How much weight to add next session
The short answer is 2.5 kg for upper body and 5 kg for lower. The useful answer is that this number describes a barbell, and you are probably not on a barbell. What "add weight" means depends on what the number you logged actually represents.
The increment is per body part, not per exercise
Upper body goes up 2.5 kg; lower body, 5 kg. The difference is not arbitrary: squats and deadlifts move far more muscle, so 2.5 kg there is a change that disappears into day-to-day noise. That is the starting point — what the app does with it depends on the equipment.
What "add weight" means, by equipment
Every Repsy exercise carries a load class that says what the number you logged represents. That class decides whether an answer in kilograms exists at all.
| Equipment | Next step |
|---|---|
| BarbellThe number is kilograms, and plates are universal.Squat, deadlift, bench press, row | +2.5 kg |
| Bodyweight + added loadThe number is the load ADDED on the belt or vest.Weighted pull-up, weighted dip | +2.5 kg |
| Dumbbell and kettlebellThe rack has rungs. The step is the next rung that exists, not a sum.Curl, dumbbell press, single-arm row | The next rung on the rack |
| Machine stackThe number is the PIN. One gym’s "plate 5" is not another’s — adding kilos to a pin number describes a step that does not physically exist.Lat pulldown, leg extension, cable crossover | No answer in kilograms |
| Resistance bandThe number is the band COLOUR. Adding 2.5 kg to a colour is not imprecise: it is an instruction nobody can carry out.Resistance band, mini band | No answer in kilograms |
| BodyweightProgresses in REPS, not load. A weight suggestion here is the wrong axis, not a wrong number.Push-up, pull-up, plank | No answer in kilograms |
| Assisted and loose implementsIncludes ASSISTED machines, where the number is how much the machine TAKES OFF you. This is the dangerous case — see below.Assisted pull-up, assisted dip | No answer in kilograms |
The case where adding weight makes the lift easier
On an assisted pull-up machine, the number you log is how much counterweight the machine adds — that is, how much of your body it lifts for you. Raising that number is not progress: it is asking for more help. Repsy’s old rule added the increment on every load class, so closing all three sets on an assisted machine was rewarded with MORE assistance: the lift got lighter and the app congratulated you for it. Today that class gets no weight suggestion at all. Suggesting nothing is strictly better than suggesting the number backwards.
Why a dumbbell does not go up in 2.5 kg steps
This is the ladder the app assumes on a rack. It is not linear, and at the bottom every rung is a huge percentage jump — which is why Repsy moves to the next rung that exists instead of adding kilos, and why there is a ceiling.
| From | To | Jump |
|---|---|---|
| 1 kg | 2 kg | +100%refused |
| 2 kg | 3 kg | +50%refused |
| 3 kg | 4 kg | +33.3%refused |
| 4 kg | 5 kg | +25%refused |
| 5 kg | 6 kg | +20%allowed |
| 6 kg | 7 kg | +16.7%allowed |
| 7 kg | 8 kg | +14.3%allowed |
| 8 kg | 9 kg | +12.5%allowed |
| 9 kg | 10 kg | +11.1%allowed |
| 10 kg | 12 kg | +20%allowed |
| 12 kg | 14 kg | +16.7%allowed |
| 14 kg | 16 kg | +14.3%allowed |
| 16 kg | 18 kg | +12.5%allowed |
| 18 kg | 20 kg | +11.1%allowed |
Repsy will not suggest a jump above 20% of the current load on its own. Notice where the ceiling bites: at the bottom of the ladder, where 1 → 2 kg means doubling the load. From 10 kg up it barely appears.
Where the ceiling came from
Not from an opinion: from 213 real sets that progressed in kilograms, excluding test accounts and imported history. The median dumbbell jump was 11.1% and the median barbell jump 7.1% — dumbbells jump more because the rack dictates it, not because anyone chose that. With the ceiling at 20%, 2 of those sets are refused: 0.9%. That is deliberate. The ceiling exists to block the absurd, not to police the 10-to-20% range, where nearly half of all real jumps live.
The classic ACSM recommendation is 2 to 10% once you close one or two reps above target (Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults, 2009). It could not become a prohibition here: 10% is unreachable on coarse-stepped equipment, and enforcing it would freeze dumbbell progression at the bottom of the ladder — the opposite of the problem. The 10-to-20% range is solved by double progression (raise reps within a range, then jump the load), which this engine cannot do yet because the rep target is a fixed number, not a range. Until there is a range, refusing the absurd is what can be done honestly.
When the app does NOT suggest more weight
Closing every set is necessary, not sufficient.
- Reported effort above 8.5: you closed everything, but at your limit. More load there buys a failed set next week, not stimulus.
- Never reported effort: then 2 consecutive sessions closing the target are required. The effort rating is the only brake against an infinite ramp, and without it the app would climb every week, forever.
- After 2 consecutive raises the increment is halved. Eight weeks of +2.5 kg is +20 kg with nothing blinking — so the ramp flattens instead of stopping.
And when the number has to come down
Progression that only knows how to climb is a promise your first set disproves.
- 3 consecutive stalled sessions: the app takes 10% off. Backing off a little and closing sets again is faster than grinding a weight that will not move.
- More than 30 days without doing the exercise: the suggestion drops a step, in proportion to the time away.
- More than 90 days: there is no honest answer left, and the exercise goes back to calibration. Opening at a load from three months ago is exactly how a returning lifter fails their first set.
Frequently asked questions
How much weight should I add per week?
The right unit is not the week, it is the successful session. Repsy suggests 2.5 kg on upper body and 5 kg on lower once you close the rep target on every set — and the gap between those suggestions is whatever your schedule produces. Training a movement twice a week gets the suggestion sooner than training it once.
Why does the app suggest no weight on the machine I use?
If it is a stack, a band, bodyweight or an assisted machine, that is deliberate. In those four cases the number you log is not kilograms of load: it is a pin, a colour, no external load at all, or how much the machine helps you. Adding kilos there would describe a step that does not exist — or, on an assisted machine, the step backwards.
I always close my sets and the app did not raise the weight. Why?
Most likely because you rated the last set as hard: above 8.5 the app holds the load even with everything closed. If you never rate effort, it waits for two consecutive sessions closing the target before raising. And after two consecutive raises the increment is already halved.
Is adding 2.5 kg to a 10 kg dumbbell too much?
Yes, and that is exactly why the app does not do that sum. It moves to the next rung the rack has — from 10 kg to 12, a 20% jump. It is not ideal: the complete fix is double progression across a rep range, which the engine does not have yet. What it does have is the ceiling, which blocks the bottom rungs of the ladder, where the jump exceeds 25%.
I came back after two months. Does it remember my weight?
It remembers, and it lowers it on purpose. Past 30 days without doing the exercise the suggestion drops in proportion to the time away; past 90 it goes back to calibrating instead of pretending the old number still holds. Opening a comeback at your old load is the most reliable way to fail the first set and not come back on Tuesday.
Can I ignore the suggestion and use whatever weight I want?
Always. The suggestion pre-fills the field and you type over it — what gets logged is what you lifted, and that is what the next suggestion comes from. The app never locks a load.
The next weight comes out of the last session
Log the set with the load and reps you actually did, and Repsy opens the next one at the step that equipment really has.