Routines

A routine is a saved training program: a set of days, each with its exercises and planned sets. Start a workout from a routine and Badger fills in the exercises and starting weights for you.

Want a ready-made program instead? Badger includes ten; see Built-in programs.

Create a routine

  1. Go to You → Routines, tap + and enter a name.
  2. Tap the routine to open it, then tap Add day.
  3. Tap the day, then tap Add exercise. Tap each exercise you want for the day so it gets a check mark, then tap Add 3 exercises (the button counts your picks). They're added in the order you tapped them. Your picks stay checked while you search or switch category chips, and the Recent list at the top shows what you've logged lately. Each exercise starts with three empty sets. An exercise you added before this change, with no sets, starts its workout with three empty sets filled in from your last workout.
  4. Tap an exercise row to plan its sets: fill them in, or add and remove sets. Removing a planned set offers Undo.

Have a plan written down? Your AI can turn it into a Badger routine. See Use your own AI.

To change an exercise later, open its ⋮ menu and tap Replace exercise. If the exercise has a progression rule, Badger asks Replace (exercise)? first, because the new exercise starts without the rule and without its training max. Tap Replace to go ahead or Cancel to keep it.

To turn workouts you've already logged into a routine, see Create a routine from your history.

Start a workout from a routine

  1. Make the routine active: open it and tap Set as active program at the top. Its days appear on the Today screen. Only one routine is active at a time, so this replaces the one Today showed before.
  2. On the Today screen, tap a day. The routine log preview opens with the day's exercises and their sets.
  3. Uncheck any exercise you want to leave out, or tap Swap to replace one for this workout only.
  4. Tap Start.

The preview also shows an estimated duration. During a deload week, a deload bar at the top shows the reductions, with a toggle to use full weights for this workout. An exercise with a progression rule shows the weight its rule proposes; see What the routine log preview shows.

Energy check-in and lighter days

With Energy check-in on, the preview asks How is your energy today? before you start. Tap Low, Usual or High, compared with a usual training day, or tap Not today to skip. It's off until you turn it on in Settings → Coaching.

Usual and High change nothing. Low offers a lighter day:

  • Each lift's working weight drops to 90%, rounded to a load you can make. Sets and reps stay as planned.
  • A 90% tag on a lift shows what was reduced. Tap it to put that lift back to its full weight. Use full weights in the bar at the top does it for every lift.
  • Assisted exercises, where less weight is harder, keep their weight.
  • During a deload week or a comeback week, the weights are already lighter, so there's no offer.

A lighter day doesn't change your program. It isn't a miss, and your rule's weight stays where it was: the next preview reads Holding: last session was a lighter day and judges you against your full weight.

Your answer is saved with the workout and shows on the summary under How it felt.

Which day comes next

Only one routine is active at a time, and it sits at the top of the routine list with an accent border. On an alternating program (A/B days not tied to weekdays), the Today screen highlights the next day in the sequence and moves it to the top once you finish the one before.

You can still start any day. If the days are assigned to weekdays, the Today screen highlights today's.

You can also start a day you already did today. The preview says it counts as a new session, and progression rules run again. The routine moves on once for each routine-day session, in the order you started them, and a free workout never moves it. See Do a routine day twice.

Where starting weights come from (weight source)

Open the Weights and reps section below the days on the routine screen (it's collapsed until you tap it). Pre-fill weights from sets this:

  • Last time (default) - The weight from your most recent workout of each exercise, wherever that workout came from.
  • Routine - The planned set weights only. A set marked "Copy from previous" uses its planned value.
  • Both - Planned weights first, then your last performance where none is set.

Which past workouts count (history scope)

History from, in the same Weights and reps section:

  • Any workout (default) - Looks at all your previous workouts.
  • This routine - Only workouts started from this routine. Use this when you run two programs at once.

Where reps come from (rep target)

Rep target, in the same section:

  • Last time (default) - Reps copy from your last session.
  • Plan - Reps stay pinned to the planned sets. Use this for strict programs such as StrongLifts 5×5, where the rep count shouldn't drift.

Weight still follows the weight source. An exercise with a progression rule always takes its reps from the plan.

