad week gets paid back in a missed session. Third: pain that changes the movement. A client compensating around a sore shoulder is training a compensation pattern, and adding weight makes that pattern stronger.

This is exactly why a block runs 3 to 6 weeks rather than indefinitely. A fixed horizon forces a moment where you look at what actually happened instead of adding five percent on autopilot forever.

The practical failure is rarely the principle; it is the bookkeeping. A trainer with fifteen clients cannot remember what each of them lifted three weeks ago, so the progression quietly becomes "whatever felt right today".

Put the percentage on the plan itself, next to each week, and leave a column for the weight actually used. Then the next block starts from data instead of memory. In RungGym every training day prints with the three to six weeks side by side and an empty cell per week, which is the cheapest possible version of that discipline.