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Progressing your exercises means increasing the difficulty as your muscle strength or fitness improves, enabling you to continue doing activities and slowing osteoarthritis progression. Initially, you may experience breathlessness, increased heart rate, or joint pain, but with consistency, your body adapts, and it gets easier and less painful.

You're ready to progress your exercise when:
- Your goal is to continue improving fitness
- Pain is less than 3/10
- Exertion is relatively "easy"
- You want to try a different activity

You're not ready to progress when:
- Joint pain is more than 5/10
- Exertion is "hard to very hard"
- You feel unwell or have a change in medical status
- You've had a muscle or joint injury
- You've had a recent change in medicine
- It's a busy time in your life or you're experiencing a major life event
- You're happy with your current fitness level

Exercise progression happens roughly every 2-3 weeks during the "improvement stage" and less often during the "maintenance stage". To progress, follow these steps:
1. Perform 2 sets x 10 repetitions comfortably with less than or equal to 3/10 pain
2. Gradually increase repetitions to 15
3. Progress when you can perform 2 sets x 15 repetitions comfortably
4. Increase weight or resistance, decrease repetitions to 2 x 10
5. Progress when you can perform 2 sets x 10 repetitions comfortably with the new weight
6. Gradually increase repetitions from 10 to 15

Not all exercises need to be progressed at the same rate, and don't progress if you don't feel comfortable.