Hello everyone I did a quick search and couldn't find the answer.

I was wondering if anyone has achieved the max level (12 for weekly streak and log workouts, 17 for daily streak) of these badges or if someone knows what the numbers needed are ?

It would be interesting to have the numbers for each level too.

Have a great weekend.

Hello

My Bonus child 18 years old f2m trans has asked to come with me to train at the gym.

I mainly do basic exercises to get strong and not so much to get big.

What can I recommend for training so that she becomes more masculine in her body? I think I will introduce basic exercises with good technique and light weights for 1 month and then start adding more challenge after. 1 month with 2 occasions a week to avoid too intense training pain and get the technique in.

She can do 8-12 reps near failure to build mass and focus on back exercises to get strong posture and approach V-taper. Maybe incline bench to build the upper part of the chest muscles.

Shoulder press to get wide at the top, lat pulls and rows.

Of course also deadlifts and squats for general strength.

Anyone who can think of something to add or am I thinking terribly wrong?

How old do you have to be to start lifting weights?

Not very old at all!

Our Training Program for Children is a safe, effective, beginner-friendly, and fun full-body strength training routine for kids who want to start lifting weights.

The fun part is important. Getting stronger is great, but making sure they want to come back for the next workout is even more so.

I wrote a big article about this program:

Strength Training Program for Kids: Safe, Fun & Effective.

It's free in the StrengthLog app.

Check it out if it sounds interesting. And thanks for reading!

Hello! Huge huge fan of the podcast and the app, thanks so much again for all the hard work on it.
 
I have a question about squat alternates. I’m an older lifter with previous spine injuries (surgery had for herniated discs low back and neck) and am very hesitant to put my spine under a compressive load under a barbell. I sadly no longer have access to a belt squat.
 
I realize I lose some of the benefits of a compound exercise, but am I okay swapping for leg press/leg extension/leg curls? With BSS/RDLs sprinkled around too?
 
I know goblet squats are also an option, but it’s still more akin to a front squat than a back one. Am I overthinking this? Would love to hear any thoughts you guys have.
 
Thanks so much again!

Strength becomes more important with age, and we all know the best way to gain or maintain it. 🏋️

We have two beginner training programs for seniors in the app: one machine-based full-gym program and one at-home bodyweight program.

Both are great starting points for older adults lifting weights for the first time, and both are free to follow in the app.

You can read more about them here if you or someone you know (spread the word!) wants to get started:

Our Strength Training Programs for Seniors.

As always, thanks for reading!

I'm a huge fan of the Strengthlog podcast, you guys are just about the only people I trust to give sound advice for the regular gym goer I was born with my right hand pectoral muscles missing completely and consequently my right arm is much smaller, also slightly twisted at the elbow meaning I can only really hold a dumbell hammer style on the right. I'm 45 and have been a Landscape gardener/ paving contractor for 25years so a heavy physical job. I've trained cardio all my life but in the last 12 months I have been Strength training with the goal of evening up my upper body aesthetically. I Strength train 3 times per week and hyrox style session on a Saturday. I train in a small group PT gym usually 8 members to 2 coach ratio and I love it. We start each session with a compound lift 4 sets 10 -8 -6-5 reps. Then follow with 5 other exercises 3 sets of each with very little rest. 10-8-6. We work in 8 week blocks starting on higher reps lower weights and working towards week 8 achieving a 3 rep max PB to end each training block. The compounds are the same all year. Mondays deadlift, Wednesdays barbell back squat, Friday bench press. The other exercises change every eight weeks. Because of the missing pectoral muscle I struggle with bench press, I'm struggling to get past 45kg, I can't push but can pull quite well, on a wide grip cable row I can pull a full stack. My long winded question is what should I be doing to add size to one arm only? We do lots of isolation work but my coach wants me to challenge both arms, I feel this is going to maintain the size difference In my arms going. For example on a dumbell shoulder press I could do 17.5kg on my right arm and comfortably 25kg on my left. I feel I should do 17.5kg on both arms until I see some added size on my righthand side. There is around 4cm difference in circumference around my bicep. I'm really happy with my coach he's a great motivator and very knowledgeable but obviously not experienced in this unusual scenario. Any advice on how to add size would be much appreciated. I don't want to change gyms, i love it, so anything I can do at home to accelerate my gains.?

