Training article
What To Look For In A Free Training App (And What To Be Wary Of)
Five questions, four things that sound helpful, and what ours does
General information about training and eating, not personal advice. It is not medical or dietary advice and it cannot account for your circumstances. If you are pregnant, have a medical condition, take medication, or have a history of disordered eating, talk to a GP or a registered dietitian before changing how you eat or train.
A training app has one job: to keep last time in front of you while you train, so today you can do slightly more — a rep, or 2.5kg. That is progressive overload, and a log is how you know it is happening. Everything else is extra, and some exists to keep you opening the app, not getting stronger. Ask the five questions below, be wary of the four things after them, and know where your log lives.
Five questions to ask before you download
- Can I see last time while I log this time? A tap away is not the same screen.
- How quickly can I change a set — a missed rep, a heavier bar — between sets, not in a form?
- Can I get my data out, as a file I can open, without asking anyone?
- Does it work with no account and no signal? Plenty of weights rooms are in basements.
- Does it follow a plan, or keep changing it? A programme run for twelve weeks can be compared with itself.
Things that sound helpful and often are not
- Streaks reward showing up, which is fine until the day you should rest — the chain does not know you needed it.
- Badges are the same idea in a different coat: a reward for a milestone the app chose, not one you did.
- Readiness scores are built from what a phone can measure, not how your legs actually feel. The first warm-up set is a readiness check — see the RPE article above.
- A different workout every session feels like progress, but it is question five again: nothing repeats, so nothing can be compared.
None of this is a reason to avoid an app — it is a reason to notice what it is measuring: your attendance, or your lifting.
Where your log lives
| Where | Good | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| On the phone | Fast, works anywhere, nothing sent to the app's maker. | Dies with the phone unless you back it up. |
| In someone's cloud | Survives a new phone. | Exists for as long as the company and subscription do. |
| Behind an account | The log is yours. | Forget the password, the company closes, or you stop paying, and it goes with it. |
UK law gives you the right to ask a company for a copy of your data, but a right you write in for is not a button. Check for an export — a plain file, a CSV, text any spreadsheet opens — before you have anything worth losing.
A NOTEBOOK STILL WORKS. A pad in the gym bag and a spreadsheet at home fail none of the five questions above. An app earns its place by being faster to write in with chalk on your hands, and by doing the arithmetic.
What our app does
It does
- Keeps the workout log on the phone; nothing you log is sent to us.
- Shows last time and your best while you log, a setup note per exercise, and a swap for today. Every session of an exercise is on its own page.
- A set can be a warm-up and carry an RPE.
- My plates: tell it which plates you own, and it only suggests loads you can actually make.
- Nine ready-made programmes, or build your own, with supersets if you want them.
- Backs up as text, shares the log as a CSV, and reads the CSV exports of three other apps — the Backup screen says which.
- A switch to keep the screen on while you log.
- A rest timer that counts up, not down — there is no target to hit, just how long it has been. The time is never saved. An optional buzz can be set per exercise, off by default, and the app remembers the one you pick. Allow notifications and the buzz also reaches you with the screen off.
- No score or streak on your training, and no calorie target.