Plan the sets

Tap an exercise row in a routine day to open its planned sets. Drag to reorder them. Each set can have:

  • Weight - A value, or "Copy from previous" to use the weight from your most recent session.
  • Reps - A value, or "Copy from previous".
  • Rep range - A top end, so the target reads "8-10". See Rep ranges.
  • Open target (AMRAP) - No top end, so the target reads "8+". See Open-topped targets.
  • Warmup flag - Marks the set as a warmup.
  • Left and right - Plans the set for each arm. See Left and right in a routine.
  • Rest time - How long to rest after this set. See Rest per set.
  • Set type - Makes the set a drop set, myo-reps or rest-pause. See Plan them in a routine.
  • RPE, RIR or To failure - How hard the set should feel. See Intensity targets.
  • Percentage, driver and week - Progression controls, shown when the exercise has a rule or the day is waved. See Progression.

Add set starts a new set as a copy of the last one of its kind: a working set copies the last working set, and Add warm-up copies the last warm-up. Change what differs.

On a timed exercise, type the digits of the time: 2, 0, 0, 0 reads 20:00, a twenty-minute ride. See Typing a duration.

Rep ranges

Tap + rep range under a working set and set the top end. The target then reads "8-10" in the editor, on the routine log preview, above the set recorder while you train, and on the workout summary.

The lower number is the one to hit: 8 reps or more on an "8-10" set meets the plan. Below 8 is under plan, marked on the summary with a small caret. Warmups can't have a range.

A range is what the double progression suggestion works from.

Open-topped targets (AMRAP)

Tap + AMRAP under a working set and the target reads 8+: at least 8 reps, then as many as you can that day. AMRAP stands for as many reps as possible, and 1+ is how you program a set to failure.

  • A set is either ranged or open: setting one replaces the other. Warmups can't be open either.
  • An 8+ set meets the plan at 8.
  • Raise the rep number and the set stays open: an 8+ becomes a 12+.

See AMRAP and to failure for logging one. To ask for failure on a set with an exact target or a range, such as 8-10, use the To failure target instead.

Intensity targets (RPE, RIR and to failure)

A set can say how hard it should feel as well as how heavy: RPE 8, RIR 2 or To failure. Tap + Effort target beside the rep-target controls on a working set.

Then use the same switch and numbers you log with: pick RIR (0 to 5+) or RPE (6 to 10), then a number. It opens on your Effort scale setting. Switching scales converts the target (RIR 2 becomes RPE 8). Tap the picked number again to clear the target.

The target shows beside the set on the log preview, and above the entry area on the training screen: Plan 8-10 @ RPE 8. That set's RPE or RIR also starts at the target, so logging it as planned takes no tap.

  • Pick one: setting RPE, RIR or To failure clears the other two.
  • Targets are whole numbers, matching how you log RPE. A half-step target in an imported file rounds up.
  • Warmups can't have a target.
  • The target is a guide while you log. The one place Badger compares it with what you logged is Hold after an all-out set, if you turn it on.

To failure

Use the To failure chip when the program says to keep going until a rep fails, for example "8-10, to failure". It works with any rep target: an exact number, a range, or an AMRAP. The training screen shows Plan 8-10 to failure.

To failure is not RIR 0. RIR 0 asks you to stop when one more rep would fail; To failure asks for the rep that fails.

The chip follows the numbers on either scale. Tap it to switch the set to failure, and the numbers grey out. Tap it again to clear the target.

Left and right in a routine

On an exercise set to Optional, tap the Left and right chip on a planned set to plan it for each arm. On an Always exercise every planned set is already left and right. Set this on the exercise or its machine; see Left and right sets.

  • One rep target or range applies to each arm, so the target reads "8-10 each arm".
  • Starting the workout carries the mark onto the sets you log, and the last-session values fill the left and right fields.
  • A left and right set meets the plan only when both arms do. Progression rules judge the weaker arm.

Plan by total reps

For work like pull-ups, plan one number of reps instead of a list of sets. Open the exercise in a routine day and tap Plan by total reps instead. The set list becomes a single number: Any number of sets. Warm-ups don't count. Tap Plan by sets instead to switch back.

Starting the workout carries the target in, and you count it down as described under Total rep target.

Raise the target when you reach it

In the exercise's Progression section, turn on Raise the target when you reach it and set Add N rep(s) each time. After a workout where you reached the target, the next one asks for that many more. Miss it and the next workout asks for the same number again.

Rest per set

Tap + Rest time beside + rep range and + Effort target on a set to give it its own rest. The set then shows a Rest: 5:00 chip. Type the time (5, 0, 0 reads 5:00) or pick a preset.

Mark only the sets that differ. Set Rest between sets once on the exercise (see Per-exercise settings) and every set without its own rest uses it. A 5/3/1 top set can rest 5:00 while the other sets rest 2:00.

