Hello
It seems that there is a potential bug in the script which manages the Dumbbell gain journey.
I am doing it for the second time in a row.
The first time went wonderfully well, I progressed a lot, I was very happy.
Now I am in the last week of the second time, and the coach’s recommendations are really strange.
Instead of using heavier weights, I have an insane number of repetitions with very light weights (which do not really exceed 10-12 kilos while I can go much further).
It’s not a problem of available dumbbells on my side, I do my workout in a gym club and I have every possible weights .
For example, today I had an upper body workout.
The coach asked me to do three intervals with 7X 20 repetitions using quite light weights (6,8 and 10 kg).
As a result I came back home not with sore shoulders as I should have been, but tired with. back pain.
The coach behaves as if I had a fixed global weight to lift and if it uses a random number of reps and weights to reach this amount.
The whole purpose of the coaches is totally defeated by this behavior because for several days each time I’m forced to rewrite the weights used, and the number of repetitions.
If I’m wrong and if it’s not a bug, then I’ll be curious to have the science behind using this excessive number of repetitions.
I’ve taken a look, this is the training that you logged today yes?
It looks absolutely fine and expected-when approaching the end of this Training Journey the Coach will swap occasionally to low weight/high rep intervals (usually between 12-20 reps). This is described in the Journey description
Low weight/High rep intervals are very effective at building muscle mass, especially if you are reaching the point of failure-this is very well evidenced in numerous academic studies That you felt tired is exactly the aim of this type of training.
I would be concerned though about any pain you feel in your back - and you should definitely go and see a doctor about this. Please don’t continue to train until you get some input on this
In an ideal world you would probably be informed of this in the app in some way, for example, the Coach actually telling you when it’s increasing or decreasing your weight/reps due to previous feedback, or for example moving to a different phase of the Training Journey and the benefits of this etc etc.
oh that would ne amazing, although there are bugs as LST described.
I am also on a Dumbbell journey, and yesterday out of the blue the coach decided to go super easy on me. Usually I bench press 18kg with 12 repetitions, and coach decided to give me 2 rounds of 2.5kg, 2 repetitions
Obviously it is a bug and I already reported it, but we need to pay attentions to see that coach make sense.
Your solution of coach letting you know/understand coming week workout method, is a good solution.
Hello @Ben
In an ideal world I would like two things.
The first one is what you described, this would be great
The second one is likely quite easy to add, it’s more flexibility
In a Dumbbell interval there are three elements : the weight, the number of repetitions, and the number of sets of repetitions.
Currently it’s possible to change the weight, it’s possible to change the number of repetitions, but it’s not possible to change the number of sets. So to be able to complete the interval I have to change the weight or the number of repetitions which will likely partly defeat the goal of the interval.
Same thing for the feedback, there is a single feedback which makes no difference between It’s too heavy, and it’s not that heavy but the number of repetitions is too high for me.
The Coach only needs to know that you have reached the point of failure, as soon as you drop the weight/reps, the Coach is taking this point in the interval as that point of failure - i.e. you can no longer do the remaining assigned /reps/rounds at the assigned weight.
First of all, thanks a lot for your very interesting and informative answers.
I have a question about this “point of failure”
How does the coach manage the difference between the weight, the number of reps and the previous efforts provided.
To take as an example the case that made me react yesterday :
If you ask me to do some Arnold press with 6kg, I’ll likely answer that this is easy, I can do them without problem, I can do them with much heavier weights.
If you ask me to do 20 of them, I will do them, it will not be totally easy but I’ll do them
If you ask me to do 7 times 20 reps of them, I start to have a problem.
More, if you ask me 7x20 after a series of 7x18 Dumbbell Flies, I fail.
I had no problem doing the 7x18 Dumbbell flies, but if the order was the opposite, after having done 7x20 Arnold press, I’ll likely have failed in the Dumbbell flies.
After that I had 6x20 dumbbell extension with" only" 10 kgs. I can do them with much much heavier weights, but after the two preceding intervals, I had to lower the number of reps.
Did the “point of failure” mesure the level of my exhaustion after the previous intervals ?
Where is the failure ? inside the interval ? in this case : in the weight, in the number of reps ? it is in the total sequence of intervals including the previous ones ?
It’s a scenario that’s not unique to the weighted Journeys, even the Bodyweight Journeys have sessions that often consist of multiple intervals-and of course one is “fresher” at the start of the first interval than in the second
The Coach considers all the training done in the session
AMAZING Feedback!
So I can’t really blame the machine for my mistake
Please see Ben’s investigation on this matter:
Thak you @Ben
So, let me first explain what caused this:
You were assigned this exercise previously on the 20 November, at a weight of 16kg, for 3 rounds of 10 reps
You changed the weight to 1.8kg (I assume by mistake meanging to enter instead the weight of 18kg)
This mistake was then compounded in that you told the Coach you found this interval harder than the Coach expected, by giving negative feedback at the end of the session
So the Coach essentially ended that session believing that you found doing those reps of 1.8kg very hard, and so needed to drastically reduce the weight in the future.
I can only suggest, that you try to take greater care when editing the weights in the future, or trust the Coach to adjust your weights correctly in the future after taking your session feedback in to account.
It’s completely up to you whether you share this in the thread, some users may find it useful or reassuring
In fact the problem( it’s not really a problem more a feature) is that when you want to set a number of repetition, you need to write the number you want, but when you want to change a weight you need to write 10 times the weight (ie if you want 18kg, write 180)
Hi LS,
This is not a problem, but a feature.
I have Adjustable Dumbbells up to 24KG, and they do have decimal numbers (e.g. 16.5) Feature requests
Maybe a suggestion would be instead of heaving a number input field to type, a pre made choices input field that you can scroll and choose from (0.5 - 150 or more)