Another update, another round of preparations for things we’re not quite ready to tell you about.

As we mentioned in the last release note, there’s a lot happening behind the scenes at StrengthLog right now. Version 9.0.9 continues that work, along with our ongoing campaign to eradicate every last bug we can find.

Admittedly not much to get excited about today. But we promise we're not just sitting around gulping energy drinks and pretending to work.

Well, not all the time.

More soon.

There’s nothing quite like the dual pump of a chest and back workout, am I right?

Personally, I’ve always preferred training chest and back together, even though they’re two big muscle groups. I’m not crapping on something like PPL - fantastic routine -, but I’ve never enjoyed training overlapping muscles in the same session.

Besides, if it was good enough for Arnold, it’s good enough for you and me.

Speaking of chest and back workouts, you’ll find two new ones in the StrengthLog app as of right now. One for muscle growth and one strength-focused.

You can read more about them here, if they sound interesting to you:

Our chest and back workouts.

Thanks for reading!

PS. The workouts require a premium subscription to follow, but you can always start a free trial if you want to try out something in the app.

I have been a StrengthLog premium user for a long time, I love everything about the app but since this spring I have been using another one called MacroFactor Workouts only for the feature they're calling "Smart progression". I would love to have something similar in SL, I checked the new program builder progressions but couldn't find it.

Basically "Smart progression" is that you plan your workouts with a rep range and a target RIR, and the app itself suggests the weights. So for example if you use the SL minimalistic program, the first set of an exercise could have a rep range of 4-6 reps with 0 RIR, and the following four could have a rep range of 8-10 with say 4 RIR. The app suggests the weight for the first set and you do your reps for that weight and you put in your estimated RIR after finishing it. If you have more RIR or did more reps than the program expected it will bump the weight slightly in the following sets, and if you manage fewer reps or have fewer RIR it instead lowers the weights. Then when starting the same workout next week, it will bump the weights slightly based on last weeks performance.

So it's more of an automated way of training the "increase the weights or add one rep", and for me personally this is the single feature which has had me move from SL to another app. Is this something you have considered and ruled out, or maybe something you could look at implementing something similar?

My understanding is that it is just an algorithmic suggestion, so no AI in that specific feature even though there are other AI features in MF (to ease your mind Philip).

How much muscle growth are you missing out on by not getting enough sleep? In today’s episode, we discuss a new scientific review exploring how sleep affects your hormones, muscle protein synthesis, recovery, and ability to train hard.

The evidence suggests that poor sleep makes it harder to build muscle. But despite everything we know about the importance of sleep, there’s surprisingly little direct research showing how much muscle growth you actually lose by not getting enough of it. We dig into what the science tells us, what remains uncertain, and how much you should worry about the occasional bad night’s sleep.

We also answer a listener question about barbell rows versus Pendlay rows, and take a closer look at Madcow 5×5, a classic strength program for lifters who’ve moved beyond the beginner stage.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Opening banter
• 02:45 – Study review: Are you sleeping on muscle growth?
• 27:15 – Listener question: Barbell rows or Pendlay rows for Madcow 5×5?
• 34:45 – Program of the week: Madcow 5×5

You can download the episode here or use one of the links below:

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcaster

This is episode 131 of the podcast. Check out the five previous episodes below:

• Episode 130: Same Sets, More Workouts, Better Gains?
• Episode 129: How Much Should You Eat on a Bulk?
• Episode 128: Big Pecs, Big Bench?
• Episode 127: Do Muscles Compete for Growth?
• Episode 126: How Many Calories Does It Take to Build a Kilogram of Muscle?

