Tarvo sets your next target from your last session: first the reps go up, then the weight once you reach the top of the range. Your answer after the last set speeds this up or slows it down, and after two missed sessions it steps back.
Eight rules, the first that fits applies.
After every session, Tarvo checks these rules for every exercise, in this order:
- First time: you pick the weight, Tarvo sets the range.
- Outside the range, say after an import: Tarvo recalculates the weight from your performance, for the middle of the range.
- Below the range twice in a row: about 5 percent lighter, at least one step.
- Top of the range reached and the other sets no more than 2 below: the weight goes up one step.
- 3 or more left and no set below target: the weight goes up now.
- Nothing left: the target stays.
- Every set below target: the same target again.
- Otherwise: every completed set gets one more rep.
Without an answer, Tarvo progresses by reps alone. Answering is never required.
Every target has a reason.
Under every target, one sentence says why: “Top of range reached → 82.5 kg × 8” or “2 more left → one more rep”.
After a jump, you don’t start over.
When the weight goes up, Tarvo works out from your strength how many reps the new weight allows at the same effort, and starts there. If the jump is too big, like small dumbbells going from 10 to 12 kg (20 to 25 lb), you get one more rep first, up to 5 above the range.
In a simulation of 200 lifters over 16 weeks, this needed fewer steps back and produced more personal bests than starting at the bottom after every jump.
How big is a step?
| Equipment | Step |
|---|---|
| Barbell | 2.5 kg (5 lb) |
| Dumbbells | 1 kg up to 10 kg, then 2 kg (2.5 lb up to 25 lb, then 5 lb) |
| Machine | 5 kg (10 lb) |
| Cable | 2.5 kg (5 lb) |
| Bodyweight | reps only |
Every step can be changed per exercise, say for a gym with 2 kg (5 lb) dumbbell jumps.
When an exercise stalls.
If an exercise doesn’t progress for three sessions in a row, Tarvo shows it. If two or more stall, Tarvo suggests a light week; if one stalls alone, a different range or a variation for the same muscles. You decide.
“You’re growing.”
In your progress, Tarvo compares your first three with your last three sessions for each exercise. An exercise only counts as stronger from 5 percent up, because below that it can be day-to-day form. Then it says: “You’re growing.”