Training Sessions

How to navigate your training calendar, log workouts, and complete sessions.

Training Calendar

The Training tab is your home base for every workout. It presents a monthly calendar view that shows each session as a card on its scheduled day, giving you a clear picture of what is coming up and what you have already completed.

Monthly View

The calendar displays an entire training month at a time. Each day of the month is listed, and any session scheduled for that day appears as a card showing:

• The day and date of the session
• The exercises included in that session
• The total number of sets

Navigating Between Months

Swipe left or right, or tap the arrow buttons, to move between training months. You can review past months to check completed work or look ahead to see what is coming. The current month is always highlighted so you can quickly return to it.

Session Status Indicators

Each session card displays a status so you know exactly where things stand:

• Upcoming — The session is scheduled but has not been started yet
• In Progress — You have started the session but have not finished
• Completed — All exercises have been logged and post-session feedback submitted
• Skipped — The session was intentionally skipped

Logging Sets

When you tap on a session card to begin your workout, you are taken into the active session view. Each exercise is listed with its prescribed sets, and you log your performance set by set.

What You Log for Each Set

• Weight — The load you used for that set. The app remembers your last-used weight for each exercise, so you often only need to adjust it rather than type from scratch.
• Reps — The number of reps you completed. If the prescription is a rep range (e.g., 8-12), any count within that range is on target.
• RPE (optional) — Rate of Perceived Exertion on a 1-10 scale, where 10 means absolute failure and you could not have completed another rep. RPE helps the adaptation system understand how hard a set actually was relative to the prescription.

Weight Suggestions

The app suggests target weights for each set based on your recent performance data. These suggestions give you a starting point so you don't have to guess what to load on the bar. As you log more sessions, the suggestions become more accurate.

Set Auto-Fill

Tap the checkmark on a set to auto-fill weight and reps from the prescription. This is a quick way to log a set when you hit the target exactly, without manually entering each value.

Prescribed vs. Actual

Each set displays the prescribed target alongside your logged values. Prescriptions include a target rep count or rep range, a target RPE, and a suggested weight based on previous performance. You do not need to hit these numbers perfectly. Just log what you actually did, and the adaptation system will make intelligent adjustments based on the gap between prescribed and actual performance.

Rep Ranges

Many exercises use rep ranges rather than fixed rep counts. For example, a set might prescribe 8-12 reps at RPE 8. This means you should choose a weight that lets you complete at least 8 reps but no more than 12 before reaching the target effort level. Rep ranges are especially common for dumbbell, machine, and cable exercises where loading increments are larger relative to the movement's difficulty.

Plate Calculator

When you tap a weight field during a session, the keyboard includes a built-in plate calculator that shows exactly which plates to load on each side of the bar. Instead of doing mental math between sets, you get an instant visual breakdown of the plate configuration needed to hit your target weight.

The plate calculator uses your configured bar weight and plate inventory from Settings. If you don't have the exact plates to hit a prescribed weight, it automatically rounds to the nearest achievable load using the plates you own and shows you that adjusted weight.

Each exercise can be configured for one of two loading modes:

• Bilateral (default) — Two-sided loading for standard barbell exercises. The diagram shows plates per side.
• Unilateral — One-sided loading for machines like the leg press or landmine. The diagram shows total plates to load.

To get the most out of the plate calculator, make sure your plate inventory and bar weights are configured in Settings > Plate Calculator. The more accurate your equipment setup, the more useful the in-session plate diagrams will be.

Rest Timer & Live Activity

After you complete a set, a rest timer automatically starts counting down. Adequate rest between sets is critical for performance, and the timer helps you stay consistent without watching the clock.

Automatic Timer

The timer begins as soon as you log a set. Suggested rest durations vary by training focus:

• Strength work: 2-3+ minutes between sets
• Hypertrophy work: 60-90 seconds between sets

These are guidelines, not rules. Rest as long as you need to produce quality effort on the next set.

Dynamic Island Support

On iPhones with Dynamic Island (iPhone 14 Pro and later), the rest timer appears as a Live Activity directly in the Dynamic Island. This means you can see your rest time at a glance without unlocking your phone or switching back to the app. The timer updates in real time and is always visible at the top of your screen.

Lock Screen Display

The Live Activity also appears on your lock screen as an expanded widget. Even with your phone locked and sitting on a bench, you can see exactly how long you have been resting. This is especially useful in busy gyms where you might set your phone down between sets.

