Programs you can import

Each of these is a .badger file: a routine you download, open on your phone, and import into Badger in one step.

All ten are also built into the app, under More → Routines, on a new install. Already using Badger? Programs added in an update don't appear in a routine list you already have, so import the file to get one.

Where a program has a rule for what happens next session (drop 10% after three misses, add 2.5 kg when every set lands), the rule comes with the file.

You can also use a file to:

• read a program before you commit to it
• edit it before you import it
• send it to a training partner
• give it to an AI as a worked example of the file format (the Use your own AI guide has the prompts)

Ten programs, ready to import

• StrongLifts 5x5

  Beginner · 3 days a week

  2 sessions · 6 exercises · 46 sets · 6.5 KB

  Two sessions you alternate, five sets of five on the barbell lifts, and you add weight the moment you finish all your reps. In the app that is written as a rule you can read in one sentence, including the deload after three misses in a row and the 5x5 to 3x5 to 1x5 stall ladder it walks you down. It is the shortest route to a real squat, bench, row, press and deadlift, and it runs out somewhere around your first stubborn plateau.

  Download stronglifts-5x5.badger

• Starting Strength

  Beginner · 3 days a week

  2 sessions · 6 exercises · 16 sets · 5.0 KB

  The same alternating shape as StrongLifts with three work sets instead of five, so each session is shorter and easier to recover from. In the app its rule drops the weight 10% when you stall and halves your increment on the way back up. It asks more of your technique and of how much you eat than of your schedule.

  Download starting-strength.badger

• Full Body

  Beginner · 3 days a week

  1 session · 7 exercises · 21 sets · 2.1 KB

  One session, run three times a week, covering everything each time. A sensible pick when three days is all you have and you would rather not think about splits.

  Download full-body-3-day.badger

• GZCLP

  Late beginner · 4 days a week

  4 sessions · 12 exercises · 132 sets · 13.6 KB

  Three tiers a session: a heavy main lift, a lighter second movement, and accessory volume, rotating across four days. In the app the T1 and T2 stage ladders are written as a rule, so when a lift stalls Badger moves it to the next stage and says so, instead of leaving the bookkeeping to you.

  Download gzclp.badger

• 5/3/1 Boring But Big

  Intermediate · 4 days a week

  4 sessions · 16 exercises · 92 sets · 10.2 KB

  One main lift a day over a four-week cycle: 5s, then 3s, then a 1+ single, then a lighter week, with five sets of ten of the same lift behind it. Every working set is a percentage of a training max rather than a weight, and Badger holds that number per lift, raises it at the end of a cycle, and holds it back if you missed the minimum on the way through. The first program here that is a wave rather than a ladder.

  Download 531-bbb.badger

• nSuns 531LP

  Intermediate · 4 days a week

  4 sessions · 16 exercises · 92 sets · 11.7 KB

  A denser take on 5/3/1: nine working sets of the main lift, all percentage-based, with one marked as the set that decides what happens next. Hit enough reps on it and the training max goes up this week rather than at the end of a cycle. It asks for more work per session than anything else on this page.

  Download nsuns-531lp.badger

• Madcow 5x5

  Intermediate · 3 days a week

  3 sessions · 9 exercises · 45 sets · 6.9 KB

  The usual step after StrongLifts stops working: a heavy day, a light day and a medium day each week, with the lighter days written as percentages of the heavy one so the whole week moves together when the top set does. Progress is weekly instead of per session.

  Download madcow-5x5.badger

• Upper / Lower

  Intermediate · 4 days a week

  4 sessions · 22 exercises · 74 sets · 6.2 KB

  Two heavy days and two lighter, higher-rep days across a four-day week. A reasonable next step when full-body sessions start taking an hour and a half.

  Download upper-lower-4-day.badger

• Push / Pull / Legs + Upper / Lower

  Intermediate · 5 days a week

  5 sessions · 29 exercises · 94 sets · 9.2 KB

  Push, pull and legs on the first three days, then an upper day and a lower day, with every set written as a rep range you work up through before you add weight. It is the usual answer to five days a week: more volume than upper/lower gives you, without asking for the sixth session that push/pull/legs does.

  Download ppl-ul-5-day.badger

• Push / Pull / Legs

  Intermediate · 6 days a week

  3 sessions · 17 exercises · 55 sets · 4.8 KB

  Push, pull and legs, run through twice, with one rest day. It only pays off if six sessions a week is realistic for you; at four or five, upper/lower does more with your time.

  Download ppl-6-day.badger

Exported from Badger 1.1.11, schema share/v1.

How to import one

1. Download the file on the phone you train with. It saves like any other download.
2. Tap the file. Badger opens a preview showing the routine name, how many days it has, and which exercises it will add to your library. You can also open it from your file manager, or from Files on an iPhone.
3. Tap Import. The routine appears under Routines, ready to start. Nothing you already have is overwritten: exercises you own are reused by name, and a routine with the same name as one of yours arrives as "(imported)".

More detail in routines and your data.

How the programs progress

Where a program has a rule for what happens next session, Badger runs it for you. Six of these programs come with their rules already set up in the app: StrongLifts 5x5, Starting Strength, GZCLP, 5/3/1 BBB, nSuns 531LP and Madcow 5x5. The file format lists the keys a rule is written with.

• A rule you can read

  Each exercise in a program can carry one progression rule, written as a sentence. StrongLifts reads: "After 3 misses, drop 10%. When all working sets hit the plan, add 2.5 kg." Tap any number to change it. When Badger proposes a weight, it names the part of the rule that fired. More

• A training max, and percentages of it

  Badger keeps a training max for each lift: a number set a little below your one-rep max that never goes on the bar. Percentage sets are worked out from it and rounded to your own plates, bar and machine, so you can load what you read. A shared file carries the percentages, and whoever imports it sets their own training max. More

• AMRAP sets that drive the rule

  You can mark one set as the one that drives progression, usually an open-topped set like 5+. The reps you get on it decide what comes next. nSuns scales the increase by how many reps you get on your 5+ set; 5/3/1 adds a fixed amount at the end of each cycle instead, and holds it back if a week fell short. More

• Waved days

  A day can run as a cycle of weeks, like 5/3/1's four. Each week's sets are written once, and the preview shows the right week when you train. Accessory work you do every week is written once and shows up in all of them. More

Want a program that isn't here? Email hello@badger.fit and say which one.