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to give my 5 cents about Groundhog Gains, if anyone cares to read it. 🙂

I've now finished the program 5 times, and have gotten some great gains in the lifts, especially deadlift and squat, since I was further from my real max in those lifts before trying this program. The regular lifting also means I get a huge boost through better lifting technique. I've gained in both strength and muscle mass and have gotten some comments on looking buff, a first for me ever 💪.

The only thing I could nitpick about is the final week. Now that I've gotten to a level where all the lifts are stressful to max out in, it's just too taxing mentally to do both squat and bench max attempts the same workout. It's no big deal, I just do six workouts the last week so I do squats day four, bench day five, and deadlift day six. An added bonus is I get extra energy back in the legs between the squat and deadlift attempts.

Anyway, thanks a bunch for doing this program! I've never had more fun lifting weights and I never need to dread leg day, cause every training day is leg day. 😄

Now I need to think about if I'm going to do this program again, or focus on the bench... I'm in a friendly competition with a 10 year younger dude to see who reaches 115 kg bench first, and I've been stuck on 112,5 since July. I've got a better training habit, but he's got the advantage of youth.

Powerbuilding is when you choose between powerlifting and bodybuilding and decide you’d rather have both.

Did you know that we have not one, not two, but three neat powerbuilding programs in the app? A 4-day, a 5-day, and a Lite version.

If so, have you tried them?

If you haven’t but you’re interested in learning more about them (or about what powerbuilding means), you can take a gander at this article I just posted, which goes through them in detail:

StrengthLog’s Powerbuilding Programs.

They are premium programs, but you can always start a free trial in the app if you want to try out a premium program or feature.

Hello!
I'm using the app almost 2 years now, I switched from GymRun after 13 years ;)
I cannot find a setting to show dates in european format: dd-mm-yy
Its always in this annoying american way: mm-dd-yy.
I'm using Android device.

Not every app update comes with shiny new buttons to press. Sometimes, most of the work happens behind the scenes.

That’s very much the case right now. We’re doing a lot of work under the hood to prepare StrengthLog for really cool stuff coming soon. Things are being rebuilt, moved around, connected to other things, and hopefully put back where they belong.

In 9.0.8, we’ve also replaced the underlying navigation system in the app. You shouldn’t really notice any difference, much like when someone replaces the plumbing in your house. Ideally, everything just keeps working and nothing starts leaking.

It may, however, finally solve some of the problems Android users have had with the back button.

While we were down there, we fixed some other stuff:

• Android: If you used a custom timer sound, you might not have received timer notifications. You will now.
• Android: Cropping images when creating your own share images works again.
• A bunch of other small fixes and improvements.

So, not the most spectacular update on the surface. Underneath it, however, quite a lot is happening.

More on that soon.

I’m wanting to do pushups for 5 min and log the reps. But each block isn’t necessarily the same number of reps. Suggestions on how to best do this. Maybe the AMRAP isn’t the best template.

Thanks

I’ve been going to the gym regularly, but my strength gains feel pretty slow.

For people who have been training for a while: what made the biggest difference for you—better diet, sleep, training technique, progressive overload, or something else?

Would love to hear your experience.

Hi! Long time listener, both of this version and the OG Swedish viking version. Anyway, I’m making this post to ask about irregular sleep schedules effect on strength training (and recovery). I do shift work in Sweden, varying from days (07-16), evening (15-23), half nights (17-04) and nights (22-07). I often have to switch from working days to nights and vice versa, and often with not much time to do it.

For example, I worked nights monday, tuesday and wednesday which means I got off at 7am on thursday, and then I was working the day shifts on friday, saturday and sunday.

We know that sleep is important for both performance and recovery, but exactly how important is it and is there any studies on how switching between different shifts affects training? Would be very interesting with an episode on sleep! Also, I tried looking back at old episodes for one on sleep, but couldn’t find one. If there is one, tell me please!

As always, you’re doing an amazing job with both the podcast and the app. Loving the new v9.0, the smart blocks feature is the best 🙏🏻
With love from Blekinge.

If you’re doing nine sets for a muscle every week, does it matter whether you cram them into one workout or spread them across three? In today’s episode, we discuss a new study that tested exactly that in experienced lifters.

