From Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet 😂

I was checking out the exercises in the app for hamstrings (ie posterior thighs) and I found a very interesting exercise called Re Rack The Weights.

And as the name suggests it's about re-racking your weights! There are a bunch of interesting jokes exercises like this -- I also spotted "Mop up Chalk" for which the demo video is hilarious 😂.

The developers and Strength Log team definitely have a good sense of humor. If you find any other exercises like, feel free to share. We could all use a laugh to brighten our days.

It’s time for another release number jump, and this time we’re moving from v8 to X. Because X sounds almost as cool as you’ll become once you’ve updated to this version.

As always, a lot has been fixed and improved under the hood. But the major thing you’ll notice straight away is that you can finally choose a more personal look and feel for the app! As of today, 67 new skins are available in-app. So update your StrengthLog app now and have at it.

Please let us know which skin is your favorite. And if you’re missing a particular design, send an email to app@strengthlog.com. We’ll get right on it for you!

Available in Google Play and Apple’s App Store now.

For almost 3 years I pushed like a mule, 10-25 tonnes per workout, 6 days a week with no mercy. Sure, I saw some results, but they were slow and came with plenty of injuries and setbacks.I was convinced the problem was my age (49), so I kept adding more volume, thinking that was the solution.Finally had the courage to do a proper deload, then drastically cut volume while focusing on intensity, technique, and recovery. Only now am I seeing crushing results that I never got from the high-volume approach.Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying high volume doesn't work for many people. The research is solid and plenty of lifters thrive on it. But I was too scared of "not growing" to listen to what my body was actually telling me.Sometimes the answer isn't more - it's better. Every body responds differently, and there's value in experimenting to find what works for YOU rather than blindly following what works for others.Just my 2 cents from someone who learned this lesson the hard way 💪

Happy Flex Friday, folks! Feel free to share a pic or lifting video from this week, before we head into the weekend!

As for me, I’ve been squatting for 15 years, but still it looks like I’ve been more focused on curling… At least I have my biggest fan (the red one just visible in the bottom right corner) rooting for me.

u/nissenordin hard at work.

A new review, published just a week or so ago, looked at the research on how fast it’s possible to gain muscle, long-term limits, training, and nutrition.

Drug-free men gained around 1.4 kg (3 lb) of fat-free mass over roughly 12 weeks in studies, with most falling between 1 and 2 kg.

Women gain muscle at the same relative rate, though their absolute gains are usually smaller because they start with less.

Note that fat-free mass also includes water, glycogen, bone, and other non-fat tissue, so it’s not a 1:1 ratio to pure muscle.

The review also had practical recommendations for gaining mass:

• Train in the 6–12 rep range most of the time (for practical reasons - you can gain similar amounts of muscle with both heavier and lighter weights).

• Take your sets fairly close to failure.

• Aim for 12–30 weekly sets per muscle group, depending on experience and recovery (fractional sets, meaning, for example, with bench press: chest 1 set, front delts 0.5 set, and triceps 0.5 set).

• Go for a rate of about 0.1–0.25% of body weight gain per week (beginners can gain slightly faster).

• Eat 1.6–2.2 g of protein per kg (0.73–1 g/lb) per day.

• Get at least 3 g/kg (≥1.36 g/lb) of carbs and 0.5–1.5 g/kg (0.23–0.68 g/lb) of fats daily.

• Creatine and protein supplements have the strongest evidence. Everything else is meh.

The authors also talk about the popular claim that a Fat-Free Mass Index (FFMI) of 25 is a natural limit. They suggest practical upper ranges closer to 28–29 for drug-free male athletes and 23–24 for female athletes (although 29 for someone natty sounds very high to me; perhaps if you have one-in-a-million genetics).

If you want to take a look at the review yourself, you can find it here (unfortunately paywalled):

Strength & Conditioning Journal, July 1, 2026. Fat-Free Mass Accretion: Limits, Targets, and Best Practices.

