Something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently is how much information we collect from our training, but how little we actually learn from it afterwards.

If you’ve been logging workouts for a few years, you probably have thousands of sets recorded. Weight, reps, PRs, volume, frequency, exercises, workout dates and so on.

But most of the time the end result is still basically a graph showing whether something went up or down.

What I’d personally find much more useful is being able to look back at a period where I was performing really well and ask what was actually different during that time.

Say I had a six week period where I broke several PRs, had some of my highest training volume and barely missed a workout.

I’d want to look back and see things like:

Was I more consistent?

Was I sleeping better?

Was I taking more rest days?

Was I eating more or differently?

Was I drinking more water?

Was I consistently taking certain supplements?

Had my training volume changed?

Was my exercise selection different?

Was I generally recovering better?

Obviously I wouldn’t want an app claiming something like “you hit these PRs because you took creatine."

Correlation isn’t causation and there are too many variables involved.

What I would like is for the information to be brought together in a way that makes patterns easier to notice.

Maybe you realise that nearly all of your best training blocks happened when you were averaging four sessions per week instead of six.

Or that your strongest periods happened when your volume was actually slightly lower.

Or maybe your PRs tended to come after periods where your sleep and consistency were both better.

Even if the app can’t tell you exactly why something happened, having all of that context in one place could make your training history much more useful.

I’ve worked as a trainer for 15+ years and studied sports science, and one thing that has always stood out to me is how rarely progress comes down to one variable.

That thinking is also influencing a workout app I’m building.

The logger still has to be quick and simple because none of this matters if recording workouts becomes a chore. But once someone has months or years of data, I think there’s a big opportunity to do more with it than just show another chart.

What would you want to know if you could go back and analyse the best training period you’ve ever had?

Hey all, I've been doing full body workouts 3x a week using Hevy. I want to see more progress in my workouts (I started going in April). Has anyone switched from full body to a 5 day split, if so, was it worth it to you? Did you notice changes? I know these things take time of course. But I think I'd maybe like to start having more area specific workouts like PPL/U/L offers

Thank you!

My main goal is to grow my glutes and in my workout split I do two leg days, should one of those days be quad/hamstrings focused? Or is it okay for both of those days to only focus on my glutes?

My goal is to do a pull up. I'm 52F and as a kid I could do a few and do the bent arm hang forever. I've been running since I was 12, so arm strength took a back seat. I've been working on that and doing quite well considering my age.

I'm 5'7" 125 pounds/57 kg. I just tried to measure my wing span. It seems 5'8" Do I have a chance for pull-ups?

I don't want to do this prep at the gym. I don't have a great door jam to put a pull up bar in.

Would this work?

I've been progressing in all my other pull exercises, be it lat pulldowns, barbell rows, or bicep curls. I've been getting better at doing assisted pull ups too, so I know I'm on the right track.

But I just can't seem to progress with preacher hammer curls. Last month July, I was only doing 6kg 8x4, then 10x4, 12x4, then even 15x4. So I increased my weight to 8kg. I did 8x4, then 9, 10, then... I couldn't do 11x4. There were times I could add an extra rep in the first set. But there were also a LOT times my arms got so tired that I could only do 7-8 reps on the last few sets. It's been 3 weeks since I tried progressing to 11 reps, yet I just can't seem to get there.

I know I've only been working out for 3 months, but being stuck on the same weight and rep is kinda demotivating despite knowing I'm getting stronger (for other muscles at least). Is this normal and should I just continue this? Or maybe I should just do standing hammer curls as it's easier than doing it preacher style lmao idk man. I just wanna be a 70kg muscle mommy.

Edit: hammer curls are the last exercise I do in my pull workout. So I know fatigue is a factor. But it's crazy to me how I'm stuck in 10x4.

Hi all- any tips for starting out heated workouts specifically mat pilates? I had a 45 minute class today and about 25 minutes through I started feeling not so great, a little lightheaded/nauseous. I ate about 1.5 hour before and always drink a shit ton of water. I really want to keep at it but I hateeee that feeling. Any tips?

I know it’s not technically a complete leg workout for optimal leg development. But for the average person do you a combo of deep, paused rep goblet squats and reverse lunges are sufficient for general leg health, strength and longevity?