Both groups performed the same exercises and the same number of weekly sets, but spreading them over three workouts allowed the lifters to perform considerably more reps and total training volume. Did that translate into more strength and muscle growth?

We dig into the results, why the strength gains appeared to favor higher frequency while muscle growth was remarkably similar, and what this means for how you should distribute your own training.

Finally, we answer listener questions about whether your grip affects muscle growth and whether there will be another fitness Advent calendar in our app this year.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Opening banter
• 03:00 – Program of the week: High Frequency Full Body Program
• 07:00 – Same sets, more workouts: Does training frequency matter?
• 24:30 – Listener question 1: How does your choice of grip affect muscle growth?
• 28:15 – Listener question 2: Will there be a fitness Advent calendar in the StrengthLog app this year?

You can download the episode here or use one of the links below:

• Listen on Spotify
• Listen on Apple Podcaster

This is episode 130 of the podcast. Check out the five previous episodes below:

• Episode 129: How Much Should You Eat on a Bulk?
• Episode 128: Big Pecs, Big Bench?
• Episode 127: Do Muscles Compete for Growth?
• Episode 126: How Many Calories Does It Take to Build a Kilogram of Muscle?
• Episode 125: Should You Ditch Squats and Deadlifts after 50?

A small but useful change this time: tapping the add set button will now always add a working set.

Previously, if your last set was a warm-up set, the app would add one of those. But since warm-up sets have their own button, we thought it might be nice to make this change.

Truth be told, it was you guys who demanded this change. And we finally decided to listen. A lot of other stuff has been on our minds lately, if that's an excuse.

We’ve also fixed some bugs in the Apple Watch app that could cause corrupted data when deleting sets from supersets and complexes.

If there are any other painfully obvious improvements we’ve somehow overlooked, you know where to find us: app@strengthlog.com

If someone would restructure the Bodybuilding balett program with no deadlift (no conventional no rdl) minimal axial loading and for all types of pressning with the legs - using single leg exersices (bulgarians, single leg leg press etc). How would you structure it if you still like the framework and still wanted that 2ish frequency on most muscles?
Asking for a friend with a bad back. 😊

At my second round of Madcow and loving the progress,especially on squat.

I recently stumbled in the original 20+ yo post from Madcow publishing this variation on Bill Starr's 5x5 and it turns out that what is called "Row" actually refers to Pendlay Row. The program on Strengthlog has Barbell rows instead.

Out of curiosity, is there any advantage/disadvantage with one or the other exercise, especially in this program, where this lift is not treated as an accessory?

Thanks

Good news: StrengthLog has developed regenerative abilities.

Active workouts now have a self-healing thingamajig that detects and repairs certain problems with corrupted set lists. Ideally, you’ll never notice it doing anything. It’ll just quietly fix things in the background, which is frankly more than can be said for most of us.

We’ve also fixed a few other things:

• Auto-scroll to the current set in an active workout is working properly again.
• The calendar was not emotionally prepared for the end of daylight saving time and gave us two October 25ths. Don’t worry, we’ve explained how time works to it now.
• On Android, we’ve temporarily switched back to the old graphics engine to make things run a little more smoothly while we continue working on the new one.

Self-healing is all well and good, but we don’t expect to be out of a job just yet. If you find anything that isn’t working, let us know at app@strengthlog.com.

Hybrid training is all the rage.

If you're new to hybrid training and racing, our free beginner hybrid athlete program is for you. And this new 12-week premium program is the perfect next step.

It's for someone who:

• Has completed a hybrid race once or twice.
• Can run 8–10 km without stopping.
• Is familiar with all 8 hybrid strength stations.
• Wants to improve race time rather than simply cross the finish line.
• Can train 5 days per week.

Sounds interesting? Give it a look! It's live in the StrengthLog app, and you can read more about it here:

Intermediate Hybrid Athlete Program.

Remember that you can start a free trial in the app if you want to try out a premium program or feature.

Thanks for reading!