Alpha Progression vs Fitbod

Alpha Progression vs Fitbod, row by row

Alpha Progression for a plan you progress, Fitbod for a session that changes with you. RIRLift sits on Alpha's side, stable routines progressed from your sets, and adds a free Watch app.

What decides it

• Plan first, or session first

  Alpha builds a plan around your goal, equipment and muscle priorities, then keeps it stable so progress is easy to measure. Fitbod builds each workout from your settings, your history and which muscles have recovered.

• How the weight gets picked

  Alpha Pro gives a weight and reps for every set and adjusts set to set. Fitbod raises load or reps when you finish comfortably, eases off when you struggle, and alternates heavier and lighter days on purpose.

• What free gets you

  Alpha's free tier logs for as long as you like, without recommendations. Fitbod's trial is 7 days; after it you can still view past workouts, but logging new ones needs a subscription.

• On the wrist

  Fitbod has an Apple Watch app; Alpha doesn't. RIRLift's Watch app is free: log weight, reps and reps in reserve and get the next weight before the next set.

  

• Blocks and deloads

  Alpha Pro varies sets, reps and RIR week by week and can end a plan with a deload. Fitbod schedules Max Effort Days to reassess. RIRLift's Coach can plan sets, reps and RIR week by week, and a deload is offered when a lift stalls.

Where the difference shows up

Fitbod handed out a lighter incline press

Ten months on Fitbod, four days a week. This week's incline press came in lighter than last week's, and the lifter wants the same lifts, climbing.

App	What it does here	For this lifter
Fitbod	Lighter days are part of its design: it alternates higher reps at lower weight with heavier, lower-rep days. Exercises rotate in by default; More Consistent keeps more of them week to week.	Fits if you like the variety. Not this lifter.
Alpha Progression	Keeps the same exercises until you change them; Pro sets each set's weight and reps from your history.	Fits, for $12.99/month.
RIRLift	Keeps the routine. The next session's weight is judged on your weakest working set, and goes up when every set tops the range.	Fits, free, and on the Watch.

Fitbod's lighter day is deliberate. If you want the same lifts climbing, the other two do that.

Week 7: the front squat stops moving

In RIRLift, the front squat (5–8 reps) has logged 6 / 6 / 5 at 185 lb for three sessions. Lying leg curls are still climbing.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Front Squat	185 lb, 6 / 6 / 5, third session in a row	165 lb × 5 if you tap Deload	No new rep in three sessions. About 10% lighter: 185 × 0.9 = 166.5, rounded down to 165 lb, reps back to 5.
Lying Leg Curl	90 lb, 12 / 12 / 12, 2 left	100 lb × 8	Every set at the top of 8–12: one step up the stack, reps back to 8.

One lift steps back, the other keeps climbing. Tap Not yet to give the squat another session.

Stable plans that open in RIRLift

• The best workout routine for the days you can train

  4 days a week: upper/lower

  Four days, the same routines every week, within the 4 free routines.

  4× a week · 68 sets a week · ~40 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout plan for muscle gain, for where you are now

  New to lifting, 3 gym days a week

  For lifters in their first year who want one plan progressed rather than a new mix each day.

  3× a week · 44 sets a week · ~50 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Coming from Fitbod or Alpha

  RIRLift imports Hevy, Strong and FitNotes files. 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.

• Swap without starting over

  Routines stay as you wrote them. Swap a busy machine mid-session and, if it's new to you, its first weight comes from the lift you swapped out.

• Log reps in reserve on every set

  How many reps you had left decides whether the next set goes up, holds or comes down.

When a different app fits better

• Your schedule and gym change week to week. Fitbod, which rebuilds the session around recovery, equipment and time.
• You want deload weeks scheduled into the plan. Alpha Progression Pro.
• You train on Android. Alpha Progression or Fitbod. RIRLift is iPhone and Apple Watch only.

Questions

Read next

• Alpha Progression review

  The free tier and Pro in detail.

• Fitbod on Apple Watch, and an app that runs on the Watch alone

  What Fitbod's Watch app does, and where RIRLift differs.

• Alpha Progression vs RP Hypertrophy

  If you're weighing Alpha against RP instead.

• Deload week

  When a stall like the front squat's calls for one.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• Fitbod on Apple Watch, and an app that runs on the Watch alone

  Fitbod's Watch app needs the iPhone to start and swap. RIRLift starts, swaps and sets weights on the wrist.

• Alpha Progression review

  What Alpha Progression's free tier and Pro do with your sets, and what's missing.

• 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.

Every lifter and goal