  • Duplicate set copies the rest, and Add set starts from the last set of its kind, rest included.
  • When you mark a set as a warm-up, Badger offers once to use 1:00 after every warm-up. A warm-up with no rest of its own rests for the exercise's warm-up rest, then the warm-up default in Settings, then 1:00.
  • A set that belongs to one week of a program keeps its own rest. A set set to Every week has one rest for all weeks.
  • In a superset the rest runs when a round ends, so a member's rest counts only on the set that closes the round.

While you train, the chip reads Rest: 5:00 · this set. Changing it mid-workout can save back to the set or to the exercise: see Change the rest mid-workout.

Quick edit

Quick edit, next to Day options on each day card, puts every exercise on the day on one screen, with fields for its first working set: weight and reps, or whichever fields the exercise type uses. Change a value and submit to save. Tap an exercise name to open its full set editor.

Quick edit shows a rep range read-only. Raise the reps past the top of the range and the range is dropped for an exact target.

Per-exercise settings in a routine

Each exercise in a routine also has settings of its own, separate from the planned sets:

  • Weight increment override
  • Notes override
  • Tempo: tap the Tempo row to open the tempo picker. The routine page and the log preview show it on the exercise's line.
  • Exercise Type - when the exercise has more than one type, choose Last used or one of its types. Last used means whichever type you logged last time, else the exercise's default. The slot's planned sets follow the type.
  • Default machine and attachment
  • Default bar
  • Default grip type (when the machine has grip types)
  • Default accessories - the band, chain or straps you always use on that exercise, attached for you each time you log the day. Sets with an accessory attached don't count toward personal records.

Rest between sets on the exercise in a routine sets the rest for every set that has none of its own, in minutes and seconds. It beats the exercise's own default rest, which still applies in a free workout and in routines that leave this empty. See How long the rest is.

Organize days and routines

Schedule a day

Open the day's Day options and set Scheduled days to pick weekdays. A calendar icon then appears on the day row - tap it to change them. The day shows as scheduled on the Today screen on those days, and as short labels (Mon, Wed, Fri) on the row.

Not scheduled yet? Once you train an active routine of three or more days on three dates, Today shows a one-time tip. Pick weekdays opens the next day's Day options; after Save you stay on the routine for the others. Two-day A/B routines skip it: they alternate on purpose.

Two days of one routine can share a weekday, for a planned double such as a morning run and an evening lift. The day editor then shows a plan line, for example "Mon and Fri: two sessions. Easy run first, then Upper A", with no conflict warning.

The routine's day order decides which comes first, so reorder the days to swap them. On that weekday, Today marks the session still to do as Up next. See More than one workout a day.

Scheduled days count only on your active program. Its days set your workout reminders and put the faint dots on the History calendar. Another routine's scheduled days do neither until you make it active.

Day options

Open a day's Day options:

  • Default gym - The gym this day is done at.
  • Notes - Shown as a banner at the top of the training screen when you start the day, such as "Focus on pause reps today". Dismissing it hides it for that workout only.
  • Wave - Run the day as a cycle of weeks. See Waved days.

Routine notes

The Notes section on the routine detail screen holds notes for the whole program: why you chose it, the current cycle, a target date. Tap it (or Add notes) to open the editor. Routine notes go with the routine when you share it as a .badger file.

Folders

Tap the folder icon in the top bar of the routine list to create a folder. To move a routine into one, tap the routine's ⋮ and pick the folder. Routines outside any folder appear under "Other". Deleting a folder offers Undo.

Progression

Progression rules, training maxes, percentage sets, waves and the overload suggestion are on the Progression page:

Supersets in routines

Open the ⋮ menu on an exercise in the routine detail screen, choose Superset…, check the exercises to group and confirm. Tap the group's colored header to rename, recolor, reorder, add or remove exercises, or dissolve it. Workouts started from the routine keep the groups. In a superset, rest runs when a round ends. See Supersets.

Alternative exercises

Give an exercise up to two alternatives so you can swap mid-workout when a machine is taken or something hurts.

  1. On the routine detail screen, open the exercise's ⋮ menu and choose Manage alternatives….
  2. Search for and add up to two alternatives. Changes save immediately.

Each alternative row's own ⋮ menu can remove it (Remove alternative, with Undo) or make it the default.

To swap during the workout, open the training screen's ⋮ menu and tap Switch to alternative…. The original is listed too, labeled (original), so you can switch back. You can also pick an alternative before you start, from the swap icon on the routine log preview.

