How You Need to Program Your Session

As a personal trainer in San Francisco, one of the biggest issues I see in the gym is a lack of progression.

People, who come in for athlete training or general strength training, do the same weights, hit similar reps, and repeat that for weeks. At that point, you’re not really training for progress, unfortunately you’re just maintaining what you already have.

If you want to get stronger and build muscle, your training needs to be structured in a way that allows for consistent, measurable progression. Here’s how I approach that in my luxury gym, and how you need to apply it when training on your own.

Each Workout is Performed 3 Times

Each workout in a program should be performed multiple times before making changes. I have you all run each session three times.

The first exposure is about getting comfortable with the movement and determining the weight you are capable of performing at the specific rep scheme. The second is where execution improves and you push the weight a bit more. By the third session, you should be in a position to perform at a higher level than the first and second time through.

This structure allows you to build familiarity and actually progress, rather than constantly switching exercises and never improving anything.

Primary Lifts: Step Load Within the Session

For your main lifts, squat, front squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, incline press, dip pull-ups/pulldown, the goal is to build toward a top set in a controlled way.

Instead of using the same weight across all working sets, you should gradually increase the load each set. I typically start around 90% of the intended top set and add roughly 2.5% each set until you reach your heaviest set of the day.

If your top set is 150 lbs, your working sets might look like 135, 140, 145, 150. 

This approach allows you to prepare your body for the heaviest effort, reinforce good technique under increasing load, and save your best performance for your top set. 

Primary Lifts: Progress Week to Week

The most important piece is what happens across sessions.

If your top set this week is 100 lbs, the next time you perform that workout it should typically increase by 2.5 to 5 pounds depending on the lift and the individual.

So over three exposures, that progression for you top set might look like:
100 → 105 → 110

The expectation is not to repeat performance, but to slightly improve it each time. These small increases are what drive long-term strength gains.

Secondary and Tertiary Lifts: Train to Failure

For secondary and tertiary movements — rows, neutral grip pressing, lunges, leg curls — the focus shifts away from precise loading and toward effort.

You’ll typically use the same weight across all sets and push close to failure each time. What you should see is a natural drop-off in reps as fatigue builds.

For example, if your first set is 10 reps, the next might be 9, then 7.

That drop-off is expected and useful. It tells us that the sets are challenging enough to stimulate muscle growth without needing to overcomplicate the loading.

These exercises support your primary lifts by building muscle and creating fatigue, so the priority is effort and execution rather than perfectly planned weight increases.

What This Should Look Like in Your Training

When you walk into the gym, you should have a clear understanding of what you’re trying to do on your main lifts that day. You should know what your top set is, how you’re building up to it, and what you’re trying to beat from your previous session.

At the same time, your accessory work should feel challenging and productive, even if the weight doesn’t change every session.

This balance allows you to drive strength progression where it matters most while still accumulating enough volume to support muscle growth.

The Takeaway

Progress in training comes from small, consistent improvements applied over time.

Repeating the same weights and reps might feel productive in the moment, but it doesn’t create change. Structured progression within a session AND across weeks is what allows you to actually move forward.

If your training doesn’t have a clear plan for progression, that’s usually the first thing that needs to be addressed.