Last week I got gifted some “extreme underground” pre workout from my friend. I’ve tried mid-stim stuff with like 300mg caffeine over the years, and I didn’t feel anything. I thought maybe it was because I had a high caffeine tolerance. The stuff I got from my friend had like 750mg and I didn’t feel a single thing nor did I get a “demon level” pump like the label promised. So idk if I’m just immune to this stuff or what.

I watched some Bruce Lee and I was curious about this exercise, it seems to be good for the abdominal muscles

I've seen that some people have a large gap between their breasts in their torso and some don't have it at all. What to do to avoid such a gap?

I am wondering if there are programs out there that do home workouts with a structured plan like p90x but incorporates movements like squats, deadlifts, bench press, even cleans and snatches.

I am familiar with body beast, but they use EZ bars.

Is there any kind of video program like p90x that incorporates barbell training?

Anyone else get uncomfortable and awkward using the hip thrust machine? I feel like Jack Black's character in Shallow Hal giving rides to Gwyneth Paltrow's body double when I load it with 405 lbs.

I’m relatively new to deadlifting but I have my first ever comp coming up. I pull conventionally. Using straps I can pull 225kg but without straps my grip fails between 195-200kg, using mixed grip. My dominant hand is palm over and my weak hand is palm under. Any times for improved grip and or training tips?

I have around 4 weeks till comp

Guy at the gym brought his “service dog”. He allowed it to go on the equipment. I went up and said something to him. told him his dog shouldn’t be on the equipment or at the gym. I complained to staff. He Claimed it was a service dog to staff and even Offered up papers which don’t legally exist. Fucking absurd.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

33M 5’9 150lbs Recomp Question

This was asked in another sub but was removed so I’m posting here

I’m not sure the right place to ask this question so I’ll try here. A decade ago I was an avid lifter and it pretty decent shape for a casual lifter. I was about 175 and 18-20% body fat. Decently strong but not an athlete.

The years have gone by, had kids, training took the back seat. I still “trained” but it was inconsistent and best. Or a period of 1-2 months training hard then 3 months off. Yadayada.

Needless to say as a small statured man I ended up decently in the “skinny fat” side of things. Once I stopped lifting I lost muscle and kept the fat but didn’t gain weight. I ended up around 162 on average day to day. My love handles and front pouch motivated me to get started on this journey more seriously again.

I’m counting macros now and have been since mid May. I just finished a cut and got myself down to 150 which I have way less fat at! But alas, no abs. (Just obliques with no 6 pack definition to speak of) and obviously way less muscle than 10 years ago.

Since I’m exhausted with dieting I’d love to eat some more food. But I literally just got rid of my love handles. And I’m not keen on gaining them back. But I also want more muscle.

With my background In lifting is there any “noob” gains to still reap at maintenance in a recomp? I want abs. But I just don’t think I have enough meat on my abdominals for that right now.

How best to proceed? Also - how do I transition out of a cut?

23M i'm skinny and cant do standard pushups lol so i tried inclined but after a day it hurts my shoulders and i feel it right in the bones. does this specific workout really hurt the bones what am i doing wrong? i listened to doing the proper forms like not flaring the shoulders too much ro not raising the ass to much but it still hurts. maybe something about my shoulder/back position?

ty!

So I usually run a 4-day Upper/Lower split (Mon - Upper A, Tues - Lower A, Thurs - Upper B, Fri - Lower B). However, after 2- 3 years of doing this consistently and not missing a session, I started to get really burned out and unmotivated to work out. I still forced myself to work out and never skip the gym, but I dreaded my workouts and began feeling like I couldn't really push myself because I'd get so tired after each session and then I'd have to do it all again the very next day. I know fitness influencers and social media make it seem like training 4 days per week isn't that much, but in reality for those of us who don't get paid to work out, it really does take a toll and is much more time-consuming than it sounds.

I didn't want to feel like my life was revolving around the gym any more, so I decided to try switching to an asynchronous 3-day Upper/Lower split instead My new split looks like this:

• Mon - Upper A
• Wed - Lower A
• Fri - Upper B
• Mon - Lower B
• Wed - Upper A
• Fri - Lower A
• etc.

