How your experience level changes your plan

When you start, Mitta asks how long you have trained with weights. The three options come with a short description:

• Beginner: less than 6 months of regular training, or a long break. You still get stronger almost every session.
• Intermediate: 6 months to 2 years, at least twice a week. Heavier every session no longer works. Progress comes per week or per month.
• Advanced: more than 2 years of consistent training on a plan. Progress comes per month.

People tend to rate themselves too high, so the app says: if you are unsure, pick the lower level. You can change the level yourself in your profile.

A meta-analysis of 140 studies found that the best training dose depends on training status. Untrained people gained the most at a mean intensity of about 60% of their one-rep max, trained people at about 80%.² The ACSM position stand also describes different progression models for novice, intermediate and advanced lifters.¹

The early gains of a beginner come largely from the nervous system learning the movement, not from new muscle.³ That is why Mitta lets beginners add weight faster and keeps them further from failure while they learn the technique. Advanced lifters have less room, so progress is planned in longer blocks instead.

Rest times, the rep ranges per exercise role and the pain rules are the same for everyone.

• Volume. Each muscle group has a weekly start number and a usual maximum that depend on your level. For chest, the start is 8, 10 or 12 sets per week and the usual maximum 14, 16 or 20. Small groups such as traps and forearms start at 0 direct sets for a beginner, because other lifts already work them. How we count weekly sets
• Split. With 3 days or fewer you train full body at every level. A beginner who picks 5 or 6 days still gets upper/lower, because more variety adds little at that stage. Intermediate and advanced lifters can get push/pull/legs from 5 days.
• Exercise choice. Exercises marked as harder than your level are scored lower when Mitta builds the plan, so a beginner is less likely to get a technical lift.
• Reps in reserve. Every exercise in the plan gets a target number of reps in reserve, from the table above. Beginners stay further from failure, and advanced lifters can take the last set of an isolation exercise to failure. What is RIR

Intermediate and advanced lifters use double progression: reach the top of the rep range on every set, then add weight. A beginner moves up earlier. With a range of 6 to 8, the middle is 7, so all sets at 7 reps is enough to go up one step. It also goes up when every set had 3 or more reps in reserve. On barbell and machine squats and hinges the step is doubled, for example 5 kg instead of 2.5 kg.

The faster rule switches itself off when one step is more than 10% of the weight, or when two of your last 6 sessions ended below the bottom of the range. After that you are on plain double progression. Advanced lifters have one difference: on isolation exercises, a last set taken to failure does not hold the weight back. How Mitta sets your lift target

A beginner is not offered training blocks at first. The block card says you get stronger almost every session without them, and that blocks start to help after about 12 weeks of training. If you start one anyway, the default is 6 weeks of building up to 2 reps in reserve, with no light week. You can add one when you feel tired.

Intermediate lifters get 4 work weeks and a light week, building from 3 to 1 reps in reserve. Advanced lifters get 5 work weeks and a light week. You can change the length in the block form. How training blocks and the lighter week work

Beginners get a simple view. Instead of RIR you tap Easy, Good or Hard after a set. Mitta stores these as 3, 2 and 1 reps in reserve. Estimated 1RM and the sets per muscle group are hidden. If you like numbers, switch on Show all numbers in your profile. That setting is saved on the device you use.

Mitta never moves you up on its own, and never moves you down. It shows a card on Today with the reasons and two buttons, Yes, apply and Not yet. After Not yet it does not ask again for 8 weeks. After Yes you can undo it.

"Strong enough" uses your best estimated 1RM of the last 8 weeks on bench press, squat and deadlift, compared with your body weight. Two of the three must reach the line, or every one you do if you do fewer. For intermediate men the lines are 0.9, 1.2 and 1.5 times body weight, for women 0.55, 0.9 and 1.1. For advanced they are 1.25, 1.6 and 2.0 for men and 0.8, 1.2 and 1.5 for women. These are Mitta's own rough lines, not published norms. The check needs your sex and a recent body weight. Without them only time, regularity and stalls count. What is estimated 1RM

When you accept, your advice and your set targets per muscle group change at once. Your current plan is not rewritten. Mitta offers to build a new one that fits the new level.