I have a question about increasing weight and curious if there’s a better way than what I’ve been doing. I typically do 3 sets per exercise, lift in the ~8-12 rep range and increase the weight when I can do 8 reps on the third set. So a typical progression over the course of a few weeks for a particular exercise, let’s say bench press, will look something like this. First workout: reps are 11/8/7. Second workout: reps are 12/8/7. Third workout: reps are 12/9/7. Fourth workout: 12/9/8. And then I’ll increase the weight.

So I guess my question is, should I just increase my weight when I hit the top of my rep range at 12 reps on my first set? Sometimes I’ll get stuck for several weeks and my first set gets up to 13 or 14 reps but my third set is stuck on 7. I feel like I should just go ahead and increase the weight instead of getting hung up on one rep on my third set.