Logging workouts

The training screen is where you spend most of your time. It has three tabs: Log (set entry), Graph (progress chart), and History (past sessions for this exercise). Swipe left or right to switch between them.

Today screen

The Today screen (home tab) is your daily hub. It shows the current date, an optional workout timer in the app bar, and several cards depending on your state:

If you have an active routine, your routine days appear at the top with a Start button for each. Tap a day to open the routine log preview before starting.
This Week - A compact card showing how many days you've trained this week, plus muscle-balance warnings if any groups haven't been trained for a while. Visible whenever you're on the Today screen - whether mid-workout or between sessions.
Weekly volume chips - Colored chips showing sets logged per muscle category this week. Colored dots indicate groups that need attention. Tap any chip to open the muscle balance detail sheet.
Monthly report - During the first two weeks of a new month, a dismissible card shows last month's highlights: workout count, total volume (with % change vs the month before), and how many exercises you tried for the first time. Tap × to dismiss it.
Deload banner and Plateau card appear here when those features are active (see Deload and Plateau detection).
One year ago - If you trained on this date a year back, a quiet line at the very bottom of the screen says so: "One year ago · Entry № 63 · Push Day". Tap it to open that session. It names the day by its routine day, or by the first exercise you logged. When there is nothing a year ago, the line simply is not there.

Logging a set

The Log tab shows input fields at the top and your logged sets below. The fields shown depend on the exercise type - a barbell exercise shows weight and reps; a plank shows only time; a row machine might show weight and time.

Enter your weight and reps (or duration, distance, etc.) using the +/− steppers or by tapping the field and typing.
Tap the ✓ checkmark to save the set.

The set appears in the list below. The rest timer starts automatically if you have that setting enabled.

Weight per side

Some machines are loaded one side at a time, and plenty of people write down what is on one side rather than the total. Badger can record which one you mean.

When an exercise or its machine is set to per side, the weight field's label says so - WEIGHT (LBS / SIDE) - and every set you log carries that answer with it. In your history, on the workout summary, and in the exercise's own log, those sets read 90 lbs × 8 /side. Sets logged as a total read the way they always have.

Two things it deliberately does not do. Nothing is doubled or converted: your totals, volume, estimated 1RM and personal records all use exactly the number you wrote, so switching the setting never rewrites your history. And sets you logged before Badger started asking are left alone rather than guessed at - they simply carry no mark.

Where to set it: on a plate-loaded machine under How weight is logged (it applies wherever that machine is used), or on the exercise itself under Weight is logged as for when you log it with no machine at all. The machine wins when both have an answer. Dumbbells and kettlebells are never asked: those are per hand by definition.

Your planned routines say the same thing: a slot's weight column reads WEIGHT (LBS / SIDE · CYBEX LEG PRESS), naming the machine the answer came from, so you plan in the same terms you lift in.

Typing a duration

Anywhere Badger asks for a duration - the Log tab, a routine's planned sets, quick edit, or editing a set after the fact - you can type it as a time instead of counting seconds:

15:00 - fifteen minutes.
900 - a plain number is still seconds, so nothing you already do changes.
90:00 - minutes are not capped, so a long ride is fine without doing the hours math.
1:30:00 - hours, minutes, seconds.

When you leave the field it tidies itself into the shorter form, so a typed 15 becomes 0:15 - a quick way to see whether Badger read you as seconds or minutes. The +/− steppers still move in seconds.

Editing and deleting sets

Tap a set row to load it into the input fields for editing. Tap the checkmark again to update it. To deselect without saving, tap the same row again.

Long-press a set row to delete it. A confirmation dialog appears before deletion.

Repeat last set

The repeat button (next to the checkmark) copies your last working set in one tap - useful when you're doing multiple sets at the same weight and reps.

Warmup sets

The warmup chip above the input fields toggles whether the current set is a warmup. Warmup sets are displayed with a "W" badge instead of a set number, and are excluded from volume calculations, PR checks, and progress graphs.

You can also let Badger generate warmup sets automatically:

Tap the Warm-up calc chip beside the warmup toggle.
Pick a style and the number of sets. The sheet recalculates instantly and pre-checks every row - uncheck any you don't want.
Confirm to insert them at the start of your set list.