A swap lasts for that workout only. The new exercise comes in with its own recent weights, your routine stays the same, and your history records what you actually did.

Swap exercise: when there's no alternative set up

Open the training screen's ⋮ menu and tap Swap exercise (it reads Switch to alternative… when alternatives exist, and opens the same sheet). This works in free workouts too.

If you skip an exercise before logging a set on it, a card asks Equipment taken? and offers the same sheet with a Swap exercise button. A swap is for today only.

The Suggestions section lists up to eight substitutes:

  • They share a primary muscle with the exercise you're replacing.
  • They're available where you are. A machine exercise appears only when a machine linked to it is at your workout's gym. Barbell, dumbbell, cable, band, kettlebell and bodyweight exercises always appear, and so does every machine exercise when the workout has no gym.
  • Exercises you've marked avoided are left out, as are the other exercises in the same superset.
  • Exercises you've done come first, most recent first, with a "last done" date. Matches on equipment type sort ahead of the rest.

Nothing fits? Tap Browse library at the bottom to open the full exercise picker. Every swap works the same way: this workout only, with the substitute's own recent weights.

If you've already completed sets

Badger asks first. By default, the completed sets stay on the exercise you did, and the substitute takes the remaining sets. If you logged under the wrong exercise, check the box to move everything to the new one. The Swap button's text changes to match.

Make an alternative the permanent default

For a longer stretch (an injury, travel, a machine that's gone), open the alternative's ⋮ menu on the Manage alternatives screen and tap Make default. It becomes the routine's exercise, and the old one moves into the alternatives list so you can switch back later.

The confirmation offers to set the new exercise's target weights from its own history. Its machine, attachment and grip defaults reset; the set and rep scheme stays.

Duplicate a routine

In the routine list, tap the routine's ⋮, tap Duplicate and name the copy. It includes all days, exercises, planned sets and groups.

Long-pressing a routine opens the same actions as its ⋮.

Duplicate a day

When a new day repeats most of one you already have, such as a second upper-body day, copy it instead of entering it again. On the routine detail screen, tap the day's ⋮, tap Duplicate day and name the copy. It appears right below the original, in the same routine.

The copy has the same exercises in the same order, the same supersets, and the same planned sets with their reps, weights and intensity targets. Progression rules come along too. Two things stay behind:

  • Scheduled weekdays. The copy starts unscheduled, so two days never land on the same weekday by accident. Schedule it yourself.
  • Progress. A lift that already progresses together with other days keeps doing so on the copy. If only one of those days moves the weight, as in Madcow, the copy follows that day and doesn't move it. Any other lift with a rule starts its own progress on the copy.

Delete a day or an exercise

Delete a day or an exercise from a day and it goes at once, with an Undo at the bottom of the screen. Undo brings back the slot with its progression rule, training max and progress. See Undo a delete.

Archive a routine

Archive a routine you no longer use to take it out of your routine list without losing anything. In the routine list, tap the routine's ⋮ and tap Archive. The same option is in the ⋮ menu inside the routine. Tap Undo right after if you change your mind.

Archived routines move to Archived at the bottom of the list. Tap it to see them. To bring one back, tap its ⋮ and tap Restore. Its days, training maxes and progress are as you left them, and past workouts keep their routine.

An archived routine doesn't appear when you pick a routine to start. If you archive your active routine, Badger asks first, and no routine is active until you pick one.

Delete a routine

In the routine list, tap the routine's ⋮, tap Delete and confirm. The same option is in the ⋮ menu inside the routine. The confirm lists what goes with it: the days, training maxes and progression rules. Tap Undo afterward to bring it all back.

Workouts you logged from the routine stay in History. If you delete the active routine, no routine is active until you set another one. To keep a routine's progress but get it out of the list, archive it instead.

Create a routine from your history

Turn past workouts into a multi-day routine, one day per workout, with their exercises, sets and warmups.

  1. Go to History and switch to List view.
  2. Long-press a workout card, then tap more cards to select them.
  3. Tap Create routine in the top bar.
  4. Follow the four steps:
    1. Name - Name the routine.
    2. Settings - Choose a weight source and history scope.
    3. Day names - Each day is named after its workout's weekday ("Monday"). Rename any of them.
    4. Confirm - Review and tap Create routine.

The new routine opens right away, with days ordered oldest to newest. To cancel, tap ✕ or press back.

