A regression is an easier version of a movement on the same ladder, and a progression is the harder version one rung up. Coaches use the ladder to place each person on the rung where the rep is honest, which is how eight people do the same exercise at eight levels.
A regression and a progression are the two directions on a ladder of versions of the same movement. The incline push-up is a regression of the push-up; the feet-elevated push-up is a progression of it. Every rung trains the same pattern; what changes is how much load, range or balance demand you carry. The coach's job is not to get everyone to the top rung but to find the rung where your reps are honest today and move you up when they stop being interesting.
A worked example: the pull slot, eight ways
The sheet says pull, three sets of eight. At the cable machines two members row, learning to move the shoulder blade before the elbow. Two are on single-arm dumbbell rows at different loads. Two are on inverted rows under a bar in the rack, the bar set high for one and low for the other, since the angle is the load. One is doing chin-ups; one is doing slow chin-up negatives from the pull-up bar, on the way to a first full rep. Six rungs, eight people, all doing the pull slot at a level where the last rep still looks like the first.
The common confusion: regression is not going backwards
The word sounds like a demotion, and the usual reaction to being moved down a rung is an apology. Coaches do not want one: the target is the stimulus, not the exercise name: a clean set of incline push-ups builds more pressing strength than a set of floor push-ups with the hips sagging. Two other confusions. Progression gets read as adding weight only, when the next rung is often the same weight with less help, more range or one leg instead of two. And a swap around an injury, a cable press for a shoulder that dislikes push-ups, is a sideways move to a different exercise, not a rung, and it comes off again when the shoulder allows.
Where it shows up in a Coresa session
You are placed on a rung in your first session, and the rung is recorded next to the load, so the record can say goblet squat then front squat as well as 20 kilograms then 24. In small group training the ladder is how one coach-prepared session fits eight people. Moving down for a week after short sleep or a ski weekend is normal and is written down as a decision. Moving up happens when the top of the rep range is met on every set for two sessions running and the coach agrees.
Common questions
Who decides when I move up a rung?
The coach, from the record and from watching the last set, with your say on how it felt. Asking to move up is welcome; the answer is usually a test set at the next rung.
Is lowering the weight a regression?
Not in this sense. Load is one dial on the same rung; a regression changes the version of the movement. Both are used, and lowering the weight is the quicker adjustment on a tired day.
Can I be on different rungs for different patterns?
Almost everyone is. A strong squatter with a stiff shoulder might be on the top rung of the squat ladder and near the bottom of the push ladder. The ladders are independent, which is the point of them.