Two styles are available:

Percent - a classic ramp as a share of your working weight (3 sets gives the familiar 40% × 8, 60% × 5, 80% × 3).
Plates - evenly spaced jumps from the empty bar up to a tight final warmup, with every weight rounded to something you can actually load.

Either way, every suggested weight is rounded to a load your equipment can reach - the gym's plates for a barbell or plate-loaded machine, or the stack increment for a selectorized machine - and is never rounded above your working weight. Fewer sets means bigger jumps; more sets means a gentler ramp. If two warmups land on the same convenient weight, Badger merges them.

Set your usual style and default number of warmup sets in Settings → Logging. You can override both for a specific exercise on its edit screen (handy for lifts like floor work that need fewer, heavier warmups).

The confirm button reads "Replace warmup sets" once warmup sets already exist for that exercise. If a routine already defines warmup sets, those are used as-is - the generator only fills the gap when none are defined.

RPE and RIR

Two optional fields sit under Set details, below the main inputs. Both describe how hard a set was. They are the only numbers in Badger you supply rather than measure, and you can ignore them entirely - nothing else in the app stops working if you leave them blank.

Tap either label in the app to get a short version of this page without leaving the screen.

Why track intensity at all

Weight and reps say what you lifted. They don't say what it cost you. Two sets of 8 at 80 kg can be a comfortable working set one week and a grind the next, and only one of those is a sign to back off. Recording the effort gives you the second half of that picture, which is what makes a stalled lift readable later: same numbers, rising effort is a different story from same numbers, same effort.

It also feeds Badger's deload detection if you have the RPE/RIR trigger switched on.

RPE: how hard it felt

A 10-point scale. In practice the useful range is 6 to 10.

10 - Max effort. No more reps were possible.
9 - Could have done 1 more rep.
8 - Could have done 2 more reps.
7 - Could have done 3 more. Bar speed still crisp.
6 and below - Warm-up territory.

It is subjective on purpose. There is no way to be wrong about your own set, and your honest read of it is the data. Most people find their scale drifts for the first month or two and then settles.

RIR: how many were left

How many more reps you could have done before hitting failure.

0 - Nothing left. That was failure.
1 - One rep left in the tank.
2 - Two left. A common target for working sets.
3+ - Comfortable, well short of failure.

They are the same thing from opposite ends

RPE counts up toward failure and RIR counts down to it, so the two line up: RPE 8 and RIR 2 describe the same set, as do RPE 9 and RIR 1, and RPE 10 and RIR 0.

You do not need both. Pick the one you find easier to answer and use it consistently, because a habit you keep is worth more than the more precise field you skip.

Which one to start with

If you are newer to this, use RIR. "How many more could I have done?" is a question about reps, which you have just been counting, and you can usually answer it in the second after you rack the bar. "How hard was that out of 10?" asks you to place a set against a maximum effort you may never have taken, which is a harder call to make honestly early on.

RPE tends to become more useful once you have a feel for your own ceiling, and it has more room at the top: it can tell a hard set apart from an absolutely everything set, where RIR bottoms out at 0 for both.

The zero-thought option

Next to the steppers there's a To failure chip. If the only thing you want to record is that a set went all the way, tap it and move on - it writes RIR 0 in one tap instead of three, and tapping it again clears it. It is a shortcut for the RIR stepper, nothing more, so the two always agree.

Marking a set to failure is about effort, not about coming up short. If you were aiming for 8 and got 6, log the 6 - see coming up short vs skipping.

Where the fields show up

Both are hidden while the warmup toggle is active, since a warmup has no effort worth grading. Logged values appear as small badges on each set row, and you can add or change them after the fact by tapping any past set in your history.

Coming up short vs skipping a set

These are two different things and Badger treats them differently.

If you were aiming for 8 and got 6, log the 6. It's a real set: it counts toward your volume, it shows in your history, and it feeds plateau and deload detection. On a routine workout the summary will show it as under plan, which is exactly the information you want later when you're wondering why progress stalled.

Skip is for a set you didn't do at all - you ran out of time, the rack was taken, something hurt. A skipped set is left out of your history and out of the detection features, because nothing happened to measure.

The short version: if you lifted, log what you lifted. Only skip what you genuinely didn't do.

Seeing your target while you log

When a workout was started from a routine day, a line above the set recorder shows what the plan asks for and what you did last time - for example "Plan 8-10 · Last 8 @ 80 kg". It follows along as you work through the sets, so you can always check the number you're typing against both.