From the History card

If you repeat workouts and have no routine of your own, History may show a card: You repeat a workout. Tap Create routine and the sheet opens with the newest workout of each repeated session already picked.

Each session becomes one day. Repeat a push, a pull and a leg day, and you get a three-day routine; the card tells you the number first. A session you did ten times still makes one day.

Share a routine

Two options sit side by side in the routine's ⋮ menu:

  • Send routine file shares a .badger file. Whoever opens it gets the routine itself, ready to use.
  • Share as image makes a card of the plan in your theme and accent, sized for a post. You see a preview, then your phone's share sheet opens.

From the routine's ⋮ menu, the image is an overview: the routine's name, days per week, and each day's exercises, sets and reps. From a day's ⋮ menu, it's that day: the program and day name, a "Day 1 of 4" mark, a summary line, and each exercise's set count and target.

On a day card, a lift with a progression rule has the rule printed under it. If every lift on the day has the same rule, it's printed once at the bottom. A lift whose sets change by week or stage (5/3/1's main lift, a GZCLP tier) shows all of them as a short ladder with no current mark.

Weights on a shared image

The image shows sets and reps without weights unless you turn on Include my weights on the share sheet. The switch starts off each time. Percentage sets always show their percentage (say 65% of your training max), with the switch on or off.

What a routine file carries

A .badger file carries the days, sets, rep targets, rest times, routine notes, each exercise's own note, weight increment and default grip, where starting reps come from, progression rules, percentage sets, driver flags and waves. It doesn't carry your training max, photos or private setup notes, so whoever opens it sets their own training max. See the format reference.

Built-in programs

Badger includes 11 programs in 3 folders. A new install has all of them. If you've used Badger a while, Full Body Starter is added when you update; download any other from the Programs page, or add rules to a routine you already have with Set up progression. Six of the programs come with progression rules already written.

In You → Routines, each program shows a one-line description and tags for the equipment it needs: Barbell, Squat rack, Machines or Dumbbells.

Beginner

  • Full Body Starter - Two full-body days, Day A and Day B, that you alternate three times a week, on machines and dumbbells. Most exercises are 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps. It has no training max and no progression rule: when a set feels easy at the top of its reps, add a little weight next time.
  • StrongLifts 5×5 - Two alternating full-body days (A and B), 5 sets of 5 on the major compound lifts. Adds weight every session you complete, drops 10% after three misses in a row, and moves down a stage ladder (5×5, 3×5, 1×5) as you stall. New copies rest 3:00 after work sets and 1:30 after warm-ups.
  • Starting Strength - Similar to StrongLifts, with slightly different exercises and 3×5 progression. When you stall, its rule halves your increment instead of deloading you.

Intermediate

  • GZCLP - Cody Lefever's three-tier program: heavy compounds (T1), medium compounds (T2) and accessory work (T3). T1 runs 5×3 (last set as many reps as you can), then 6×2, then 10×1. T2 runs 3×10, then 3×8, then 3×6. T3 is 3×15 with the last set as many reps as you can, and the weight goes up once that set reaches 25. T1 and T2 have their own stage ladder; T3's rule has none. New copies rest 3:00 after T1, 2:00 after T2 and 1:00 after T3.
  • 5/3/1 BBB - Wendler's 5/3/1 main sets, then Boring But Big 5×10 on the same lift (press on Press Day, deadlift on Deadlift Day, bench on Bench Day, squat on Squat Day), both as percentages of one training max on a four-week wave. Week 4 (the deload) still includes the 5×10. Badger asks for each training max when you make the program active; the rule raises it at the end of each cycle unless the plus set came up short. If you added 5/3/1 BBB before 1.1.15, your copy keeps its original pairing (bench on Press Day, squat on Deadlift Day, press on Bench Day, deadlift on Squat Day).
  • nSuns 531LP - A long percentage ramp each session off a training max, with one driver set whose reps decide the week's increment.
  • Madcow 5×5 - Weekly progression. Every set is a percentage of the lift's top set, and all three days of a lift share that number. It deloads 10% after two missed weeks.

Splits

  • PPL + Upper/Lower 5-Day - Push, pull and legs, then an upper and a lower day, with rep ranges instead of fixed rep counts.
  • PPL 6-Day - Push/Pull/Legs twice per week.
  • Upper/Lower 4-Day - Two upper-body and two lower-body days per week.
  • Full Body 3-Day - Three full-body sessions per week.
Note: Built-in programs use standard exercise names. If you've renamed or customized exercises, you may need to swap them in the routine after installing.