Tools and calculators

The plate calculator, the 1RM calculator and a percent-of-max table, all under You → Calculators; the warm-up calculator on the training screen; and deload under Settings → Coaching.

Calculators without a workout

Open You → Calculators to use these with no workout running:

1RM - enter a weight and reps to get your estimated one-rep max.
Plate calculator - which plates to load for a weight. See Plate calculator below.
Percent of max - working weights from 50% to 100% of a max. See Percent of max.

Outside a workout, the calculators use your gym's plates: your only gym, or the one marked default. With several gyms and none marked default, they use your default plate set. The bar starts at that plate set's bar, 20 kg (45 lb) unless you changed it, and you can type a different one.

Percent of max

Enter your max to see a row for every 5% from 50% to 100%. Each row shows a weight you can load on the bar with your plates, and the plates for each side.

Don't know your max? Tap Estimate from a set, enter a recent set's weight and reps, and tap Use as my max.

Using a different bar? Type its weight in Bar and the rows round to that bar.

Plate calculator

The plate calculator tells you which plates to load for a target weight. On the training screen, tap ⋮ → Plate calculator. It opens with your current working weight filled in. Without a workout, open it from You → Calculators.

Modes

Dual-loaded (barbell, leg press) - Subtracts the bar weight, then splits the rest evenly across both sides. The default bar is 20 kg (45 lb), which you can change in Settings → Units and equipment → Default bar; set your own per exercise, per machine, or by picking a bar.
Single-loaded (T-bar, landmine) - Puts the full target weight on one side, with no bar weight subtracted.

A machine can also be set to None, which turns the calculator off for it.

Plate configuration

Tap the settings icon to set up your plates: weight, color and how many you have of each. You can turn a plate size on or off. The calculator loads the heaviest plate that fits first, within the quantities you set.

Plates are kept per gym. During a workout the calculator uses that workout's gym's plates, in the unit you're logging in. Edit them in You → Gyms → (gym) → Plate assortment. A gym with no plates of its own uses your default set. Settings → Units and equipment → Plates and racks opens your default gym's plates.

Remaining weight

If your plates can't make the target exactly, the calculator shows the closest load you can make and how far off it is.

Use this load

Tap Use this load to put the calculator's total into the weight field, so you log what's actually on the bar.

When the calculator isn't offered

The plate calculator, and the plate shortcut on a set row, show only on plate-loaded equipment: a barbell exercise, a machine set to Plate loaded (or given its own plate calculator mode), an exercise you set to Single-loaded, or an exercise with no equipment type (an import, say). Cable, dumbbell and pin-stack exercises never offer it, and neither does cardio.

It is also hidden on a selectorized machine, on a machine whose Plate calculator setting is None, and on any exercise with no weight field (a plank, a set of pull-ups). To get it on a leg press, open ⋮ → Set machine… and mark that machine Plate loaded. Machine settings are on Gyms and equipment.

Warm-up calculator

On the training screen, tap the Warm-up calc chip beside the warmup toggle. It builds a warm-up ramp from your working weight and, when you confirm, adds the sets you keep to the start of your set list.

Pick Percent or Plates, set how many warm-up sets you want, and uncheck any you don't want. Three sets on Percent gives the classic 40% × 8, 60% × 5, 80% × 3.

Each set is rounded to a load your equipment can make (the gym's plates for a barbell or plate-loaded machine, the stack increment for a selectorized one) and never goes above your working weight. Two sets that round to the same weight merge into one. If the exercise already has warmup sets, the button reads Replace warmup sets.

Set your usual style and number of warm-up sets in Settings → Logging sets. If a routine already plans warmup sets, Badger uses those.

Deload

Deload watches for signs of built-up fatigue and schedules a lighter week. It's off until you turn it on in Settings → Coaching → Deload. You can still start a deload week yourself with it off.

Turn it on

Turn on Enable deload detection. The detection methods start on, at their defaults, and you can adjust or turn off any of them.

What triggers a deload

Any one of these can trigger a deload, and each can be turned on or off:

Time-based - After a set number of training weeks since your last deload. Default 4 weeks, adjustable from 4 to 8.
Effort - When your weekly average effort stays at or below a threshold for every week in a window. Sets logged as RPE count too (RPE 9 is the same as RIR 1). The threshold follows your Effort scale: with RIR it reads "Trigger when avg RIR ≤" and with RPE it reads "Trigger when avg RPE ≥". Defaults: RIR 1 or lower (RPE 9 or higher) over the last 2 weeks; you can set the threshold from RIR 0 to 2 (RPE 8 to 10) and the window from 2 to 4 weeks. A week where you logged no RIR or RPE counts as close to failure when your rated sessions average a session effort of 9 or more.
Low energy - When you answered Low in 3 of your last 4 energy check-ins, all within 14 days. It's listed only while Energy check-in is on.
Performance-based - When no exercise has improved over your last few sessions (default 3). It catches a stall across the board.

When the deload week starts

When a trigger fires, your deload week starts at the beginning of next week (by your Week start setting). A banner on the Today screen shows where you are:

Scheduled (before the week starts) - "Deload week next week." You can dismiss it.
Active (during the week) - Why the deload was suggested (for example, "It has been several weeks since your last deload") and when the week ends. This banner stays up all week.

Automatic reductions

During an active deload week, starting a routine workout lightens its planned sets:

Weight reduction - Weights drop to a percentage of your normal load (you choose, for example 50%).
Set reduction - A number of sets is removed from each exercise (you choose). Warmup sets are kept.
Minimum sets - Sets are never removed below this number.

The routine log preview lists the reductions, and you can edit any value before tapping Start. Reduced weights are rounded to a load you can make, such as 230 lb in place of 231.5 lb.

The lighter weights don't carry forward. Your next normal week starts from your real working weights.

A workout you start without a routine during a deload week is a deload workout too. Each exercise's first set starts at the reduced percentage of your last normal session. Type over it and your number wins. A deload that only removes sets leaves these workouts alone.

Coming back after six weeks or more off? Today offers a separate lighter week at 60%, even with deload detection off. See Coming back after a break.

Reductions are applied when the preview opens, so an exercise you swap in afterwards isn't reduced. The energy check-in doesn't offer a lighter day during a deload week.

Go ahead or skip

The first time you start a workout during a deload week, Badger asks what you want to do:

Start deload - Log the workout with the reduced weights and sets.
Skip, full weights - Use your normal weights this time. The deload week carries on for your other workouts.

You're asked once per deload week. After that, switch any workout with the Use full weights / Use deload toggle on the deload bar in the routine log preview.

Start or end a deload yourself

In Settings → Coaching → Deload:

Start a deload week - Choose Start now (lighter for the rest of this week) or Next week. It works even with detection off.
End deload - End an active or scheduled deload early and go back to normal weights.