Progressive Overload Guide

Progressive overload is the cornerstone of building strength and muscle. AtomFitness watches your logged sets for one lift at a time and tells you when to add weight, when to add a rep, and when to back off.

Everything in this guide is the rule set the app actually runs. The rules live in one file (progressionRules.ts), and the plain-language list below is exported from that same file, so the app and this guide cannot drift apart.

📖 Related: See the Active Workout Guide for using these features during your workout.

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What is Progressive Overload?

Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed on your muscles during training. Without progressively challenging your body, you won't see continued improvements in strength or muscle size.

There are several ways to achieve progressive overload:

AtomFitness focuses on weight and reps, because those are the two it can measure from your logged sets.

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What the App Looks At

Seven rules describe everything it reads before it says anything.

1. It looks at your last 6 sessions of this exact lift, however long ago they were, as long as they are inside 120 days.
2. It needs 3 of them at this weight or heavier before it will say anything — 2 on Fast, 4 on Slow. Being new to lifting does not make it ask for more.
3. If it does not have enough yet, it tells you how many more sessions it needs, instead of going quiet.
4. It uses the middle weight of each session, and throws out any set more than 2.5× that, or more than 1.5× your best of the last 90 days — that is a typo, not a lift.
5. It scores each set as reps done over reps planned, capped at 100%. Beating the target is recorded separately and never hides a set you missed.
6. A set with no planned reps does not count toward your score at all. If nothing in your history had a target, it says so instead of pretending you hit everything.
7. Recent sessions count more than old ones.

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Progression Pace

Pace lives in Settings → Progression Pace and has three values. Pace changes how much proof the app wants before it moves you — never what counts as proof.

Your training experience — how many workouts you have completed — changes the size of the step it suggests, never the amount of proof it needs.

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When It Tells You to Go Up

To add weight, it needs every set of your last 2 sessions at this weight to hit the top of the rep range with nothing missed (1 session on Fast, 3 on Slow).

If your plan stores a rep range and you are hitting the bottom of it cleanly, it asks for one more rep and tells you the number, up to the top of the range. It never raises a rep target you are already missing.

It also checks your records: if the weight it is suggesting would be a personal best at this rep range, it says so.

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How Much It Adds

The step comes from the equipment, then your unit:

Three limits sit on top of that table:

• Never more than two steps, and nothing past the first step may exceed +10%. Your own history can only choose between one step and two — it can never invent a number.
• If the next weight up is more than a fifth of what you are lifting — a light dumbbell, mostly — it suggests another set at this weight instead.
• If it is not sure, it suggests the smaller step. It never quietly changes what it is suggesting, and a suggestion with no number in it is not a suggestion: it will not interrupt you with one.

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When It Tells You to Back Off

Four rules can take weight off, and they are checked before anything else.

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Where You'll See It

Exactly two places in the app tell you to add weight, and both answer to the rules above:

• During a workout. A sheet appears after the first working set of an exercise — including inside a superset or a circuit. Warm-up sets never trigger it.
• The AI coach. Ask it about a lift and it reports the same verdict, alongside the history that verdict was computed from.

Nothing else prompts you: no notification, no hint on Today, no "suggested next" on the exercise screens.

How often it asks:

• At most once per exercise per workout, and it remembers your answer on your account, not on this phone — so it survives a reinstall and follows you to a second device.
• If you wave the same suggestion away, it will not repeat it for 7 days, or until your weight on that lift changes. Wave it away three times and it stops offering that suggestion for that lift.
• When you accept, it writes the new weight into every set of this exercise you have not logged yet, and gives you one tap to undo it.

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What It Can't Score

• Holds and cardio. Only a reps-mode exercise carries a weight. A timed hold or a cardio segment stores no weight, so those sets are never scored — and a weighted exercise you re-tracked as a hold is left out too.
• Sets with no rep target. The app stores the plan's rep target for a set, or nothing when the plan had none; it never records the reps you did as if they had been planned. An exercise whose history has no targets at all gets an explanation — set target reps and suggestions will start — not a made-up recommendation.
• Mistyped sets. The outlier guard in rule 4 drops them before anything is scored.