Workouts that didn't come from a routine have no plan to show, so the line doesn't appear.

The plan turns up in two more places, so you don't have to keep glancing up at that one line:

In the set list. A set you haven't done yet shows the target where its numbers will go - 80 kg × 8+, or × 8-10 - and swaps to what you actually lifted the moment you complete it.
On the reps field. A dim + or -10 sits inside the reps box for an open or ranged target, flush against the number, so the field reads as "8+" rather than a bare 8. It is a marker, not part of the number: what gets saved is whatever digits you typed. It only appears while the field still holds the plan's own figure. Change the number, by typing or with the +/- steppers, and the marker steps out of the way for the rest of that set.

An exact target needs no marker, so it doesn't get one.

Open-ended sets: AMRAP and to failure

Two related things go by names worth knowing, because programs use them constantly and they mean different halves of the same idea.

AMRAP: "8+" in the plan

AMRAP stands for as many reps as possible. A routine set with an open-topped target is written 8+: do at least 8, then keep going as far as you can that day. The notation comes from 5/3/1-style programs, where the last set of a lift is deliberately left open so a good day and a bad day both count for what they were.

It is not the same as a rep range. An 8-10 target has a top you're meant to reach and then stop at; an 8+ target has a floor and no ceiling. A set can be one or the other, never both.

1+ is how you program a set to failure. At least one rep, then as many as you can - which is the whole instruction. There is no version without a floor, deliberately: every set carries a minimum, and the minimum is what "did I meet the plan?" is measured against.

To set one: open a routine's predefined sets, and under a working set tap + AMRAP. Warmups can't have one, and it replaces a rep range if the set had one.

Meeting the plan on an open target just means clearing the floor. Going well past it is the point of the set, not a second bar to clear - and an open set never triggers the "work toward N reps" progression prompt, because there's no top to work toward. See open-topped targets for how it behaves in a routine.

To failure: what you record afterward

Training to failure means taking a set until you can't complete another rep. Where AMRAP is what the plan asked for, this is what you report back: the To failure chip under Set details marks the set you just logged as having gone all the way, which is the same thing as recording RIR 0.

The two compose exactly as you'd expect. A 1+ set in your program is an instruction to go to failure; tapping To failure after it is you confirming that you did. Neither one implies the other, and you can use either without the other: log a to-failure set on a plain 8-rep target if that's how it went, or take an 8+ set to 12 and stop with something left.

The set details section

The Set details section holds the controls you reach for less often: the warmup toggle, the RPE/RIR steppers and the To failure chip. It starts collapsed, so the recorder opens as weight, reps and the complete check and nothing else. Tap its header to open it.

Nothing is hidden silently. When the section is collapsed, its header spells out anything that's in effect behind it - for example "Warm-up", "RPE 8" or "To failure" - so a set never saves with something you can't see. Open it or close it once and it stays that way everywhere, for every exercise, until you change it again. If you had already chosen one or the other in an earlier version, your choice is kept.

The context row

Under the input fields, one wrapping row carries the context for the set you're about to log: the machine, its attachment, the grip when the machine uses grips, the bar and the accessories when those apply, and the rest that will start when you finish. Tap any of them to change it, or long-press the machine chip to open that machine's own screen. They used to sit on three separate lines; sharing one row keeps the whole recorder on screen without scrolling.

Every chip has to earn its place, so you only ever see the ones that mean something for the exercise in front of you:

The bar chip appears on a barbell exercise, at a gym that has bars set up. The bar you pick feeds the plate calculator and your warm-ups, and your records are kept per bar.
The accessories chip appears on barbell and bodyweight exercises at a gym with accessories, and on a machine only when that machine is marked as supporting bands. You can attach several at once, and the chip reads back as a count with the colors beside it - "2 bands".

One thing to know before you attach an accessory: while an exercise has any accessory on it, every set of that exercise stays out of your personal records - it can't earn a PR badge and it can't block one either, so a banded 100 kg bench never stops a bare 95 kg bench from counting. Clear the accessories and those sets go back into the running. Badger records what you added but never guesses what it was worth: nothing about an accessory changes a weight, the plate math, or the stepper.