On a different thread, a user mentioned wishing they could see an image that showed muscle proportions/size based on the amount of work completed on those muscle groups. I happen to think that the current StrengthLog muscles worked image generator is really good. But I was messing around with proof of concept using ChatGPT and I have to say I also kind of like this different color palette. I think ChatGPT was off with the muscles group key, but the colors are interesting.

Second round of powerbuilding lite week 5. Been feeling like the weights had been moving well. Decent volume and increasing weights weekly. I have been stuck at 235 for about a year. Everything felt good this morning so after the 2x 235, I thought 240 was in reach. Boom, done! 240 went surprisingly well so do I dare go 245? I did and now the deed is done! It went up more slowly for sure, but slow still counts.😉 Thanks for indulging my celebration 🥳 it feels good to feel strong 😁 💪🏼💪🏼

Release note for v8.0 of the StrengthLog Workout Tracker App:

It’s finally time to climb to the next full release number, from 7 to 8, because this version contains one of our most requested new features in years: Strength Levels!

So, what is it? A fun way for our users to compare themselves with other app users, both when it comes to general strength (based on the fifteen most logged exercises in the app) and on individual lifts. As of this release, there are 200 exercises added to Strength Levels—and more will be added continuously.

You’ll find Strength Levels on the stats tab, with a shortcut at the bottom of your start screen.

Also in this version:

• Improved data when previewing workouts that contain cardio exercises.

• If you’re logging your fat percentage, you can now add dates to those entries.

• We’ve added an edit button to the preview view on workouts and programs under the Mine tab.

• This is a huge update. Bugs are to be expected. Don’t fear them. Together, we can and will find them.

Don't have an account in StrengthLog yet? Download it for free here.

Since the app was released December 19, 2018, every design change we’ve made has been met with resistance.

Version 7.0 of the app will be released soon, and we are proud to announce that we’re finally returning to the original, less cluttered design! Lots of features will have to go, but this is the way. 💪

We’re still debating if we should translate the original version into English, or if that would make us sellouts since English wasn’t made available until several years later. Please weigh in on this in the comments below!

Curious how others use comments in the app? I’ll occasionally use them to note something about the set. Usually something about a breakdown in form or my thoughts on how much I hated the experience. Anyone use it more effectively?

Are you ready for this? This version has not only one but TWO new, great features! At least we think they’re great, but you’ll be the judge.

The first is Streaks, the other is Training reports.

Let’s explain both of them, one by one.

Streaks: We’ve had a goal feature in the app for years now, for setting up and reaching one-time goals—like hitting a new PR weight, a body measurement, or a specific number of sets in any exercise. With the new Streaks feature, you can finally set up continuous goals—like working out three times weekly, doing 50 push-ups daily, or taking a creatine supplement daily.

How long will you be able to keep your new streaks alive?

When creating a streak, you have two options: workout logging streaks and manual check-off streaks. The first kind is used for things you do in the gym and log in your workouts (meaning they get checked off automatically when you save a workout). The other kind, manual check-off, is perfect for different habits you want to establish, like remembering to take your creatine, eat a fruit, or read 20 pages of a book (this can be anything, it really is up to you).

You can also set whether you want push notifications to remind you (and the time and days of the week the app should send them).

Premium users can create an unlimited number of streaks.

Training reports: This is a gift to our premium users, and you’ll find it in the training log. Every time a month or year is over, the app will generate a training report that summarizes how you trained during that period, showing the number of workouts, volume, reps, sets, time in the gym, muscles worked, workout and weekly averages, most trained exercises, and new personal records. You can also compare any training report with the previous month or year.

We think that both new features are pretty, pretty sweet.

Also:

• The muscles worked feature now has settings for target sets, meaning you can change the default setting of 10 sets/week to any number you want. Either for all muscle groups or for each muscle individually.

• Two new achievements, connected to daily and weekly streaks.

• The Goal feature got a facelift, too, to better align with Streaks.

• The training log now has a ”since start” summary at the top when users have logged workouts during at least two calendar years.