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Worked Example

Bench press, 3×8 at 185 lb, Normal pace:

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Settings

Both settings live in Settings:

• Smart Progression — on by default. Turn it off and the app stops offering suggestions; turning it off on one device keeps it off everywhere.
• Progression Pace — Slow / Normal / Fast, as in the table above.

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Tips for Effective Progression

Do's

1. Log every set honestly — the rules score reps done against reps planned, so an honest log is the whole input
2. Set rep targets — a set with no target cannot be scored at all
3. Be patient — sustainable progress takes time
4. Prioritize form — perfect form at a lower weight beats sloppy form at a higher one

Don'ts

1. Don't skip logging — a missing session is a session of evidence the app does not have
2. Don't ego lift — jumping ahead of the suggestion increases injury risk
3. Don't ignore a back-off — a stall answered with more weight is still a stall
4. Don't compare to others — every verdict is computed from your own last six sessions

The 2-for-2 Rule

A common gym guideline: if you can do 2 extra reps on your last set for 2 consecutive workouts, you're ready to increase weight.

AtomFitness works the same way, stated precisely: every set of your last 2 sessions at this weight, at the top of the rep range, with nothing missed — 1 session on Fast, 3 on Slow.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why don't I see any suggestions?

Most likely it does not have enough sessions yet. It needs 3 sessions of that lift at this weight or heavier inside the last 120 days (2 on Fast, 4 on Slow) — and when it is short, it tells you how many more it needs rather than staying silent. The other common reason is that your sets had no planned reps, which it cannot score.

Why is it telling me to hold when I feel ready to add weight?

Either the last two sessions were not clean at the top of the rep range, or your weekly sets and weekly tonnage both jumped more than 30% and it wants one steady week before adding more.

What does "one more rep" mean?

Your plan stores a rep range, and you are hitting the bottom of it cleanly. It asks for one more rep — and names the number — up to the top of the range. It will never raise a target you are currently missing.

What's the difference between the pace settings?

Only how much proof it wants. Fast asks for 2 sessions at the weight and 1 clean session at the top of the range; Normal 3 and 2; Slow 4 and 3. The increments and the back-off rules are the same on all three.

Can I ignore a suggestion?

Yes. Wave it away and it will not come back for 7 days, or until the weight you are lifting on that exercise changes. Wave the same one away three times and it stops offering it for that lift.

What happens when I accept one?

It writes the new weight into every set of that exercise you have not logged yet, and leaves you one tap to undo it.

What if I change the weight myself?

Changing the working weight resets the cooldown, so a suggestion that was snoozed can appear again at the new weight.

Do warm-up sets count?

No. Warm-ups never trigger a suggestion and are not part of the history it scores.

Can I use this for bodyweight or timed exercises?

Only exercises that carry a weight are scored. A timed hold or a cardio segment stores no weight, so the rules never look at it.

What happens after a long break?

Nothing special is needed: it reads your last 6 sessions of that lift within 120 days, however spread out they are. If fewer than that fall inside the window, it tells you how many more sessions it needs.

Does being new to lifting mean I need more data?

No. Training experience changes the size of the step it suggests, never the amount of proof it asks for.

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Summary

• It reads your last 6 sessions of one lift, inside 120 days, and needs 3 of them at this weight (2 on Fast, 4 on Slow).
• It adds weight when your last 2 sessions were clean at the top of the rep range, by a step that comes from the equipment, never more than two steps and never more than +10% past the first.
• It takes weight off for a stall, a two-session decline, or systemic fatigue across your other lifts, and it says hold when your weekly sets and tonnage both jumped over 30%.
• It asks once per exercise per workout, remembers your answer on your account, and backs off for 7 days when you wave it away.