The stepper on dumbbells and kettlebells

If you've told a gym what's on its dumbbell or kettlebell rack, the + and − buttons walk that list instead of ticking by a fixed increment - so a rack that runs 5, 10, 15 up to 50 and then jumps moves the way the rack actually does. A line under the field says so: "Step: rack · My Gym".

Typing is untouched. You can still enter any weight at all, nothing is snapped or rejected, and a weight above or below the rack goes back to stepping by your ordinary increment. If a rack isn't set up yet, a quiet link under the field offers to do it.

Rest timer

The rest timer shows as a chip near the top of the training screen. While running, the chip counts down to zero, then plays a sound and/or vibration (configurable in Settings). Tap the chip to open the rest timer sheet.

Timer controls

Tap the rest chip to open the sheet. While the timer is running it shows three buttons:

Stop - Stop and dismiss the running timer.
+30s - Add 30 seconds to the running countdown.
Restart - Restart the countdown from the selected duration.

Pick one of the preset durations or type a custom number of seconds, then tap Start to begin a one-session timer at that length.

How rest duration is determined

Badger uses the following priority order:

One-session override (set via the rest chip dialog)
Routine-day inter-exercise rest (when switching between exercises in a superset group)
Exercise default rest (set in Exercise Settings)
Global default (set in Settings → Rest timer)
Last used duration
90-second fallback

Warmup sets use a separate, shorter rest duration - configurable per exercise or globally in Settings.

Set timer (timed exercises)

A timed exercise (a plank, a carry, anything measured in seconds) gets a countdown for the set itself, started from the training screen. It keeps honest wall-clock time: locking your phone or switching apps does not pause it, and when you come back it shows exactly where a stopwatch would be. If it runs out while your phone is locked, the set is marked done with its planned duration filled in, so you are not left holding a plank for a timer that quietly stopped.

On iPhone the spoken countdown carries on through a locked screen, so you hear the 30-second and 10-second warnings and "Time" at the end without touching the phone. A "Set complete" notification is the fallback, and it fires at the moment the set actually ended whenever Badger could not speak for itself: on Android, and on an iPhone where a call or another app took the audio mid-set.

If you would rather that notification arrived quietly, turn off Settings → Set timer → Set timer sound. The notification still appears, it just makes no sound. The spoken countdown cues are separate and keep working either way, and the rest timer keeps its own sound setting.

What Badger says while the set runs

With the app in front, a timed set is spoken rather than watched: a "3, 2, 1, Go" count into the start, a warning at 30 seconds and again at 10 seconds left, and "Time" at the end. On a long set you also get the minutes remaining - every minute under ten, every five minutes up to thirty, every ten minutes above that - so a 40-minute carry gets a handful of markers instead of a running commentary.

Pick the voice in Settings → Set timer → Set timer voice: Female, Male, or Off if you would rather train in silence. Tap a choice in the picker to hear it. The voices are recorded and bundled into the app, so they work with no signal, in airplane mode, and with no delay before the first word. If music is playing, Badger ducks it for the moment it speaks rather than stopping it.

The rest timer does not start after the last working set of your last exercise.

On your lock screen (iPhone)

On iPhone (iOS 16.2 and later), both timers appear as a Live Activity: a countdown card on the lock screen, and on models with the Dynamic Island, a compact countdown there while you're in another app. Tap it to jump back to your workout. The rest timer's card flips to "Rest done" when it finishes; a timed set shows "SET" while it runs and "SET DONE" when it ends, with the exercise name on the card.

The first time this happens, iOS asks "Allow Live Activities from Badger?" - that prompt comes from iOS itself, and allowing it is what lets the countdown show outside the app. You can change it later in iOS Settings under Badger.

On iOS 26.6 and later, a rest timer that finishes while your phone is locked plays the Badger sound you picked. Below that, iOS substitutes its own standard sound in this one situation. That's an iOS restriction on custom notification sounds, not a setting you can change.

Workout notification (Android)

While a workout is running, Badger keeps a notification in your notification bar showing the exercise you are on and the target for your next set, for example "85 kg × 8". It is there so you can check what is next from the lock screen or an always-on display without unlocking your phone. The elapsed workout time counts up next to it once the workout timer is running, and tapping the notification takes you back to the exercise you were on.

