Settings & Customization

Personalize Big Brain Barbell to match your equipment, preferences, and training style.

Profile

Your profile stores the personal information you provided during onboarding. You can update any of these fields at any time from the Settings tab.

• Name — Your display name, shown throughout the app.
• Unit Preference — Choose between Imperial (pounds) or Metric (kilograms). This affects how weights are displayed everywhere in the app.

Equipment Configuration

Your equipment configuration is one of the most important settings in Big Brain Barbell. It determines which exercises are available for your programs, ensuring every prescribed movement can actually be performed with the equipment you have access to. When the app generates training sessions, it filters the entire exercise library against your equipment list so you never encounter an exercise you cannot do.

Training Location

Start by selecting your training location. This sets a default equipment preset that you can further customize:

• Commercial Gym — Assumes you have access to a full range of equipment, including barbells, dumbbells, cable machines, and all standard gym machines. The app enables every equipment item by default.
• Home Gym — Starts with a common home gym preset: barbell and rack, flat bench, incline/adjustable bench, dumbbells, pull-up bar, and dip bars. You can then add or remove individual items to match your actual setup.
• Both — For lifters who train at both a commercial gym and a home gym. Uses the full commercial gym equipment preset, giving you the widest exercise selection.

After selecting your location, you can customize the equipment checklist to match exactly what you have available.

Equipment Checklist

The equipment checklist is organized into categories. Toggle individual items on or off to match your setup:

Essentials

• Barbell + Squat rack / Power cage
• Flat bench
• Incline / Adjustable bench
• Dumbbells

Specialty Bars

• Trap bar / Hex bar
• Safety squat bar (SSB)
• EZ Curl bar

Pull / Cable

• Pull-up bar
• Dip bars / Dip station
• Cable machine / Functional trainer

Leg Machines

• Leg press
• Leg curl / Leg extension
• Hack squat / Pendulum squat
• Calf raise machine
• Hip thrust machine
• Belt squat

Upper Body Machines

• Lat pulldown / Row machine
• Chest press machine
• Shoulder press machine
• Pec deck / Rear delt machine
• T-bar row machine
• Lateral raise machine
• Pullover machine

Other Machines

• Back extension bench
• Reverse hyper
• GHD (Glute-Ham Developer)
• Glute kickback machine
• Hip abduction machine
• Preacher curl bench
• Ab crunch machine
• Smith machine

Bars

Configure the barbells you have available. Each bar has a name and a weight. The app uses bar weights when calculating plate loadouts — so if you use a lighter training bar or a heavier safety squat bar, the plate calculator adjusts accordingly. You can add as many bars as you need and assign a specific bar to each exercise.

Dumbbells

Enter the dumbbell weights you have available. When programming dumbbell exercises, the app suggests the nearest available dumbbell to the target weight rather than calculating an exact plate loadout. This is especially useful for home gym lifters who may not have every increment. Add each dumbbell weight you own and the app will round to your closest available option.

Plates

Enter exactly which weight plates you own and how many of each. Big Brain Barbell uses this inventory to determine which weights are actually achievable with your equipment. During training sessions, when the app suggests a target weight, it references your plate inventory to ensure the load can be built with the plates you have.

This is especially useful for home gym lifters who may have a limited plate collection. Rather than prescribing a weight you cannot load, the app rounds to the nearest achievable weight based on your available plates and barbell weight.

You can add standard plate sizes or enter custom weights, and specify the quantity of each plate you own. The plate calculator supports two loading modes, configurable per exercise:

• Bilateral (default) — Two-sided loading, like a standard barbell. Plates are shown per side.
• Unilateral — One-sided loading, like a leg press or landmine. Plates shown are the total.

Exercise Library

Big Brain Barbell includes a comprehensive built-in exercise library with exercises for every movement pattern and equipment type. You can also create your own custom exercises. For full details, see the Exercise Library guide.

Volume Landmarks

Big Brain Barbell starts with research-based default volume landmarks for each muscle group, but you can customize them based on your personal training history and recovery capacity. Volume landmarks define the boundaries that guide how the app's adaptation system adjusts your training week to week.

There are four landmarks you can adjust for each goal:

• MV (Maintenance Volume) — The minimum number of sets per week needed to maintain your current muscle size and strength. Training at MV prevents muscle loss during deload periods or when other life stressors are high.
• MEV (Minimum Effective Volume) — The lowest number of sets per week that will produce measurable progress. This is where the app starts when beginning a new mesocycle.
• MAV (Maximum Adaptive Volume) — The set range where you get the best results relative to effort. Most of your productive training happens between MEV and MAV.
• MRV (Maximum Recoverable Volume) — The highest number of sets per week you can perform and still recover from. Exceeding MRV leads to accumulated fatigue and overtraining. When volume approaches MRV, the app triggers a deload.

Each goal in your program — whether exercise-focused or muscle-focused — has its own independent set of volume landmarks. If you know from experience that you recover well from higher volume on certain muscle groups (for example, your back can handle more sets than average), you can increase those landmarks accordingly. Conversely, if a muscle group tends to fatigue quickly, lowering its MRV helps the app program more conservatively.

See the Adaptation System guide for a deeper explanation of how volume landmarks drive weekly programming adjustments.

Notifications

Big Brain Barbell can send push notifications to help you stay consistent with your training. There are two types of notifications you can configure:

Tips

Big Brain Barbell can display daily training tips on the Home tab to help you get the most out of the app's features. Tips cover topics like exercise swapping, volume management, and how the adaptation system works. You can toggle tips on or off in Settings under Notifications.

• Session Reminders — Receive a notification when you have a training session scheduled for the day. This helps you remember to train on your planned days, especially useful when your schedule varies week to week.
• Idle Reminders — If you have not completed a training session in a while, the app can send a gentle reminder to get back on track. This is helpful for maintaining consistency during busy periods.

You can configure the timing of each notification type to match your preferred training schedule. For example, if you typically train in the morning, set your session reminder for early in the day. If you prefer evening sessions, schedule it for the afternoon.

Notifications can be enabled or disabled individually at any time. The app respects your device's notification settings, so make sure notifications are allowed for Big Brain Barbell in your device's Settings app as well.

Subscription Management

Big Brain Barbell uses in-app subscriptions managed through your Apple ID. You can view your current subscription status, change your plan, or cancel your subscription at any time.

To manage your subscription:

1. Open the Settings tab in Big Brain Barbell.
2. Tap on your subscription status to view details.
3. To change or cancel, you will be directed to your Apple ID subscription settings, where all App Store subscriptions are managed.

You can also manage your subscription directly through your device:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap your name at the top, then tap Subscriptions.
3. Find Big Brain Barbell in the list to view, modify, or cancel.