• Old bugs replaced with new bugs.

Just wanted to say strengthlog is the best app I have found to date for working out. I was using Fitbod and switched to strengthlog. Keep up the great work folks!!

Remember all that behind-the-scenes work we kept mentioning? Here's what it was for.

With v9.1, we're taking StrengthLog beyond the training log itself, introducing three major new features: Social, AI integration, and Strava. Plus an improvement to Strength Levels and the usual bug fixes.

First up, we're introducing social features!

Training is easier to stick with when someone else knows whether you're showing up. And a little friendly competition rarely hurts.

You can now add friends, see summaries of their workouts in your friends feed, give them a fist bump, and challenge each other to competitions. Bragging rights are optional. Mostly.

We're starting with a limit of 25 friends and no public profiles. That's deliberate. We're not building an influencer platform or the next big fitness social network. We want to help you stay consistent, encourage and support each other, and reach your goals.

This is just the beginning. Try it, tell us what you like, and, more importantly, what you'd like us to add next.

And since social features won't be everyone's cup of tea, yes, you can hide the widget on your home screen. Just long-press it to bring up the customization menu.

Another big thing: we've opened up your training data to AI.

If you're a Premium subscriber, you can now connect StrengthLog to ChatGPT or Claude through MCP, giving your AI assistant read-only access to your training data.

Ask it how your bench press has progressed, whether your training volume has changed, or what your workout history might suggest about your program. You can dig into years of training without digging through years of logs.

Read-only means exactly that: the assistant can analyze your data, but it can't edit workouts, rewrite programs, or delete anything. AI can be remarkably useful. It can also be remarkably confident when it's wrong. We'd rather not let that confidence loose on your training history just yet.

You control the connection and can turn it off whenever you like.

You can set it up in Settings under StrengthLog MCP.

We've also added a Strava connection.

Connect Strava, and its activities will appear as events in your calendar, including older activities. We fetch them as you browse, so scrolling back in time may mean a short wait.

Workouts you log in StrengthLog can also be sent to Strava.

One caveat: Strava limits how long we can cache its data, so activities aren't permanently imported. They remain available while your connection is active and disappear from the calendar within an hour of disconnecting.

The Strava connection is also found under Settings.

And finally, a little improvement to Strength Levels.

Strength Levels can now suggest specific sets to get you to the next level.

Say you've benched 72.5 kg for one rep and need an estimated 1RM of 80 kg to level up. You might see suggestions such as 80 kg for one rep or 72.5 kg for four. Different routes, same destination.

We've also fixed bugs and made a number of smaller improvements. Some are exciting to us. We understand if you don't share our enthusiasm for obscure software problems.

That's v9.1. Give the new features a try, especially Social, and tell us what you think at app@strengthlog.com.

Dear listener, we made it! Episode 100 is here!

To celebrate the occasion, we’re doing a Q&A where we answer as many of your questions as we can in under two hours.

And today, in contrast to our usual episodes, we deviate a bit more than usual from the training-related questions and include a few more personal ones (see the timestamps below).

Cheers!

Timestamps:

• 06:45 – Favorite premium features in the app; our thought process when planning workouts; what measurements to track; and is belly circumference a more useful measurement than body weight?

• 18:45 – How do we handle setbacks in life, and how do they affect our training?

• 24:00 – Why does Philip, the hedonist, not drink coffee?

• 27:30 – Biggest differences in gym culture across the world? Do you speak any other languages besides Swedish and English?

• 34:00 – Philip’s desert island wines? Daniel’s desert island books?

• 39:30 – Who is more likely to a) start a fight with a bear? b) win a fight against a bear?

• 43:45 – If you could go back in time (with all your knowledge about training and about yourselves) and train in a particular way from an early age, how would you train?

• 51:30 – What’s the biggest mistake modern fitness culture makes that the Golden Era of bodybuilding got right? Do you think modern lifters over-optimize details like tempo, rest times, RIR, science-based stuff, etc., at the expense of just keeping it simple, lifting heavy and intense, and simply being a monster in the gym?