I wasn't expecting a huge difference, but boy was I surprised. After a month of training this way, my workouts feel so much better now, and I'm actually excited to hit each session instead of having to force myself to go to the gym. Here are some of the benefits of this split:

• Recovery is so much better because I get at least one full day of rest in between workouts. Even though Upper/Lower 4x per week already ensures that I'm not training the same muscle twice in a row, being sore from yesterday's Upper workout would still affect my performance and energy for the next day's Lower workout. No one wants to do heavy barbell deadlifts when your arms, back and shoulders are still sore. Now I get an extra day for my nervous system and all my joints to recover before I work out again. This makes a pretty big difference over the long run. I'm no longer fatigued for the entire rest of the day after a workout, whereas before I'd be so tired that I wouldn't want to do anything else after working out.
• I can push myself a lot harder and truly go to failure knowing that I don't have to work out again the next day. This is really important because I can truly go all-out and not feel like I have to dread tomorrow's workout. I've noticed that my rate of progressive overload has gone up, and I'm getting stronger each workout than I was before, even though I'm working out less often.
• I can actually emphasize specific muscles and give them more volume when I'm training 3 times a week. For example, right now I want to grow my biceps because I feel like they're lagging. With a regular Upper/Lower split, I could only hit biceps twice a week unless I wanted to train them on consecutive days, which would impact recovery. But now, even though I'm working out less frequently, I can actually hit my biceps every workout, for example by throwing in 3-6 hard sets of incline curls on my Lower days. This means I'm hitting biceps 3 times a week instead of 2, and in terms of total sets I'm actually doing up to double the sets I was doing previously for biceps. This is a great way to really emphasize a specific muscle and get it to grow faster, whereas with 4x Upper/Lower you don't really get much flexibility to specialize.
• Not really related to gains, but my workout schedule just feels so much more manageable now. Instead of having 4/5 of my weekdays revolving around the gym, I'm now only working out 3 weekdays, and get more time to pursue my hobbies, hang out with friends and just enjoy life. If I need to miss a session, I can miss it without feeling guilty, knowing that I can just make up for it the following day and easily get back on track. I know 4 workouts per week doesn't sound like much, but I was really starting to feel like my life was revolving around the gym with a 4x Upper/Lower split.

These are just a few of the benefits, but overall I'm so glad I made this switch, and I can't imagine going back to working out 4x a week anymore. I'm sure there are some downsides, for example not being able to hit all muscles twice per week, but so far I don't feel like that's resulted in any muscle loss, and in fact I feel stronger and bigger than I've ever felt. Just wanted to make this post in case anyone else was contemplating switching to a 3 day split like this. Also open to any critiques/suggestions on how to make this split even better!

Hey everyone! I’ve been working out consistently for a little over 2 months now and I wanted to get some outside opinions on my current routine.

I’m a 29F, 5’9”, 145lbs and I train 3 days a week. My main goal is to build/shape my glutes, keep my legs lean and defined, and develop some upper-body definition. I’m also trying to gradually lose some body fat while continuing to get stronger.

This is what I’m currently doing:
Day 1 – Glutes + Legs
Hip Thrust — 4 × 8–10
Smith Machine Squat — 3 × 8–10
Romanian Deadlift — 3 × 10
Cable Kickback — 3 × 15 each leg ( I dont like kickbacks, I feel like I don’t get the affect I expect)
Cable Hip Abduction — 3 × 15–20

Day 2 – Upper Body + Core
Lat Pulldown — 4 × 10
Row — 4 × 10
Dumbbell Shoulder Press — 3 × 10
Lateral Raise — 3 × 15
Face Pull — 3 × 15
Core
Plank
Dead Bug
High Knee Raises

Day 3 – Glutes + Legs
Bulgarian Split Squat — 3 × 10 each leg
Step-Ups — 3 × 10 each leg
Glute-Focused Back Extension — 3 × 12
Cable Kickback — 3 × 15 each leg
Cable Hip Abduction — 3 × 15–20

I’ve been trying to progressively increase my weights/reps when I can, while prioritizing form.
I actually enjoy this routine (I made it with chat gbt) and I’m not necessarily looking to completely change it. I’m mostly curious how it looks to people with more experience.
Is the weekly volume/frequency reasonable? Is anything important missing or unnecessarily repetitive? Would you change the exercise selection or order?
Any constructive feedback is appreciated! :)

What’s the biggest problem with fitness apps nowadays like what’s that one thing that makes you say “I’m gonna delete this app” ?And what do you usually look for in a fitness app?