The Basic Beginner Routine in Durata: climb, stall, grind through
A linear progression is the simplest thing in strength training. You add a little weight every session until you can't, and most sticking points aren't a wall but a bad day you repeat until it goes. This run shows one: a stall at 80 kg where the weight holds across two missed sessions, then a completed lift, then more climbing. No deload, because the miss never became a pattern.
The numbers are a true beginner's: a 60 kg squat, three sets of five, three sessions a week. You squat in every session, so the squat is the lift worth following, and the numbers below count sessions rather than weeks. Every weight and estimate is computed by the real engine.
Starting the program
There are two ways into a program. The finder asks three questions, goal, experience and days per week, and builds a shortlist from your answers. Or you go straight to the catalogue and open the one you already have in mind, which is what happened here: the Basic Beginner Routine did not come back in this run's shortlist, and opening it by name took one tap.
Either way you land on the same program sheet, and it tells you what you are signing up for before you commit: three days a week, a two-week cycle, half an hour a session, full body, linear progression, and the stall rule spelled out in a line of plain English. The program is exactly what it says on the tin, the big barbell lifts and chin-ups, nothing else.
There are no training maxes to work out. Linear progression runs off a working weight per lift, so the app asks what you can currently do and starts there, 60 kg on the squat here. Start conservatively: the whole method depends on having room to add weight for months, and the app adds it for you every session.
The squat appears in every session, which is why it is the lift this article follows and why the arc below counts sessions rather than weeks.
The climb: 5 kg a session, decided for you
Squat opens at 60 kg for three sets of five. Complete all three and the app adds 5 kg to the next session. You don't tell it you succeeded and you don't do the arithmetic. It reads the sets you logged and moves the weight. The deadlift runs one heavy set of five on the same rule, the presses climb in smaller steps, and chin-ups are logged as they come.
The chip under the exercise name states the rule while you are training, rather than burying it in a settings screen: LP, the weight for today, what a pass earns you, and what a run of misses costs. It reads the same on every lift, so you never have to remember which program you are on.
Four sessions in, squat has gone 60, 65, 70, 75, up 5 kg every single time, and the top set comes up as a PR each session. Then 80 comes round, and it doesn't go so smoothly.
The stall: the weight holds until you clear it
At 80 kg the reps fall short: three on every working set instead of five. The target isn't met, so the app does the one thing that matters here. It holds. The weight stays at 80 kg for the next session rather than climbing, because you didn't complete what was asked. The obvious mistake, looking at the top set you logged and adding weight anyway, is exactly the mistake Durata doesn't make.
The second attempt at 80 kg misses too, and the chip says where you stand before you start it: held at 80 kg, miss 1 of 3. Tap it and the app shows its working. It quotes the sets you actually logged last time, names the set that decided it, and states the law it is judging them against: three misses at this weight and it cuts the weight 10% to rebuild. Nothing about that is hidden or guessed at.
The third attempt at 80 kg goes up. Weight cleared, and the next session is 85 kg. Two missed sessions never became the three-in-a-row that would trigger a deload, so none was applied. You simply repeated the weight until you beat it, and the app tracked exactly where you were the whole time.
Squat: weight on the bar, per session (3 sessions a week)
- 60S1 Session 1
- 65S2 Session 2
- 70S3 Session 3
- 75S4 Session 4
- 80S5 Session 5 — 80 missed: weight held
- 80S6 Session 6 — 80 missed again: weight held
- 80S7 Session 7 — cleared 80 on the third attempt
- 85S8 Session 8
- 90S9 Session 9 — 95 prescribed next
What it looks like afterwards
The sessions fill the History calendar from the start date, and the squat's own estimated 1RM chart draws the shape of the block: a climb, a flat stretch where the weight held at 80 kg, then the climb resuming past it. That short plateau is what a real linear progression looks like. It is the honest picture, not a line that only goes up.
The strength view underneath tells the same story from the other side, an index per lift and weekly volume across the block, so a stall on one lift is visible next to the lifts that kept climbing through it. Three weeks of training, 18 sessions, no spreadsheet.
The payoff, where the squat started and finished
Two screenshots of the same squat, the same three sets of five, the same screen, on the block's first session and its last. It opened at 60 kg and finished at 90 kg, grinding through a stall at 80 kg on the way. Nothing in between was typed in. Every weight was decided by the engine from the sets that were logged.
The right-hand shot has one extra detail worth pointing at: the PREV column now reads 70×5. That is the same slot a full cycle earlier, put next to what you are lifting today, so the comparison the whole method rests on is on the screen without you going to look for it.
Same squat, start to finish: 60 kg opener to 90 kg on the block's last session, with a stall at 80 kg ground through in between. Every weight decided by the app.
Common questions
What is linear progression?
The simplest progression there is: add a small fixed amount of weight every session for as long as you can complete the prescribed sets and reps. On the Basic Beginner Routine the squat climbs 5 kg a session, and the app moves the weight for you off the sets you log.
What weight should I start with?
Less than you think. Linear progression works because you can add weight for months, so starting light is the whole point rather than a compromise. This run opens at a 60 kg squat and finishes three weeks later with 90 kg on the bar. Pick a weight you can complete all three sets with comfortably and let the app do the adding.
What happens when I miss a session?
The weight holds. If any working set falls short of the rep target, Durata keeps the weight the same for the next session rather than adding to it, and the chip on the exercise tells you so before you start. You repeat the weight until you clear it. On this run the squat stalled at 80 kg, held across two attempts, and went up on the third.
When does the app deload me?
Only when you miss the same weight the number of sessions the program specifies in a row: three, here, and then it cuts the working weight 10%. Two misses in a row is a stall you grind through, not a failure. On this run it never got that far, so no deload was applied, and you can see exactly where you stand at any point by tapping the rule chip.
Why only one set of deadlifts?
Because it is enough at this stage and it keeps the session honest. The Basic Beginner Routine runs the squat, bench, row and press for three sets of five and the deadlift for one heavy set of five, on the same climbing rule as everything else. Chin-ups round the session off. Four exercises, half an hour, three times a week.
Is Durata free?
Yes. Durata is free to use, with the full program catalogue, automatic progression maths, rest timers and PR tracking. Everything in this walkthrough is in the app.
Put it into practice
Durata is free to use — 50 proven programs, automatic progression, rest timers and PR tracking, all on your phone.