Glossary
The training terms, in plain English
Every plan Ionik Coach builds is made from a handful of ideas that coaches use and almost nobody explains. Here they are, one page each, written for someone who is curious rather than qualified. You never need to know any of this to use the app. It is here because you might want to know why your plan looks the way it does.
How much you train
- Training volume How much work you do for a muscle, counted as the number of hard working sets you complete for it in a week.
- Minimum effective volume (MEV) The least amount of weekly work that still makes a muscle grow. It is the floor your plan starts from, not the target it stays at.
- Maximum adaptive volume (MAV) The amount of weekly work that produces the most progress you can still recover from. It is what your plan builds toward across a block.
- Maximum recoverable volume (MRV) The hard ceiling. Train past it and you accumulate more fatigue than you can recover from, so results go backwards.
- Maintenance volume (MV) The small amount of work that holds the muscle you already have. It is what a deload week drops you to.
How hard you train
- Reps in reserve (RIR) How many more reps you could have done before failing. Two reps in reserve means you stopped two reps short.
- Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) A 1 to 10 rating of how hard a set felt. It is the same idea as reps in reserve, counted from the other end.
- Training to failure Pushing a set until you physically cannot complete another rep. Useful occasionally, expensive as a default.
- One rep max (1RM) The heaviest weight you could lift once. Almost always estimated from a set you already did rather than actually tested.
How the plan moves forward
- Progressive overload Gradually asking your body to do more than it is used to. It is the one rule every training plan is built on.
- Double progression Add reps until you fill the top of your rep range, then add weight and start again at the bottom. Two things progress, one at a time.
- Mesocycle A block of training weeks that build on each other and then reset. Ionik Coach runs four week blocks.
- Deload A deliberately easier week that lets accumulated fatigue drain away so the fitness underneath it can show up.
- Training age How long you have trained consistently, not how old you are. It is the single biggest input into how your plan is written.
- Plateau When a lift stops improving for several sessions in a row. A stall is information, not a failure.
How the week is built
- Training split How you divide your body across your training days. Full body, upper and lower, or push, pull, and legs.
- Movement patterns The six or seven basic ways a human body moves under load. Plans are built from patterns first and exercises second.
- Compound and isolation exercises Compound lifts move several joints at once and build the session. Isolation lifts move one joint and fill the gaps.
- Training frequency How often you train each muscle in a week. Twice beats once, and the third time matters much less than either.
- Warm-up sets Lighter sets of the exact lift you are about to do, ramping up to your working weight. Different from a general warm-up.