Technique
Can the intended range and control be repeated without the movement breaking down?
Free tool / 02 · Strength
Build the frame of a strength week.
Choose a goal, schedule and equipment. The tool returns an educational structure: movement patterns, weekly organisation and progression questions without pretending to be an individual treatment plan.
Four decisions
Strength Week Planner
Your choices stay in this page. Generate a framework to save a plain-text copy.
The framework behind the result.
A useful strength week distributes several movement demands: knee-dominant work, hip-dominant work, pushing, pulling, carrying or trunk control. Exercise names can change while the pattern remains. A squat may be loaded with body weight, a dumbbell or a barbell; the appropriate version depends on skill, equipment and symptoms.
Repetitions in reserve, shortened to RIR, estimates how many technically acceptable repetitions might remain at the end of a set. Finishing with about two or three repetitions in reserve can make a set challenging without requiring failure. The estimate is subjective and improves with experience.
Progressive overload
means gradually increasing the training demand. Load is one option. Repetitions, sets, range of motion, exercise difficulty, speed control and weekly frequency can also change the stimulus.
Before progressing
Response
Did symptoms, soreness and fatigue settle in time for the next important task?
Performance
Can another repetition, a small load increase or better control be added while preserving quality?
Keep learning
Give the framework a purpose.
Understand how strength develops, then connect the plan with your aerobic training and available time.
Evidence base
Resistance-training dose depends on the outcome.
Currier et al. · British Journal of Sports Medicine · 2023
A systematic review and network meta-analysis compared combinations of load, sets and frequency. The strength analysis included 178 studies and 5,097 adults; the muscle-size analysis included 119 studies and 3,364 adults. Many approaches improved outcomes. Higher loads tended to favour maximal strength and multiple sets tended to favour muscle growth. These group comparisons do not validate every detail generated by this planner. PubMed
Jenkins et al. · Frontiers in Physiology · 2017
Twenty-six young men who had not completed regular resistance training for at least six months trained their knee extensors three times per week for six weeks. Both groups trained to failure, using 30% or 80% of their one-repetition maximum. Muscle thickness increased similarly; heavier loading produced larger maximal-strength gains. A short, single-exercise study cannot define an entire programme or show that every set needs to reach failure. doi:10.3389/fphys.2017.00331