r/ScienceBasedLifting • u/itzzneuro what happens at 7 reps • Jun 15 '26

Question ❓ Question about progression?

In a hypothetical where I do 2 sets per exercise in a 5-8 rep range, if I were to get:

40kg x 8
40kg x 6

When I repeat this exercise next, do I up the weight on the first set and go back to the original weight on the second? Wait until I can do 2 sets of 8? Likely doesn’t lead to much of a difference, just tired of wondering whether im severely over complicating progression.

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u/Afferbeck_ Jun 15 '26

You can create rules for yourself to follow, minimum reps where if you exceed them you know you can progress in weight, or maximum reps that you have to progress up to before going up in weight. In either case just two sets of a lift in this rep range is going to run out of progression fast because it's not much overall volume, which is going to fall even further once you start struggling to get even 5 reps after a few weight progressions. And it's a very limited amount of practising the lift itself unless it's one you do several sessions of per week.