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Lifting Lab Help

Write your own program

Program Builder is for writing your own multi-week plan, week by week and day by day, instead of picking one from the library. Writing a program is Pro. Without Pro you keep, edit, print, send and run anything you have already written or been sent.

Open Program Builder

Section titled “Open Program Builder”
  1. Tap the Build button, then Start a Program.
  2. Scroll to Build Your Own and tap Program Builder. A Pro lock on the row means you can open it but not start a new program.

Make a program

Section titled “Make a program”
  1. Tap New program (the plus). A Free account sees a lock instead and is taken to what Pro adds.
  2. Under Program, set the name, author, a short summary and the Days per week.
  3. Each week has a Phase label and a Deload week switch. Tap Add week for another one. A new week starts as a copy of the one before it, so write one good week and adjust.
  4. Tap Add day inside a week, then tap the day to edit it.
  5. Everything saves as you go. To remove a week or a day, use its bin and confirm.

Edit a day

Section titled “Edit a day”

In a day, give it a name and a Weekday offset, which places it in the week from 0 to 6 days after the week starts. Tap Add exercise to pick a lift from the full exercise list. Each exercise has:

  • Sets and Reps.
  • Load, which is one of:
    • % of PR: a percentage of your record for a lift you choose under Reference PR. Weights are worked out when you start the day, so the program follows your records.
    • Fixed kg: one weight.
    • RPE: a target effort from 5 to 10.
    • Bodyweight: no load.
  • Rest for that exercise, in 15 second steps.
  • Accessory, to mark it as supporting work, and Notes for yourself or the lifter.
  • Swap, which keeps the sets, reps, rest and note and changes the movement, and Remove.

You can drag exercises to reorder them. The app asks before it deletes anything you wrote.

Run it, print it or send it

Section titled “Run it, print it or send it”

Your programs appear under Custom and Imported on the Programs screen, where you open one and tap Start This Program like any other. Your own programs are never locked behind Pro to run.

The Export menu on a program offers Print Program, Save as PDF and Send to Another Athlete (.liftinglab), a file anyone with Lifting Lab can open. To add a program someone sent you, tap Add a Program You Were Sent at the foot of the Programs screen and choose the file.