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The Top Sets blog
Guides, deep dives and short answers for lifters who log their training, from the first double progression to reading a stalled lift, with the numbers worked out rather than asserted.
Topics
Progressive overload and logging
How to add weight, reps and sets over time: logging that keeps your numbers honest, the seven progression schemes, double progression, and what to do when a lift stalls.
8 posts
Programming: splits, blocks and deloads
Building a program that fits your week: splits, training blocks, deloads, repeating weeks, and honest reviews of the methods lifters run most.
7 posts
Weekly sets, recovery and frequency
How many weekly sets a muscle needs, how long it takes to recover, and how to read soreness and fatigue without a spreadsheet.
4 posts
RPE, RIR and your estimated 1RM
Rating effort honestly, turning a set into an estimated one-rep max, reading rep-max ladders, and testing strength without wrecking a week.
4 posts
Top sets, back-offs and every other kind of set
Warm-up ramps, top sets, back-off sets, drop sets, myo-reps, rest-pause, clusters and AMRAPs: what each one is for and how to log it so it counts right.
1 post
Exercise guides for lifters who log
One lift at a time: the muscles it trains, how to log it, how to program and progress it, warm-up ramps and rep-max ladders worked out from real numbers, and what to swap in when you can't do it.
10 posts
Nutrition for lifters
Maintenance, cutting and bulking with numbers you can check: protein, rates of change, weigh-ins, measurements and when to switch phases.
3 posts
Tracking your training, and the tools for it
Notebooks, spreadsheets and apps compared fairly, moving your history between them, and what a log has to capture for the numbers to mean anything.
1 post
Posts, page 2
RPE for beginners: how to rate a set and log it honestly
Most new lifters rate a set as harder than it was. Here is the reps-left scale the app uses, why a set with no rating counts as a max, and a two-week drill that teaches you where your own failure point sits.
Guide · 10 min · October 28, 2026
How many sets per week per muscle, and how to count them
Start near 12 hard sets per muscle a week and work towards 20 if you recover. The harder part is counting: a bench set is a chest set, but it is also half a triceps set, and that changes your arm day.
Guide · 8 min · October 27, 2026
Is 3 sets enough to build muscle, or do you need more?
Three hard sets of an exercise builds muscle when the week adds up. Done twice a week, that is 6 sets for the muscle. Here is what the research says about the dose, and why the sets have to be hard to count.
Answer · 5 min · October 27, 2026
Push pull legs program review: progression, volume and stalls
The best-known push pull legs program runs six days a week, adds load to one heavy lift every session and grows the rest with 8 to 12 reps. Here is the weekly volume it really produces, and where it stalls.
Deep dive · 8 min · October 27, 2026
GZCLP explained for lifters who log: tiers, stages, stalls
GZCLP runs three tiers of lifts and changes the set scheme, not the plan, when a lift stops moving. Here is how the stages work, how to log them, and how to read a stall from your own numbers.
Deep dive · 8 min · October 26, 2026
How often should you deload, and how do you know it is time?
Most lifters who train hard deload every 4 to 6 weeks. The better question is what to watch between them, because a calendar alone cannot tell you when fatigue is winning.
Answer · 5 min · October 26, 2026
How to deload: when to take one, what to cut and what to keep
A deload cuts sets and effort for about a week and keeps the lifts, the days and most of the load. Here is how the app plans one, when to bring it forward, and the easier option for when only volume needs to come down.
Guide · 9 min · October 26, 2026
Deadlift progression for lifters who log every pull
One heavy triple a week, rated honestly, is enough to steer a deadlift. Here is what 180 kg for three at RPE 9 is worth, how the warm-ups and back-offs fit around it, and when the next 5 kg goes on.
Deep dive · 8 min · October 25, 2026
Training blocks explained: hypertrophy, strength and deloads
A five-week hypertrophy block in the app starts at 3 reps in reserve, finishes at 1, and spends its last week at half volume. Here is what each of the seven block types asks of you, week by week.
Guide · 10 min · October 25, 2026
Bench press progression: how to log it, ramp it and add weight
An 80 kg bench for five at RPE 8 is worth about 98.6 kg for one, and the next 2.5 kg costs a full point of RPE. Here is how to log the lift, ramp to it, and add weight without the stall that catches the bench first.
Deep dive · 9 min · October 24, 2026
Double progression: the simplest way to keep adding weight
Hold the load, build every set to the top of the rep range, then add 2.5 kg and start again at the bottom. Here is the exact rule, six weeks of it on a 60 kg barbell row, and what to do when the reps stop coming.
Guide · 12 min · October 24, 2026
Why did my lift go down this week when nothing else changed?
One session down at the same load is noise: a tested max itself moves about 4 per cent between test days. Two sessions down, or a grinder, is fatigue, and the answer is a hold or a small back-off, not a new program.
Answer · 6 min · October 24, 2026
5/3/1 for hypertrophy: how to run it in a training log
Most 5/3/1 stalls are set on day one, when the training max comes from a lift the lifter remembers rather than a set they logged. Here is how to set it from an estimated 1RM, log the plus set, and use Boring But Big as back-offs.
Deep dive · 8 min · October 23, 2026
Back squat progression: warm-up ramp, top set and rep-max ladder
A 120 kg back squat for five at RPE 8 is worth about 148 kg for one. Here is the ramp that gets you there, the ladder that number implies, and the progression scheme that suits a 5 to 8 rep squat.
Deep dive · 8 min · October 23, 2026
Estimated 1RM explained: turning a logged set into a max
100 kg for five at RPE 8 is worth 123.3 kg for one on the model the app uses. This is how that number is made, why it differs from Epley and Brzycki on the same set, and where it stops deserving trust.
Guide · 8 min · October 23, 2026
Progressive overload for hypertrophy: adding load, reps and sets
Three levers move a lift forward: 2.5 kg on the bar, one more rep at the same RPE, or one more set in the week. Here is how to pull each one, in an order that keeps a bench press moving for four weeks.
Guide · 9 min · October 23, 2026
What RPE should a top set be for hypertrophy and strength?
RPE 8 most weeks, RPE 9 in the last weeks of a block, RPE 10 only when you are testing. A 90 kg set of six at RPE 8 is worth about 114.5 kg for one; the same six reps ground out at RPE 10 are worth 107.5 kg.
Answer · 6 min · October 23, 2026
Should warm-up sets count as volume in your weekly total?
No. A warm-up is a set you could have done five more reps of, and the studies behind the weekly set ranges never counted a set like that. Here is what does count, and the one ramp set that might.
Answer · 5 min · October 23, 2026
Every number in these posts is computed with the app’s own formulas or cited to a primary source. Corrections to founder@topsets.app.