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Training guides
How to plan your week, when to add weight, how long to rest and what to do when you stall. Each guide answers one question.
- October 10, 2026 · 8 min read
PHUL vs PHAT: which one should you run?
Run PHUL if you have 4 days and want strength and size equally. Run PHAT if you have 5 days, long sessions and good recovery, and size matters more. Here are the sets per muscle, session lengths and who each one suits.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 5 min read
How to break a training plateau
A plateau is rarely a strength problem. It is usually recovery, effort, or a plan that stopped changing months ago. Here is how to find which one you have, and the order to fix them in.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 4 min read
Deload week: when to take one and what to cut
A deload week keeps the weights and cuts the sets to about 60%, and Trackist plans one as the last week of a plan of 6 weeks or more. It is not a week off and not a reward. Here is when you need one and exactly what to change.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 4 min read
How long should a workout be?
45 to 75 minutes covers almost everyone. Where you land depends on how many hard sets you do and how long you rest between them, and both are worth deciding on purpose.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 3 min read
How long should you rest between sets?
Short rest feels productive and costs you reps. Here is what rest between sets is for, how long to take for each type of lift, and when cutting it makes sense.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 4 min read
How strong should you be? Strength standards, honestly
Strength standards compare your best lifts with your body weight, sex and age. They are good for one thing, showing which type of lift is lagging, and useless for the thing most people want from them.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 3 min read
AI workout app vs personal trainer: what you get for the money
A trainer costs roughly a hundred times what an app costs, and some things only a person can do. Here is an honest split of what each one is good for, and how to use both without wasting money on either.
Read it - September 21, 2026 · 4 min read
How to choose a workout split
The best split is the one that fits the number of days you will actually train. Here is how the common splits compare on how often each muscle is trained, session length and who each one suits.
Read it - July 9, 2026 · 6 min read
What to do when your workout plan is too hard or too easy
Do not grind through a plan that feels too hard or too easy, and do not quit it. Change it. Here is how to tell which problem you have, what to change first, and how to tell a hard plan from an exercise that hurts.
Read it - July 9, 2026 · 5 min read
Static vs adaptive workout plans: why fixed plans stall
A static plan is fixed the day it is written. You are not. Once you get stronger, a plan that never changes stops challenging you and your numbers go flat. An adaptive plan reads what you lift and changes with you.
Read it - July 9, 2026 · 5 min read
What to do when a lift hurts your shoulder, knee or back
Joint pain on one exercise is not muscle soreness, and pushing through it is the wrong move. Usually the fix is to swap the exercise for one that trains the same muscle without the pain. Here is how to tell the difference and pick the replacement.
Read it - July 9, 2026 · 5 min read
How an AI personal trainer adjusts your plan
A good AI personal trainer does more than write a routine once. It reads the sets you log, compares them with what the plan asked for, and adjusts the weight, the sets and the exercises. Here is how that works, and what it cannot do.
Read it - June 2, 2026 · 5 min read
How to stay consistent with workout tracking
Most people stop tracking workouts because logging is a chore, not for lack of motivation. Log each set the moment you finish it, follow a plan so there is nothing to decide, and look back at your numbers every week.
Read it - May 29, 2026 · 7 min read
How many sets and reps to build muscle
Muscle grows across a wide rep range when your sets are hard enough, so the bigger question is how many hard sets each muscle gets a week. Most lifters do well with 3 to 6 reps for heavy work, 8 to 15 for most muscle-building work, and about 10 to 20 hard sets per muscle a week.
Read it - May 25, 2026 · 4 min read
How to stay accountable without a gym buddy
Motivation comes and goes. A setup that expects you to show up does not. Here is how to stay consistent without a training partner: a written plan, sets logged as you go, and a weekly look at your numbers.
Read it - May 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Why a plan built around you beats one copied from a friend
A friend’s plan was written for their goal, their gym, their week and their recovery. Here are the 4 things a copied plan gets wrong, and what a plan built around you does differently.
Read it - May 13, 2026 · 6 min read
Progressive overload: the simple way to keep getting stronger
Progressive overload means asking your muscles for a little more over time, and it is the main reason any training plan works. This guide covers the practical ways to do it, including double progression, so you keep moving forward week after week.
Read it - May 8, 2026 · 6 min read
RPE explained: how to log effort, not just weight
RPE rates how hard a set felt, from 1 to 10, and shows how close you came to failure. The weight on the bar cannot tell you that. Log RPE next to your sets and you get a clearer record of progress and a simple way to adjust training on the day.
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