New exercises in rotation

This one is definitely coming up and I'm marking it as "Planned".

From Steve Hamelburg:

I think putting more in about when to add new exercises and how that should occur would be great. For instance, if I want (or should) add incline bench press,  when should I do?.  Also, should it be done same day as flat or should you alternate days.

We're starting to work on this one now and I'm marking it as "Started".

Will the app automatically change our workouts after a set amount of time?  

Here's the way I see it:

When you hit a plateau, the app will recommend an exercise that's similar. You can accept the recommendation or choose your own exercise.

Next, every time you train exercise A, the app will check and have you do exercise B in rotation with it.

So, in short, yes, when you have exercises in rotation, the app will automatically change your workouts.

You would be able to change these rotations on a special settings page.

Would that work for you? How do you see it?

Yes, definitely give the option of exercise selection & rotations, in my opinion! :)

Hey Nick,

Always appreciate your input.

I've thought about this long and hard. In the end, we'll go with new workout plans. Level 1, level 2, etc...

When you stop progressing on level 1, the app will see that and recommend you move to level 2. Level 2 will have new exercises in rotation. But those will be fixed (in the plan). So if you want to add you own exercise in rotation, you would have to create your own "level 2" workout plan. You could basically copy ours and replace just the exercises you wish.

Going the other way around (with a custom setting for each exercise) would have gotten confusing and hard to manage after a while.

This was a hard decision to make, but we think it's the right one.

If we get feedback to the contrary, we'll backtrack and implement it the way people ask.

Level 2 workouts should be released next week. I hope you give them a shot and let me know what you think.

Cheers!

I think this may be even better, as you also offer something for people to work on.  The choice comment was more so for the lack of a certain version of an exercise -perhaps not a frequent issue in a well-equiped gym, but something good to have as an option and/or for Home workouts, if that applies there as well- or for an injury/irritation issue with an certain exercise.

If this is the option you go with, consider a 'Copy/Edit' option for the whole workout -if someone wants to make his/her own L2 workout(s), it would be much easier to make it with the Copy/Edit option based on your recommendation, if s/he is to change 1-2 exercises only per session, rather than making them from scratch again, perhaps?  What do you think?

Yeah, I fully agree. Copy and edit. It was already on the list. I'll turn it into a formal feature request here, so we can keep track.

Hey guys,

We've just released a new version in beta. It's available on Android and in review on iOs (should clear tomorrow).

This version has 14 new workout plans as we implement phase 1 of "new exercises in rotation".

For now, the app doesn't tell you yet when to "level up" to your new workouts. That's phase 2 and we'll implement it this week. Until then, if you feel your progress has slowed down, you don't need to wait. Move up to the level 2 workouts right now and try them out. Let me know how it goes and if you're making good progress.

Cheers!

We've already implemented level 2 workouts inside the app.

This week, we're starting to implement a new feature that will let you know when it's time to level up your workouts. It's a "My profile" screen that shows you how fast you're making progress across all your exercises. On that screen, you'll see a chart with your average 1RM progression for all exercises you've trained at least 3 times over the last 4 weeks. When that progression is slower than 2%, the app will recommend you move up to level 2 workouts automatically. In other words, when your progress slows down, you need change, and the app will tell you exactly what to do, like a good personal trainer would.

As a side bonus, on your "My profile" screen, you'll also be able to chart your progression for each individual exercise over 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, or all time (this feature was voted for a lot as well).

I'll update you here as soon as it's released.

Cheers!

Dr. Carl Juneau