Alpha Progression
Progression
Progression means advancement/progress over time and is the most important building block when it comes to building maximum muscle and strength. Ideally, you should be able to progress from workout to workout. However, before progressing, your technique should be correct. The execution of an exercise should be as clean as possible.
A steady improvement of your exercise technique is also a form of progression. Furthermore, correct lifting technique reduces the risk of injury and is, among other things, crucial for optimal muscle growth.
In order to achieve progression in training, two basic variables should also be considered. These are set progression and weight progression.
For set progression, you increase the number of sets you do for a given week in a training cycle. This increases the training volume per exercise. Such a cyclical adjustment of training volume is enormously beneficial for muscle building. A training cycle usually lasts 4-6 weeks. This is usually followed by a deload where you perform very few sets for training resensitization and recovery. In the next cycle you start again with fewer sets and increase the sets again from week to week.
Even if you don't incorporate set progression into your training cycle, you should increase your sets per exercise over time. For example, a beginner can build muscle fairly well with just 2 sets per exercise. However, as an advanced athlete, this number of sets will probably not be enough, as the training volume would be too low.
For weight progression, you increase your training weight from week to week and increase the effort level from, for example, 3 reps in reserve (RIR) in week 1 to 0 RIR in week 4 (assuming that is the last week before your deload). Thus, the training volume per set increases. In the following deload you reduce the weight significantly and leave 5 RIR for resensitization and recovery. Then, in the next cycle you start again with comparatively low weight and increase again.
Since in some exercises the jumps between the weights you can use are very large (in percentage terms), you should use double progression, which combines changes in the number of repetitions with changes in weight.
With the Alpha Progression App you can apply set and weight progression. In addition, the progression recommendations provided by the app are based on the double progression model, increasing both the weight and the reps over time.
