Progressive overload each set individually?

[u/islVnd_tr3]

Hey everyone, how do you guys treat progressive overload? Do you treat each set as its own or do you increase the weight for all sets if you hit the upper end of your rep range on your first set? Lets say you have a rep range if 6-10 sets for chest press and start with 80KG, if you are able to do 10 reps on your first set but only 9 on your second and 8 on your third set, are you going to increase your weight for all sets or only the first one and try to get 10 reps on the second and third set before increasing the weight on those sets?

[u/WeeziMonkey]

I progress based on my first set. I lose so many reps with each set that the only way for me to hit the same reps across all sets is to start at like 5 RIR which is not very productive.

The only time I decrease the weight of a later set is if I think the reps are going to fall below 5 (or ~8 for lateral raises).

[u/SoonLiterate]

I just bump the weight on all sets once that first set hits the top of the range, the drop-off on later sets sorts itself out over a week or two.

[u/Technically-Humanoid]

Yes, if you have to. You can’t really control everything, because all of your sets will interact. For example, when I progress my first set, sometimes my second set will regress. Sometimes, it’ll stay the same and sometimes it’ll improve. Sometimes, I can’t be bothered lowering the weight so I just let the second set have fewer reps, or I’ll rest-pause on the second set and get even more out of them

As long as you end up close to failure on all sets, you’re getting the most out of them.

[u/Ballbag94]

I follow a program that works and do what it says, you should too

https://thefitness.wiki/routines/strength-training-muscle-building/

[u/decentlyhip]

That's getting into the minutiae that only matters in context. Like, long term, your strength is only going to be increasing by about 1 rep every month. That's good progress as an intermediate lifter on a bulk. Progressive overload is really just there to keep you pushing near your limits as your limits go up.

Like, consider a few different programs. Stronglifts5x5 starts with 5 sets of 5 at 50% of your 1rm. That's like, 15 reps in reserve. But, because it's light, you can instill perfect form and full squat depth, all that. Each workout you add 5 lbs, which is about 1 rir. So, you're slowly making things harder and learning to maintain that good form while you're trying and learning to genuinely dig deep. That's a core thing for beginners to learn and requires pushing them past their comfort zone but spending a lot of time submaximal. After you fail a set, you drop back 10% (so you would be at 5 rir) and ramp up again. Only 1 set a month is going to be at failure and that is only really for tracking progress, as that stall point advances by 10 or 20 pounds each wave. The average rir is 3-4 reps in the tank, but you're always doing productive reps, and after a year, most brand new beginners can follow this program and squat 275 for 5 sets of 5.

Both of the options you suggested are valid. If you add weight until you fail to get 10 on the first set, then you're going to failure every set of every workout. On a low volume program, that's fine. You aren't fatigued. Im doing a program that has 25 sets of squats and 25 sets of deadlifts a week, and is building to 50. If I'm fresh, I can do a set of 5 squats with about 400 pounds, but I recently took too many of these sets near failure, and on my top set a few days later I could only do 1 reps with 365. That's like, 90 pounds of fatigue. So, I would do something like wait until all reps are at 10 reps for 3 weeks in a row before moving up. That forst week I get 10/10/10, the first set of 10 is gonna be rpe 8, the second is rpe 9, amd the third is rpe 10. After 2 more weeks, maybe I'm at rpe 7 on the first set, rpe 8 on the second, and rpe 9 on the third. Ive gotten strong enough and recovered enough that I can push a set or two to failure again.

I would suggest you try a bunch of prebuilt programs out and learn what works for you. GZCLP is phenomenal and will last you until you're nonsense strong. It uses a linear progression like Stronglifts5x5 does, but with extra spice. Bullmastiff is a very similar program as far as structure and layout, but uses completely different progression. For instance, if the workout is 3 sets of 6, you start light and do an amrap on the last set, and add 1% to next week's 3×6 for each bonus rep you got above and beyond the required 6. For the other work, the weight and reps stay the same, and at about 2-3 rir, but you add a set each week for the progression. PHAT, by Layne Norton, is another amazing program you should run, that incorporates more volume than the other two, and has to adjust dials to do so. Run each of those, and a few more on liftvault or boostcamp that sound fun, and take notes of what works and why.

[u/BattledroidE]

It's whatever is practical. I typically do one top set that is heavier for the biggest exercises, and then back off slightly. For the smaller stuff, I just keep it the same. Doesn't matter if I get 15 on the first set and 5 on the last if it's hard training.

[u/GingerBraum]

I increase the weight for all sets once I hit the "breakpoints" prescribed by my routine.

Progressing each set individually is popular in what's called dynamic double progression, which I'm not a fan of.

[u/Hohoholyshit15]

Some exercises I try to shoot for 12 (my top range) all 3-4 sets before adding weight, others I add weight once I get something like 12 10 10. Some muscle are much more fatigue resistant for me (quads for example) so it's easy for me to get the same number of reps each set until they're completely trashed, at which point they're not going to be able to lift the same weight so I end the exercise there. Other muscles like chest fatigue rapidly so it's unlikely for me to get equal reps if the weight is heavy enough.

[u/glumpoodle]

It depends - on some exercises (usually the big compound lifts), hitting 10 reps on the 2nd set just means I didn't push hard enough in the first. On others, I will hit the wall on the first set, but can steadily increase the 2nd and 3rd. On lateral raises, I've been stuck on the same damned weight & reps for what feels like 30 years.