Progression is 0% or even, sometimes, -1%

I guess you mean that you do your workout sets as prescribed and when you finish the app says Attention, your 1RM has gone down, etc, correct?  I wanted to ask this as well, why it happens.  I guess, it always takes into account the last 3 workouts perhaps?  I was curious about this one myself and actually was wondering if this is the case or an actual mistake in what is suggested...

Hi Nick,

Yes, exactly.

I've updated the post above to include my previous response to Bogdan, which lead to his suggestion that was stop rounding down:

The 0% or -1% progression is because the app rounds down its weight to the nearest 2.5 lbs / 1 kg for safety. The default recommendation is always minimum 1% increase, but because the app rounds down, in some cases, you can get 0% or -1%. You should try to keep beating the app (do 1 more rep that recommended), so you'll always get an increase.

Here's more info (with an example). Maybe you can help:

For example:

- You lift 100 lbs
- On your next workout, you should lift 101 lbs (1% increase)
- The app sees this, and recommends 101 lbs 

How would you lift 101 lbs? Do you have 0.5 lbs plates?

Very few people do. So, we're forced to round to 100 lbs (0% increase).

Since you're using 100 lbs, but you should have been able to use 101 lbs, maybe you can squeeze out 1 extra rep.

In other words, since the app is forced to underestimates sometimes, I've defaulted to recommending people try and do 1 more rep than recommended.
 

* * *

How would you have handled that, Nick?

Maybe we can update the app and do better.

I think that the best solution would be to round is down if you want to , but put in parentheses the exact value for us, the guys that want to increase the weight in a linear mannaer  for a long therm , and allso have access to 0.5 lbs plates.

Something like : use 100 lbs (101 lbs) for 5 reps.

The guys that have acces to microplates can use 101 lbs for 5 reps and the other guys can use 100 lbs and try 6 reps.

If we do one more rep than the app recommends for every excercise and for every workout it meens an increase from 5 to 25% deppending on the rep range. 

And of course this is not sustainable in the long run. After a few weeks we'll burn out and not be able to do what the app recommends. 

The point is to increase at leat 1% for a long peroid and get stong not just beat the app for a few workouts then stall the progress.

How about giving users the option in their own settings? Like this:

- Round down (easier)

- Do not round

- Round up (harder)

If you guys want us to work on that, make sure to vote +1 this topic (top left, under Bogdan's original post).

Yes, I think this is the best ideea :) That would be great ....

So the users can change it according to their diet phase at the moment.

 When cutting select the easy, round down option and when bulking and having a lot of strenght select the harder option. 

Very good point! Love it!

I'm voting this +1

Probably the best option, yes!  Because it gives some freedom, but with specific guidelines; otherwise, people will overestimate (in reps, for example) if are given the liberty...

Yes, this is a bit awkward , especially now that it suggests a deload, if the recommendation screen eventually produces a -1% change...

Very good point.

I guess we'll have to set it to round up then. This will make some of the lighter exercises harder some of the time. But it shouldn't influence heavier exercises. I'm marking this as "Planned".

I'll try to get this one fixed this week. I'm marking it as "Started".

Is this on the app now, Carl?  Because it happened to me yesterday out of nowhere (3 sets of 12 and asked me to deload...).  Cheers!

Hey Nick,

Another user (Ioan Normandin) reported the same issue.

I think this is related to us changing the 1RM formula. The previous formula was overestimating your 1RM. So, with the new one, it seems lower, even if it isn't. For your next workouts, this issue shouldn't come up again. Do let me know if it does, OK?

For now, you can delete your previous workout and re-enter it with +1 reps than you actually did. That way, the app won't deload you. It's not a perfect workaround, but in the grand scheme of things it won't influence your progression much.

Thanks for your sharp eye Nick.

Cheers,

Carl

Next workout asks for sets of 6 reps, so I will just 6RM (I would do that anyway for some of the exercises, I hope it records it as a new RM anyway).

Also, just curious, the rep scheme within the week remains constant, but when deloading, or adding sets depending on progress, this happens irrespective of what number of reps it happens to coincide with, am I right on this?  Thanks and sorry if this is irrelevant here... :)

Yes, deloading doesn't affect reps. Only weights and sets. More info here: http://drmuscleapp.com/news/deload.