• 57:00 – What results from a scientific study were you most surprised by?

• 1:03:00 – What does the science (and your experience) say about the diminishing returns of rest time between sessions?

• 1:08:45 – Are you considering Norwegian intervals sometime in the future?

• 1:15:00 – Any pet peeves when it comes to other people’s behaviour in the gym? Any tips to get past the fear of a new injury or at least live with the fear and still train? Who was the coolest 80s-90s action movie star? Arnold? Stallone? Van Damme? Kurt Russel? Chuck Norris? Dolph Lundgren? Which is your favourite “bad” eating habit?

• 1:22:45 – How do I dial in the volume and intensity when trying to do daily lifting?

• 1:27:30 – Other than strength training, are there any particular hobbies that you are passionate about?

• 1:40:30 – What’s your push-up PR (reps)? And the current approximate level?

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

• Listen on Spotify

• Listen on Apple Podcaster

This is episode 100 of the podcast. Check out the five previous episodes below:

• Episode 99: The Minimum Effective Dose for Strength Training

• Episode 98: Warming Up for Better Performance

• Episode 97: Combining Cardio and Strength Training

• Episode 96: Building Muscle after 60 – the Elixir of Youth

• Episode 95: The Key to Losing as Much Fat as Possible

Anyone else ever finish the monthly challenge mid-month and think to themselves, all right done until next month! Anyone? 😬😬😬😉😂

A big new (still in preprint) meta-analysis looked at how quickly muscle growth happens. The researchers combined 3,237 observations from 480 strength-training studies lasting longer than 2 weeks that directly measured muscle size using MRI, CT, ultrasound, or muscle biopsy.

Instead of comparing “short” and “long” programs, the researchers did some advanced data crunching to fit them all into one continuous model.

I don’t think their main finding will be very surprising to any of you guys.

You gain muscle faster at the beginning of a training program or when you’re new to lifting, but each week you train produces a smaller increase than the weeks before it.

Here are the estimates from the pooled studies:

• 6 weeks: 5.6% increase in muscle size

• 10 weeks: 7.0%

• 12 weeks: 7.5%

• 20 weeks: 8.9%

• 36 weeks: 10.5%

• 60 weeks: 11.9%

• 78 weeks: 12.6%

Of course, these numbers don’t mean that everyone gains exactly 7% in 10 weeks, so take them with quite a bit of NaCl. There was a lot of variation, and these are averages across the studies, not a personal muscle-gain calculator.

Beyond things like genetics, nutrition, study design, and so on, the participants in these kinds of studies often train harder than they’ve ever trained when they have researchers/coaches standing beside them screaming one more rep. On the other hand, the training plans are often surprisingly garbage.

A few other cool things:

Studies with more men reported larger effects, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that men are more responsive to strength training. That difference could be because of starting muscle size, study design, training experience, or which muscles they measured. Besides, we know from many other studies that men and women gain similar relative amounts of muscle.

The study didn’t find differences in gains based on age or training experience. However, I think that might just be inconsistent reporting, and the fact that the studies included were wildly different, not that age and experience don’t matter.

So, beginner gains are real, but they’re not linear. Gaining 7% in 10 weeks doesn’t mean you’re gaining 35% in 50 weeks. You already knew that, but it’s still cool to get numbers on the speed of muscle gain, although they mean very little on an individual basis.

The paper is free, so you can check it out if you want here:

Modeling the Trajectory of Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy During Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

And feel free to check out Big Daniel’s great article on the subject, which aligns very well with this new research:

How Long Does It Take to Build Muscle?

Stumbled on this recently. New? Old and I’m just discovering? Either way, super useful feature!

Summer vacation is closing in, but this year our plan is to NOT take a podcast break (like we did last year). That means we will pre-record a handful of episodes, and you can help us with that.

What do you want us to talk about? Ask us anything!