Fatigue & Autoregulation
The most important feedback mechanism in HyperIron. After each session, you rate your fatigue, and the system adjusts your volume (sets) for next week. This creates a training program that adapts to your recovery in real time.
The fatigue rating
After completing all sets for a muscle group, HyperIron asks how you feel:
| Rating | How you feel | Next week |
|---|---|---|
| +2 | No soreness from last session, no pump at all | +2 sets |
| +1 | No soreness, but felt a pump | +1 set |
| 0 | Barely sore, good pump, felt like enough work | No change |
| -1 | Still notably sore, felt like a LOT of work | -1 set |
| -2 | Still very sore, felt like overkill | -2 sets |
The rating captures two things: how recovered you are from the last session (soreness) and how much stimulus the current session provided (pump and effort). Together, these tell HyperIron whether your volume is too low, too high, or just right.
How it works
The math is simple:
next week's sets = this week's sets + fatigue rating
Three sets of bench press with a +1 rating → four sets next week. Four sets with a -1 rating → back to three.
Constraints
- Minimum: 1 set per exercise (never drops to zero)
- Maximum: Capped at a sensible upper bound to prevent runaway volume
- Ratings are per muscle group per session, not per individual exercise
The feedback loop
This creates a self-correcting system:
- Under-stimulated → rate high → more sets → more stimulus
- Over-reached → rate low → fewer sets → more recovery
- Just right → rate 0 → volume holds → stay in the sweet spot
Over the course of a mesocycle, volume naturally converges on your personal MAV — the zone where you get the best growth per set.
Example
| Week | Bench sets | Rating | Next week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | +1 (easy) | 3 |
| 2 | 3 | +1 (still fresh) | 4 |
| 3 | 4 | 0 (good, recovering fine) | 4 |
| 4 | 4 | 0 (steady) | 4 |
| 5 | 4 | -1 (feeling beat up) | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 0 (back to normal) | — |
Volume found its level: 3–4 sets per session is this person's sweet spot for chest.
Why not fixed volume?
The "right" volume changes constantly based on:
- Sleep — A bad week cuts recovery capacity
- Stress — Work, travel, and life affect training
- Nutrition — Under-eating limits recovery
- Accumulated fatigue — Volume that was fine in Week 2 might be too much by Week 5
- Individual variation — What works for someone else may not work for you
Fixed programs ignore all of this. Autoregulated volume adapts week by week.
Tips for honest ratings
- Be truthful. The system only works with honest input. Rating +1 when you're actually sore will pile on volume you can't recover from.
- Rate right after the session while the feeling is fresh.
- Don't overthink it. If you're torn between 0 and +1, either is fine — one set difference won't make or break your progress.
- Consider both factors — soreness from last session and stimulus from this one.
Across mesocycles
When you start a new mesocycle, your final auto-regulated set counts carry forward as starting volume. Over multiple blocks, training volume settles at what your body can handle — this is how you discover your personal volume landmarks without guessing.