Post-Session Check-In

When you finish the last exercise, Big Brain Barbell presents a post-session check-in. This takes just a moment but delivers data that is essential for intelligent programming adjustments.

What You Report

• Bodyweight (optional) — Enter your current bodyweight. This is tracked over time and can influence programming decisions for bodyweight-relative exercises.
• Sleep Quality — Rate your previous night's sleep as Poor, Normal, or Good. Sleep is one of the strongest predictors of training readiness, so even this simple measure helps the app gauge your recovery.
• Readiness Rating (1-5) — A subjective score from 1 (Very Low) to 5 (Very High) capturing your overall sense of physical and mental preparedness.
• Session RPE — Overall difficulty of the entire session on a 1-10 scale. This reflects the cumulative effort of all exercises, not just the hardest set.

This feedback, combined with your actual logged performance, feeds directly into the adaptation system to calibrate next week's programming.

Completing a Session

After submitting your post-session check-in, the session is marked as completed.

What Happens When You Finish

• The session card on the calendar updates to show the completed status
• Your performance data is saved and used for future adaptation calculations

Next-Week Generation

When you complete the last session of a training week, Big Brain Barbell automatically generates your next week of programming. The process works like this:

1. The app evaluates your readiness data, session feedback, and performance trends from the completed week
2. The adaptation algorithm determines whether to increase, maintain, or decrease training volume
3. New sessions are generated with updated sets, reps, weights, and exercise selections
4. The next week's sessions appear on your calendar, ready to go

This happens entirely in the background. There is nothing you need to do other than complete your sessions and provide honest feedback.

Week Insights

Before starting your first session of a new week, you can preview the generated exercises and sets for the entire week. This gives you a chance to see what the app has planned — including any volume changes from the adaptation system — before you begin training.

Exercise Swapping

If an exercise in your session doesn't work for you — maybe the equipment is taken, you're feeling discomfort, or you simply want variety — you can swap it for an alternative mid-session.

When you initiate a swap, the app suggests replacement exercises that match the same goal (movement pattern or muscle group) as the original. This ensures your training stimulus stays on track even when you change the specific movement.

How It Works

• Non-primary exercises in a session can be swapped. Primary exercises (the main compound lift for an exercise-focused goal) are locked in to maintain program integrity.
• Suggested replacements are filtered by your available equipment and match the same goal as the original exercise.
• When you confirm a swap, the app regenerates the set prescriptions for the new exercise — adjusting rep ranges and RPE targets based on the new exercise's equipment type and loading capability.

Temporary vs. Permanent Swaps

After swapping, you are asked whether to apply the change going forward:

• Just This Week — A temporary, one-off swap. Only the current week is affected. Future weeks continue using the original exercise from your program goals.
• Use Going Forward — A permanent swap. The new exercise replaces the original in your program's goal list, so all future weeks use it automatically.

Saving & Resuming Sessions

Life happens mid-workout. If you need to step away — whether your gym closes, you get a phone call, or you simply run out of time — your session is automatically saved as a draft.

When you return to the app, your in-progress session is restored exactly where you left off, including all logged sets and your session timer. You can also minimize an active session to browse other parts of the app and return to it at any time by tapping the session bar at the bottom of the screen.

Rescheduling Sessions

Training plans work best when they fit your real life. If something comes up and you cannot train on the scheduled day, you can easily reschedule a session to a different day.

To reschedule, tap and hold the session card on the calendar and select a new date. The app adjusts your weekly schedule accordingly, keeping the rest of your sessions in place. This is useful when:

• A meeting or obligation conflicts with your planned training day
• You want to swap rest days around based on how you feel
• You need to double up sessions on one day and rest another

Skipping Sessions

Sometimes you simply cannot train. Whether it is illness, injury, travel, or just needing an extra recovery day, you can mark any session as skipped.

Skipped sessions are not ignored by the system. The adaptation algorithm factors missed training into its calculations. If you skip a session, the app understands that you had less training stimulus that week and adjusts your next week's programming accordingly, potentially reducing the volume increase or holding steady rather than progressing aggressively.

Editing Completed Sessions

Made a mistake while logging, or remembered that you actually used a different weight? You can go back and edit any completed session after the fact.

Navigate to the completed session on the calendar and tap into it. From there you can modify:

• Weight, reps, and RPE for any set
• Add sets that you forgot to log
• Remove sets that were logged by mistake
• Update your post-session feedback

Edits to completed sessions are reflected in the adaptation system. If you correct a significant error, the adjustments to future programming will account for the updated data.