A workout tracker for beginners that writes your plan

Knowing what to do is the hard part

When you are new to the gym, effort is rarely the problem. Knowing what to do is. Many workout apps make it worse, with settings, templates and features you won't need for months. You open the app, feel lost, and go back to notes on your phone.

Trackist keeps to what a beginner needs: a plan to follow, a fast way to log what you did, and a clear sign that you are getting stronger.

Start with a plan written for you

You don't need to design a program on day one. Answer 14 questions about your goal, experience, equipment, joints, schedule, session length and age. Trackist writes a plan for the next 4 to 12 weeks, with every exercise, set, rep target and rest time chosen. As a beginner, you get beginner movements from its library of 240, and you can add any movement your equipment and joints allow. You only sign in after the last question. The plan is ready straight away, and you can do your first session today.

In your first session, pick a weight you can finish for every rep. From your second session of an exercise, a line above it suggests what to try today. Hit the top of the rep range on every set at your heaviest weight and it suggests a step up. Fall short and it keeps the weight, takes about 5% off or leaves the call to you, depending on how far short you fell and how hard the sets felt.

What helps most in your first months

• Form cues on every strength exercise: the exercise page explains the movement in a few lines and shows the muscles it works on a body figure. There are no videos.
• Quick set logging: record weight, reps and RPE in a few taps, with last session's numbers under the sets you did then.
• RPE, to learn effort: RPE rates how hard a set felt, from 1 to 10. Logging it teaches you to read your own effort, one of the most useful skills a beginner can build.
• Today's weight, suggested: most of the time you do not work out the next weight yourself. On a barbell, a step is 2.5 kg.
• A rest timer: it starts from the plan's rest time and keeps running on the Lock Screen.
• A lighter week built in: in a plan of 6 weeks or more, the last week keeps your weights and cuts the sets to about 60%, so you recover before the next plan. Lifters call this a deload.
• Notes on each exercise: save a form cue or a reminder from a coach on the exercise itself.
• Records and body weight: a record is marked the moment you beat your previous best, and body weight and each measurement have their own chart.
• No ads: nothing on screen but your session.

Start in 3 steps

1. Get your plan: download Trackist, answer 14 questions, and it writes a plan around your answers.
2. Log each set as you go: enter weight, reps and RPE. Last session's numbers sit under the sets you did then, and a personal record is marked the moment you beat your previous best.
3. See the session add up: each session ends with a summary of your volume, the total weight you lifted, against last time, and the muscles you trained.

Learn from what you log

Writing down what you lift is how you learn what your body can do. When you log the weight and how hard it felt, patterns show up. An extra rep feels easier this week. A weight that scared you a month ago is now an RPE 7. That is how beginners turn into confident lifters. Our guide to RPE explains the scale.

Ready to start? The full-body plan for beginners is a good first plan, and you can browse the rest of the workout plans.

Trackist has no ads.