SisuLift reads every set you log and calculates next week’s weights and reps from it. You accept the suggestion with one tap or skip it. This page explains exactly which rules raise the weight, when it stays put and when the program gets lighter. The numbers come straight from the code, not from marketing copy.
SisuLift uses double progression. Every exercise has a rep range, for example 6-8 reps. You collect reps at the same weight until every working set hits the top of the range. Only then does the weight go up and the reps drop back to the bottom of the range. The weight rises when you have earned it, not on a calendar.
The second condition is perceived exertion. If you rate your sets harder than the RPE threshold for your goal allows, the weight is not raised even if the reps were complete. Reps are added first instead. The training style setting tunes this brake: cautious brakes earliest, all-out allows a higher exertion.
8, 7 and 6 reps at 80 kg. Not every set hit the top of the range. Suggestion: same weight, aim for all sets at eight.
8, 8 and 8 reps, exertion under the threshold. Every set at the top of the range. Suggestion: 82.5 kg and reps back to six.
7, 6 and 6 reps at 82.5 kg. A new cycle starts. The weight stays until every set is back at eight.
The increase is rounded to the smallest real step of the equipment. Defaults:
Barbell 2.5 kg, 1.25 kg below 30 kg
Dumbbell 2 kg, 1 kg for dumbbells under 10 kg
Machine 5 kg
Cable 2.5 kg
Kettlebell 4 kg
You can set your own steps per gym and per exercise, for example for microplates or a machine whose stack moves in 7 kg steps. If the step would be too large relative to the current weight, the app collects reps first.
The weight stays. If even one working set falls short of the top of the rep range, next week gets the same weight and the goal of completing the reps, not an increase. A failed week never leads to a heavier weight.
The weekly analysis does not drop the weight after one bad week either, because one bad day is usually sleep, stress or a rushed session, not lost strength. It watches the trend instead. If perceived exertion climbs week after week while recovery falls, if you complete under 80 percent of your workouts for three weeks, or if your recovery score drops more than 15 percent below your own baseline, the app suggests a deload week.
If the same weight has been stuck for several weeks but you keep hitting the bottom of the rep range, the app suggests a trial increase. Breaking a plateau never exceeds the safe step for the equipment.
There is one more layer on training day. If your readiness is low or a muscle group is still recovering, the app offers a lighter session before you start. You can take the lighter version or train as planned.
If you have logged the exercise in SisuLift before or imported your history from another app, the starting weight comes from your own history. Without history it is estimated from your background: body weight, sex and training experience give a per-exercise starting point that you can adjust before the first workout.
When the AI program planner proposes weights, the proposal passes three guards before it lands in your program:
Never below your proven level. If you have lifted 80 kg in an exercise, the proposal cannot be 60 kg.
Never below the empty bar in barbell exercises.
No single-session increase above 15 percent of the previous weight.
The first week is calibration. If the starting weight was too light, the reps fill up immediately and the weight goes up after the first full week. If it was too heavy, the weight stays and you can correct it yourself during the workout. A weight you enter by hand always wins over a suggestion.
Training runs in three phases: base training, an intensification block and a deload week. In intensification the weights go up about 5 percent and the top of the rep range comes down. In the deload week the number of sets drops to about half and the weights about 15 percent. You choose whether the deload comes from sets, weights or both.
A deload week is suggested on three levels, in this order: an age-dependent safety cap on the length of the intensification block, a data-driven recommendation when exertion climbs and recovery falls, and a calendar-based precaution. Strongly green recovery can postpone the safety cap by at most two weeks.
None of this happens silently. The deload is suggested, and you can start it yourself with one tap or skip it. Deload-week weights are never used as the baseline for the following week, so a deload never leads to a drop but to a return to your previous working weight.
Every periodization and readiness rule is laid out on the transparency page →
Weights, reps, step sizes, deload triggers and readiness are calculated with deterministic rules in the database. The same data always gives the same suggestion, and the reason for every suggestion is shown as text.
A language model is used where it is good: the coach chat, the written debrief after a workout, the weekly summary and the program draft. When the language model proposes numbers, they pass the same guards as above. The language model does not decide your weights.
This difference matters when you compare apps. Rule-based progression is predictable and checkable. A weight you ask a language model for is a guess that can change from one question to the next.
Without a smartwatch: yes. Progression is based on logged sets, reps and perceived exertion. A watch adds HRV and measured sleep to the readiness calculation, but no rule requires it.
On the free tier: yes. Weekly progression suggestions are part of the permanent free tier and do not require a trial or Premium.
Yes, with one difference: you approve the change. Every Monday the app calculates per-exercise suggestions from last week’s sets: raise the weight, add reps, add a set or hold. You accept them with one tap and the new weights are ready in your next workout. Nothing changes without you.
One equipment step: 2.5 kg on a barbell, 1.25 kg on a light barbell, 2 kg on dumbbells and 5 kg on machines, unless you have set your own steps. If your reps went well past the target, the increase can be larger, but a single jump is always capped.
Log the reps as they were. The weight stays and the goal is to complete the reps next time. If exertion keeps climbing for several weeks, the app suggests a deload week. You can also lighten a single workout yourself.
No. If you have history, it is used. Otherwise the starting point is estimated from your background and the first week calibrates it. You can always override the weight during a workout.
The core principle is the same: the weight goes up once the reps are done, and perceived exertion acts as a brake. The differences are elsewhere. SisuLift is built in Finnish for the equipment in Finnish gyms, it has nutrition tracking and recovery scoring in the same app, and the permanent free tier includes progression suggestions. We have not tested competitors’ algorithms from the inside, so we make no further claims about them.
Yes. Suggestions are accepted one by one, weights can be overridden in the workout, a deload can be skipped or started by hand, and a program can be built entirely manually. Automatic progression is an addition, not a requirement.
Try it with your own weights
Try Premium for 14 days without a card. Progression suggestions continue on the free tier after the trial.
Or download the app