Tempo
Exercises should come with tempo recommendations that could vary across workouts. Ideally, when the app can handle different goals like power speed strength or hypertrophy this would impact tempo recommendations
Noah, thanks for your suggestion.
Tempo is a popular concept, but we hesitate to include it in the app because studies have shown it has no impact on hypertrophy. From a meta-analysis (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25601394/):
Results: Results indicate that hypertrophic outcomes are similar when training with repetition durations ranging from 0.5 to 8 s.
Conclusions: From a practical standpoint it would seem that a fairly wide range of repetition durations can be employed if the primary goal is to maximize muscle growth. Findings suggest that training at volitionally very slow durations (>10s per repetition) is inferior from a hypertrophy standpoint, although a lack of controlled studies on the topic makes it difficult to draw definitive conclusions.
It may have application for strength and power gains though (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8310485/), so I'm keen to see how many people vote for this suggestion. If it raises to the top, I'd be happy to implement it.
Best,
Carl
Pregnancy workouts
A toggle button for pregnancy and some preset workouts for women as the go through it— 1st trimester, 2nd, 3rd and postpartum.
Thanks for voting for this feature -- it's in beta! From the announcement: https://muscle.userecho.com/communities/1/topics/352-add-shouldertraps-as-body-part-priority
Beta update: Customize your workouts further with 5 new body part priorities
More body part priorities are coming! This is one of our top requested features, so I’m thrilled to bring it to you. With this version coming up in beta, you can now ask the app to prioritize any of 10 body parts, including abs and biceps, but also now traps, shoulders, calves, and more! To customize that, just tap Settings (bottom bar) and scroll down to Body part priority. With this update, we're also speeding up the app and making it more stable, so your workouts are faster and smoother. Thanks to all who voted for that feature, and for your support. We truly appreciate it.
If you're in the beta:
On Android, you can already download the update. On iPhone? You'll have to wait 7-10 days for Apple to release it. To update:
– Open the store app on your phone
– Search for Dr. Muscle
– Tap update
Not in the beta? Click here to join: https://dr-muscle.com/beta-program/. Otherwise, you'll get a notification inside the app in 7-10 days when the public version comes out.
Now would be a good time to suggest and vote for our next feature. Please visit https://muscle.userecho.com/.
We've released 46 updates in 2021 (one a week or so). For the full list, see https://dr-muscle.com/timeline/.
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Really appreciate your support and suggestions to improve the app. Thanks!
Dr. Carl Juneau, PhD
Founder of Dr. Muscle
auto recording rep counts on max sets
The app prompts you to confirm how many more reps you could have done. If I save the set with doing more than the target, that should satisfy the app vs confirming with the options of very hard/1-2 more/3-5 more etc.
FAQ page explaining what happens with a deload, light session, etc
Header is pretty self explanatory, but it would be nice to know exactly what happens with a deload, light session (weights go down? Reps? Sets? Multiple things?), How the app calculates your progression (does it go off of last week's workout only or does it use an average?), Things like that. I just know if I have a bad workout one week, that doesn't necessarily mean I lost strength, so I wouldn't want the app to base my next workout solely on the last workout.
Summary of progress at end of programs
It could be good that at the end of each programme (which I think are about 6-8weeks) to have a summary of progress for each exercise: where I started, where I finished, how much percentage of progress.
For instance: bench press. Start 8x40kg. End 6x60kg. 45% progress. (or something similar).
Ability to identify mobility/muscle imbalances
The app should allow the user to identify areas that are muscle or mobility imbalances. Upon doing this, the app would adjust the exercises accordingly. For example, I have chronic tight hamstrings and my rear shoulders are severely lacking, but there isn’t a way to address this outside of adding exercises myself and swapping the mobility movements. The app should do this. Also, the app should be able to identify strength imbalances. If squat strength is low relative to bench press, then the app would adjust by adding more squat volume.
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