Progressive overload.

The actual job

Progressive overload is not a personality. It is a rule: this week’s deadlift should cost the body a little more than last week’s, or you are maintaining. Maintaining is fine. Calling it a peak is not.

The log exists so you can see the lever you pulled. Without it, “I went harder” is indistinguishable from “I bounced the bench.”

Levers that count

• Load — smallest plate that does not wreck the reps.
• Reps — 3×5 becoming 3×6 at the same kilo is overload. Chase this before ego loading a bench.
• Sets — another work set, not another warmup you relabel.
• Quality — pause, full depth, locked elbows. Harder with the same number still counts if you write the standard down.

Rest is not a lever to shorten so the session looks denser. Shorter rest with worse reps is a different workout. Log rest if you change it. See how to track workouts.

How to add without lying

1. Read last week before you unrack. That is the whole point of a tracker.
2. Change one thing. A kilo and two extra reps and a dropped rest is three experiments.
3. Keep the standard. If last week’s squat hit depth, this week’s PR has to as well.
4. If it fails, log the fail. A skipped row is how stalls hide.

LIFTAG keeps the last working sets, PRs, and estimated 1RM on the lift you actually performed — the library is the same catalog as the app. Estimated 1RM is a trend, not a meet attempt.

When the lift stalls

Swap the variation, not the story. Close-grip instead of the main bench. Front squat instead of another ugly high-bar week. Log it as the variation’s own page — close-grip bench, front squat — so the main lift’s PR chart stays honest.