The notification follows you through the workout: it updates when you switch exercises, when a superset moves you to the next movement, and as you complete sets. If the current exercise has no sets left to do, it reads "No target set".

While the rest timer counts down, the same notification shows the countdown instead of the target, then goes back to showing the target when rest is over. Badger keeps this to a single notification rather than stacking a separate one for rest.

To turn it off, use Settings → App → Workout notification. Workouts you log for a past date never get one, since they are not timed. On iPhone the rest timer appears on the lock screen and Dynamic Island instead.

Skipping sets

If you need to skip a set (injury, time constraint, etc.), long-press it and select Skip. Skipped sets are shown with strikethrough text and excluded from all calculations. You can also skip or unskip all sets for an exercise at once via the ⋮ menu.

Skipping the last unresolved working set of an exercise auto-advances to the next exercise that still has work, exactly as completing it would. This respects the Auto-advance to next exercise setting (Settings → Logging) - turn it off to stay put. Skipping a set that isn't the last one to resolve leaves you where you are.

Supersets & exercise groups

A superset is a group of exercises you alternate between. When exercises are in the same superset:

They appear together as a named, colored block in exercise lists, and the training screen shows the superset's name under the exercise name.
After logging a set for one exercise in the group, Badger automatically switches to the next exercise (no rest timer between them).
After the last exercise in the round, the rest timer starts and you cycle back to the first exercise that still has work left.

Creating a superset

During a workout, open the training screen's ⋮ menu and tap Superset…, or open the All exercises list and tap Create superset. Check two or more exercises and confirm - the whole group is created in one step. Checking an exercise that already belongs to another superset moves it over (the row says so).

Editing a superset

Tap the superset's name - in the app bar during training, or on the block header in any exercise list - to open the superset editor. There you can:

Rename the superset and pick its color.
Drag members to set the order you alternate in.
Remove a single exercise without touching the rest of the group. If only one exercise would remain, the superset is removed automatically.
Add more exercises to the group.
Dissolve the superset entirely (with an Undo toast, and no logged data is affected).

The same flow works in the routine editor, and on past workouts from the workout summary screen - tap the superset header above an exercise card to fix up groupings after the fact.

Notes card

A collapsible card appears above the set input for exercises that have notes or technique instructions. Tap it to navigate to the full exercise notes screen. The card shows:

NOTES - your personal reminders for this exercise (form cues, machine settings, etc.).
INSTRUCTIONS - built-in technique cues (pre-filled for all built-in exercises).
GRIP - the currently selected grip type, when a machine with grip types is active. A quick reminder so you set up consistently every session.

The card expands automatically when you log an exercise that has personal notes.

Machine-scoped notes

When a machine is set, your personal notes become machine-specific. This means you can save different setup cues for the same exercise on different machines - for example, different seat-height reminders for two leg-press machines at the same gym.

The Exercise Settings screen title changes to "Notes · MachineName" when machine-scoped, making it clear which machine the notes apply to. Machine notes are shown in the notes card in the training screen alongside global instructions; global exercise notes are shown separately when both exist. The current attachment's notes appear in the same card, so a cue like "use the thick end" written on a rope reaches you at the cable station. Non-notes settings (increment, rest, instructions, muscle assignments) always apply globally to the exercise regardless of machine.

Per-set comments

Each set row has a comment icon on the right. Tap it to add or edit a comment for that set.

The comment icon shows a dot indicator if a comment already exists for that set.
Tap the icon to expand an inline text input field with a Save button.
Type your comment (e.g., "felt strong", "pain in elbow", "form was off") and tap Save to persist it.
Tap the icon again or collapse the field to save and close.
Comments are visible in your Workout Summary and History views (read-only).

Grip type

When a machine has grip types enabled (configured in the machine settings), a grip chip joins the context row under the input fields. Tap it to open the picker and choose the grip you used, or pick No grip to clear it again. The selected grip is also shown as a reminder in the notes card. Configure available grip types in You → Equipment → Machines.

Personal records

When a working set beats your all-time estimated 1RM for that exercise (on the same machine, if one is set), a trophy badge appears on the set row, a SnackBar notification appears at the bottom of the screen, and a haptic pulse fires (if haptics are enabled in Settings).

Records are also kept separately per bar, since a trap-bar deadlift and a straight-bar deadlift aren't the same lift. And sets logged with an accessory attached are left out of records in both directions - they never badge, and they never stand in the way of a bare set's record.

