Interesting suggestion Dan. Looking forward to see how many people vote on it. Thanks!

This feature is now officially released, with update 877.

It is said that Milo of Croton gained enormous strength by lifting and carrying a newborn calf daily as it grew to a mature bull. Now you can do almost the same thing: with this update, your program will level up automatically as you do it. You’ll also always know exactly where you stand, with a countdown on your home screen.

Every time you level up, you’ll do new exercises and hit your muscles from new angles (this helps to hypertrophy them in full). Ready to become mighty like Milo? Simply work out with Dr. Muscle today.

Got it! I'm glad you're happy, and that you'll stay with us for now while you get back in shape. I'll make a deal with you: when you're about to return to powerlifting, if we still haven't implemented the 3-5 rep range, let me know. I'll do my very best to fasttrack that feature and get it out in time so you can continue to train with us.

Until then, I look forward to hear about your gains. 

Regards,

Carl

Hi Andrés,

You bring up good points, and I'll address them one by one.

> workouts that include specific powerlifting exercises and implements like board presses, bands and chains etc.

I would certainly love to add powerlifting workouts to the app (I've competed in powerlifting myself). If enough customers vote for this feature, we will. Until then, you can create your own workouts and programs inside the app. You can also add any number of exercises you want, including board presses, bands squats, etc. So, you would already be able to do this yourself in your account at this point. If you need help, let me know. We could log into your account and create those for you.

> As well as gaining maximum strength while staying within a weight division. Good information can be found from Sheiko and Westside Barbell.

I agree, those are 2 great sources. I've tried both of their programs.

> Unless the science says that you can improve maximum strength from hypertrophy alone. I believe the app is awesome and I just wonder how the A.I would handle both bodybuilding and powerlifting depending on your goals. 

You can improve max strength by training the nervous system (heavy loads) or hypertrophy (moderate loads). So, you are correct. Right now, the app will have you do between 5 and 12 reps. For strength, 3-5 reps are usually recommended. There's been a suggestion to modify rep range (https://muscle.userecho.com/forums/1-submit-your-feedback/topics/52-modify-rep-ranges/). Please vote for it. If enough people vote for it, we'll implement it. Then, you would be able to set your rep range to 3-5 (or whatever you prefer) when you want to train for strength.

For now, I'd note that you can use the app in the 3-5 rep range. You would have to ignore the recommendations you get and enter your weights and reps yourself. The app would still show you how much you've improved every workout and have you deload when your 1RM goes down. That may be enough for you now. For assistance work, that's typically done for higher reps, you could still follow its recommendations.

Thanks for taking the time to write. I hope you stick around and help us make this app great for powerlifters.

Best regards,

Carl

Thanks for chiming in Dustin.

Marc, you're starting the see the joy of hunting for bugs on mobile apps ;)

Most customers are getting email notifications when we write here, so let's move this conversation to Facebook. I've created a thread (https://www.facebook.com/groups/drmuscle/permalink/1775304846103254/). We'll get help from other users and track this bug down.

Thanks guys!

Thank you for your patience and for reporting this again Marc.

I'm not able to reproduce the issue on my Android. I'll have someone on the team try and reproduce it on their iPhone shortly. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again.

Hi Dustin,

Great suggestion. The more people vote for it, the faster we'll implement it.

For now, 2 points:

1- Yesterday, we had a small glitch and had to reboot our servers. Normally, you wouldn't get sets of 3 (5 is the new minimum). Therefore, you'll get lighter weights. We've taken steps to prevent glitches like that in the future.

2- If you don't have enough weight, you can do more reps with the max weight you have. The app won't really mind. Another option would be to change exercise altogether (chin-ups would be good in your case - enter your body weight + use external weights when needed).

I hope this is useful.

Best,

Carl

Note to self:

Regarding bodyweight exercises, if you have access to external weights, here's how you can do them right now with the app:

1. Choose exercises you can do at least 12 reps with
2. Enter your body weight when you do 12 (or more) reps
3. When the app asks you to do fewer than 12 reps, you'll get a weight higher than your body weight. Use external weights to make up for the difference.

Thank you for that suggestion Andreas.

Another similar request we get from time to time is actually the reverse: change from 2,5 lbs to 5 lbs increments. I'll invite customers who request that to vote for your suggestion here.

Thanks for building muscle faster with us.

Note to self: "joints were aching so I manually backed off"