The smallest possible increase
4 minutes
The most common cause of a plateau in the gym is not a lack of ambition. It is a step too big to make twice — and after that you don't trust yourself with any step at all.
The trouble with five kilos
On many machines the next pin position is five kilos further. On a barbell the smallest plate every gym owns is 2.5 kilos — per side, so five again.
Five kilos doesn't sound like much. Do the arithmetic:
20 → 25 kg = +25.0 %
80 → 85 kg = + 6.3 %
Nobody gets twelve percent stronger between Tuesday and Friday. The lighter the starting weight, the worse it gets — and beginners start light by definition. The jump fails, you land at six reps instead of twelve, and the lesson you take away is “I'm not ready yet.” Next time you take 40 again. And then for months.
Two directions, not one
Weight is only one axis. The other is reps, and it gets overlooked almost every time.
40 kg × 11 is more than 40 kg × 10. It is a real increase, it is measurable, and it costs nothing like a twelve percent jump. Alternating between the two gives you far smaller steps than turning the weight dial alone:
The smallest step you can take is the only one you can take every time.
Three answers instead of a formula
There are tables that turn weight and reps into a theoretical maximum and derive your next target from it. For a beginner that is arithmetic around a number they don't need.
The useful question is simpler, and only you can answer it, because you were there:
- Went well — the last set went through cleanly. Then one notch more weight, reps stay.
- Was demanding — it worked, but barely. Then same weight, one more rep.
- Was hard — the last set was a fight. Then everything stays. The same again is also keeping at it.
The third answer is the important one. Without it every session becomes an obligation, and eventually the obligation wins.
When the reps run out
At some point you are at 15 reps. More of them is no longer the answer — at 18 or 20 reps you are training something different than you were at 10, and mostly the session just gets long.
That is the moment for the weight: one notch up and back to about ten reps. On paper it looks like a step backwards. It is the point at which things continue.
Coming back in lower after a break
After two or three weeks away, the obvious idea is to pick up where you left off. It rarely works. The first session is fine, then everything hurts for three days, and the comeback ends before it started.
Better: deliberately start below. This is how the app does the arithmetic — the numbers are a decision, not a body of research:
from 30 days off → best × 0.8
So 50 kilos becomes 45, and after a month 40. The first session feels easy. That is exactly the point: you come back, and after two sessions you are up where you were anyway.
Weeks without an increase are normal
Finally, the part training apps like to leave out: it does not go up every session, and it isn't supposed to. Three weeks at the same weight is not a failure. At the start you increase almost every time, after six months maybe every couple of weeks, later less often. That is the ordinary shape of it, not a sign that something is wrong.
What helps in those stretches is looking at more than the last session. Eight weeks side by side show a direction that two neighbouring sessions cannot.
In the app: the step size is set per machine — 2.5 kg by default, 5 on a machine that only does fives. The question comes before every exercise, and the suggested value is already filled in. — Fortschrittchen is a training diary, not health advice.