Progressive overload suggestions

While you're logging an exercise, Badger shows a suggestion line ("Suggested: 82.5 kg") directly above the input fields when you're ready to progress. The suggestion appears when all your working sets were completed in each of your last N sessions (configurable in Settings → Coaching, default: 3).

The suggested weight is your previous session's max weight plus your exercise's configured increment, then rounded to the nearest achievable step. When a machine is set, the machine's weight increment (if configured) is used as the rounding grid - so the suggestion always lands on a weight the machine can actually produce. The + and − buttons beside the weight field use the same grid, so a stack that steps by 10 moves by 10 - and a quiet line under the field says where that step came from: Step: 25 lbs · from Cybex Leg Press. On dumbbells and kettlebells a rack takes over from the grid. Tap × to dismiss the suggestion for this session.

The suggestion is machine-scoped: it looks at history for the same machine you currently have set. Switching machines gives you a fresh suggestion based on that machine's history.

Auto-progress routine weights

By default this is off. Turn it on in Settings → Coaching → "Auto-progress routine weights". When it's on and you finish a workout that you started from a routine, Badger checks each exercise where you completed all the planned sets, looking for weights heavier than the routine planned. If it finds any, the workout summary shows an "Update [Routine] · [Day]?" section listing each exercise you progressed - for example 80 → 82.5 kg.

Each progressed exercise has a checkbox (checked by default). Tap Update routine and the checked exercises' new weights are written back into the routine's predefined sets, so next time you run the routine it starts pre-filled with the heavier weight instead of suggesting the same bump again. Uncheck anything you don't want to carry over. (If you have "Workout timer auto-stop" enabled, the same section also appears on the completion pop-up when you finish your last set.)

A few things to know:

It only ever raises weights - never lowers them. A lighter or matched session changes nothing.
It matches set by set, so pyramid and back-off schemes keep their shape - only the sets you beat go up.
Warmups never count toward the comparison. And an exercise is only offered when every planned working set was completed - leave a planned set unfinished and that exercise sits out this time, so a half-done session can't raise your program.
Nothing is ever changed silently: the setting controls whether the offer appears, and the checkboxes are your confirmation.
If you swapped an exercise for an alternative mid-workout, that slot won't auto-progress (it's no longer the same exercise the routine planned).

Exercise navigation

Tap the All exercises pill at the bottom of the screen to open the exercise list for your current workout. From there you can:

Tap any exercise to switch to it.
Drag to reorder exercises.
Tap Add exercise to add another movement.

Training screen menu (⋮)

The top-right menu offers additional actions for the current exercise:

Replace exercise - Swap the current exercise for a different one. Existing sets remain attached.
Plate calculator - Opens the plate calculator pre-filled with your current weight. Shown only when plate math applies - see Tools.
Exercise settings - Open the exercise notes screen to adjust defaults, notes, and muscle assignments.
Change gym - Switch which gym is associated with this workout.
Set machine - Assign a machine and attachment to the current exercise. At the bottom of the machine picker, tap New machine… to create one inline without navigating away. Similarly, at the bottom of the attachment picker, tap New attachment… to add a new attachment on the spot.
Set bar - Pick which bar you're using, on a barbell exercise at a gym that has bars. New bar… at the bottom adds one on the spot.
Set accessories - Attach bands, chains or straps to this exercise. Several at once; tap Done when you're finished.

Resuming a workout

Forgot an exercise after you'd already finished? Open today's workout summary and tap Resume workout to reopen it and add what you missed. (Resume is only offered for today's workout.)

The elapsed timer behaves like a stopwatch: it picks up where it left off when you log the first set of the new exercise, so the idle time between finishing and resuming is not counted - only the extra active time is added. Adding a single set resumes and finishes almost instantly, so it adds essentially no time. Editing or re-marking sets on a finished workout never changes its recorded duration.

Exercise order

Did the exercises out of order - say a machine was free, so you jumped ahead? Badger records the order you actually performed them. As you complete the first set of each exercise, it slides into place in your done-so-far sequence; exercises you haven't started yet stay queued after. Your workout and its history then show the real order you trained, while your routine's planned order is left untouched for next time. You can still drag-reorder, and a drag sticks afterward if you want to nudge something.