Alpha Progression review

Alpha Progression and its closest alternatives

Pay for Alpha Progression Pro if you want planned periodization at about a quarter of RP's yearly price. If you won't pay, RIRLift's free tier is the one that still sets your weights, and the only one of the three on Apple Watch.

Alpha Progression, feature by feature

• Free is a logger

  The free tier logs unlimited workouts, keeps your own plans, plays all 795 exercise videos and exports CSV, with no ads and no account. Weight and rep recommendations, charts and the plan generator are Pro.

• Pro's recommendations move set to set

  Before each set, Pro shows a weight and reps from your past sessions and what you've done today. It knows your gym's weights: when the next dumbbell is too big a jump, it adds reps first. After a bad session it can recommend less.

• Periodization is planned, not reactive

  Turn it on and later weeks of a plan can carry different sets, reps, RIR targets and dropsets, with a deload at the end. Alpha describes these changes as part of the plan, not reactions to one workout.

• No Apple Watch

  Alpha has no Watch app. On iPhone, the current set and rest timer show in a Live Activity, and you log on the phone.

• Where RIRLift is different

  RIRLift's next weight is free, after every set, on iPhone or Apple Watch. Coach can plan a block week by week, with its own sets, reps and RIR for each week; a deload is offered when a lift stalls rather than scheduled.

  

Alpha Progression in a real training month

Two months on the free tier, press stalled

A lifter logging a 3-day full-body plan on Alpha's free tier, picking weights by feel. The overhead press hasn't moved in three weeks.

App	What it does here	For this lifter
Alpha Progression free	Logs the sets and shows last session's numbers. Picking the next weight is up to you.	Fine as a log; no help with the stall.
Alpha Progression Pro	Recommends a weight and reps for every set from your history and today's sets, with periodization if you want it.	Fixes it, for $79.99 a year.
RIRLift	Sets the next weight after every set, free. Three sessions without a new rep on the press and the recap offers about 10% lighter.	Fixes it for free, on the phone or the Watch.
RP Hypertrophy	Runs the whole block, sets included, for $34.99/month.	More than this lifter needs.

The free logger records the stall. The next two rows do something about it.

Pull day with the phone in a locker

Alpha has no Watch app, so this lifter runs pull day in RIRLift on Apple Watch. The T-bar row is planned at 8 reps with 2 left, in a 6–10 range.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
T-Bar Row	Set 1: 145 lb × 8, 4 left	Set 2: 150 lb × 8	12 reps to failure against a planned 10, so 145 × 41 ÷ 39 ≈ 152 lb, loaded as 150 lb.
Preacher Curl	60 lb, 12 / 11 / 10, 2 left, target 10	60 lb × 11	Not every set reached 12, so the weight holds. The weakest set hit today's 10, so the target moves to 11.

Both numbers showed up on the wrist, with no phone to open.

Plans to try in RIRLift

• The best workout routine for the days you can train

  3 days a week: full body

  Three full-body days, like the plan in the first example, within the 4 free routines.

  3× a week · 51 sets a week · ~45 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The back workout you run from your Apple Watch

  Barbell pull day, phone in the locker

  A pull day built to run from the Watch.

  1× a week · 11 sets a week · ~35 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Bring your working weights

  RIRLift imports Hevy, Strong and FitNotes files, not Alpha's export. Tap Edit starting weights under the routine picker and enter your current working weights. They show as Yours, and the next weight is worked out from them.

• Keep your RIR targets

  Alpha's RIR targets carry straight over: set one per exercise. RPE targets convert too, RPE 8 is 2 left.

• Set how hard it pushes

  Steady takes smaller steps, Standard is double progression, Push takes bigger jumps. Pick Ask first to confirm next session's weights on the recap.

When a different app fits better

• You want a scheduled deload week at the end of each plan. Alpha Progression Pro. RIRLift steps a lift back when it stalls instead.
• You train on Android. Alpha Progression. RIRLift is iPhone and Apple Watch only.
• You want a gym-filmed video for every exercise. Alpha Progression, with 795 of them.

Questions

Read next

• Alpha Progression vs Fitbod

  A stable plan against a session rebuilt each day.

• Alpha Progression vs RP Hypertrophy

  Two ways to run a hypertrophy mesocycle.

• How RIRLift picks your next weight

  Where the 140 lb came from.

• Double progression

  The rule behind the preacher curl's next target.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• Alpha Progression has no Apple Watch app. Here's one that logs RIR

  Alpha Progression is iPhone only. RIRLift logs reps in reserve and sets the next weight on the Watch.

• RP Hypertrophy app alternatives

  Five apps for RP-style hypertrophy training, ranked for lifters who want to pay less than $34.99 a month.

• Alpha Progression vs Fitbod

  A plan you progress, or a session rebuilt each day. Where each fits, and the free third option.

Every lifter and goal