Ratha

How it adapts

How Ratha adapts your plans.

Ratha adapts the plans you follow, not every workout. When you finish a plan workout, Auto progression sets the weight and reps for the next time you do each lift that adapts. It follows plain rules, written down on this page.

Where it applies

Plans adapt. Single workouts do not.

  • Ratha plansPlans Ratha builds for you with Plus. Auto progression is always on for the main leg, push and pull lifts done with weights. Other exercises, such as core, timed and bodyweight work, keep their targets.
  • Your own plansOnly exercises you set to Auto change. Manual is the default, and Manual targets stay as you wrote them.
  • Suggest a workoutUses what you trained in the last 10 days to choose exercises and spread sets across your muscles. It does not set your weights or change anything later.
  • Single workouts you log or repeatNothing adapts, and a repeated workout keeps the targets it had. The logger fills in the weight and reps you last used as a starting point.

A worked example

Four sessions of one lift.

Goblet Squat in a Ratha plan: 3 sets, with a range of 6 to 10 reps. A rep is one lift of the weight.

Goblet Squat · 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps · example
Day Weight Sets What happens next
Monday 20 kg 10 · 10 · 10All 3 sets at target. All sets at 10. Next time: 22.5 kg × 6.
Wednesday 22.5 kg 6 · 6 · 6All 3 sets at target. All sets done. Same target: 22.5 kg × 6.
Friday 22.5 kg 6 · 6 · 52 of 3 sets at target. One set short. Same target: 22.5 kg × 6.
Monday 22.5 kg 6 · 5 · 41 of 3 sets at target. Short again. Next time: 20 kg × 6.

Filled strokes are sets that reached the target. Outlined strokes are sets that did not.

Auto progression

The rules, in plain words.

These rules move the main lifts in a Ratha plan. Your own plans use the same idea, with the differences shown below.

  1. Reach your target on every set

    Each lift has a target number of reps and a range, such as 6 to 10. A session is a success when every set reaches the target at the same weight. Reps above the target are fine. Below the top of the range, a Ratha plan keeps the same rep target.

  2. Reach the top once to add weight

    Reach the top of the range on every set in one session. The weight goes up by 2.5 kg, or 5 lb if you train in pounds, and the reps start again at the bottom of the range.

  3. Miss and it holds

    Fall short of the target on any set and the weight stays the same for next time.

  4. Miss twice and it eases back

    Two misses in a row at the same weight lower the next weight by about 10%, rounded down to the nearest 2.5 kg. From 22.5 kg that is 20 kg.

What stays the same

You stay in charge.

  • Only upcoming workouts changeFinished workouts, skipped workouts and the one you are doing stay exactly as they are.
  • Only completed sets countSkipped or unlogged work never moves your weight up.
  • The plan keeps its shapeExercises, sets and days stay as they are. Only weights and reps change, inside limits set when the plan started.
  • You can change the weight yourselfChoose any weight in the logger, any time. Your plan adapts from what you actually lift.

Your own plans

Manual or Auto, your choice.

When you build your own plan, nothing changes by itself unless you choose Auto for a series of linked exercises.

With Auto, reaching your target on every set adds one rep, until the target reaches the top of your range. From there, one successful session adds your chosen weight step and resets reps to the bottom of the range. Miss once and it holds. Two misses in a row lower the weight by 10%, rounded down to your chosen weight step.

With a fixed 5-rep target, reps stay at 5. For example, 20 kg with a 2.5 kg increase becomes 22.5 kg × 5 after one successful session.

Questions

When the weight does not move.

Why did my weight not go up?

First check that the exercise adapts: a main lift in a Ratha plan, or an exercise set to Auto in your own plan. Then check three things. Every set was logged and completed. Every set reached the top of the range, not just most of them. Every set used the same weight. One such session is enough. If the plan has no workouts left for that lift, the new target is saved for when you repeat the plan.

Why did my weight go down?

Ratha lowers the weight only after two misses in a row at the same weight. It is a small step back, about 10%, so you can build up again.

Can I change the weight myself?

Yes. Choose any weight in the logger at any time. Ratha reads the weight you actually lifted when it decides what comes next.

See it on your own training.

Finish a plan workout in the app and see what Ratha sets for next time.

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