The home gym app that loads your own plates

What a garage or home gym needs from an app

• Weights you can actually load

  Every suggested weight is rounded to what your plates make, and the plate calculator shows what goes on each side, on the iPhone and on your wrist. No math between sets, no 182.5 lb you can't build.

  

• Your plates and your bar

  With Pro you enter the plates you own and the bar's weight. Add a pair of 1.25 lb plates and the app can step in 2.5 lb instead of 5; train on a 35 lb bar and every total counts it.

• A plan that fits a rack, not a commercial gym

  Save your garage as a gym with only what's in it. Most strength plans include a pulldown or a cable move; the swap picker offers what you have, like pull-ups from the rack, and shows the weight Coach would start you at.

• Someone to ask, even alone in the garage

  Each weight comes with Why this weight. Ask Coach to review a session or explain a stall, and it answers from your own log. A plan change shows as a preview first.

  

• A block with a finish line

  Give a program an end, like week 3 of 8, and Journey shows where your main lift is headed. Prefer a keyboard? Build the full program in the web planner and import it.

  

Garage sessions, set by set

Squat day on a 45 lb bar, plates down to 2.5 lb

Running Day 1 of the squat, bench and deadlift plan below in a two-car garage: a rack, a bench, a bar and a standard plate set.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Barbell Back Squat	275 lb, 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 reps, 2 left	280 lb × 3	Every set hit 5, the top of 3–5. One step up, which with 2.5 lb plates is 5 lb on the bar, and reps reset to 3.
Barbell Bench Press	Set 1: 185 lb × 8, 3 left (target 7 with 2 left)	Set 2: 195 lb	8 reps with 3 left converts to about 195 lb for 7 with 2 left: 185 × 40 ÷ 38, rounded to your plates.
Barbell Row	155 lb, 8 / 7 / 6 reps, 2 left	155 lb × 7	Today's target was 6 and your weakest set made it. Same weight, aim for 7.

The second bench set was corrected before you loaded it, and the calculator showed which plates to add.

The deadlift stops moving

Three Day 3 sessions in a row at the same weight, with no new rep. This is where a garage lifter usually grinds for a month.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Barbell Deadlift	365 lb, 4 / 3 / 3 reps, 1 left, third session running	325 lb × 3–5, or stay	Three sessions without a new rep, so the recap suggests about 10% lighter, rounded down to 325. Choose Deload or Not yet.
Pull-Up	Bodyweight, 8 / 7 / 6 reps, 1 left	Pull-Up × 7	Swapped in for the pulldown your garage doesn't have. Today's target was 6, so next time it's 7.

A stall gets a lighter run-up you can accept or wave off. The rest of the session keeps progressing.

You bought a pair of 1.25 lb plates

Bench day, on Pro with the new plates entered, so the smallest change to the bar is 2.5 lb.

Exercise	You logged	Next session	Why
Barbell Bench Press	205 lb, 5 / 5 / 5 / 5 reps, 2 left	207.5 lb × 3	Top of 3–5 on every set: one step up. With 1.25s on each side that step is 2.5 lb, not 5.
Incline Dumbbell Press	60 lb, 12 / 11 / 10 reps, 1 left	60 lb × 11	Adjustable dumbbells step on their own jumps. Your weakest set hit 10, so the target goes to 11.

Small plates mean smaller jumps on the lifts where 5 lb is a lot. The app uses whatever your inventory can make.

Plans for a home gym

• The best workout routine for men, for your week

  Stronger squat, bench press and deadlift

  The plan in the examples: squat, bench and deadlift days. Swap the pulldown and cable moves for what your rack has.

  3× a week · 49 sets a week · ~55 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

• The best workout with dumbbells, for the dumbbells you actually have

  Adjustable dumbbells and a bench, 4 days

  No bar yet? Adjustable dumbbells and a bench, four days of upper and lower.

  4× a week · 71 sets a week · ~45 min

  Add to RIRLift

  Add to RIRLift

  Scan with your iPhone camera to add this plan.

  See the plan

Make it fit you

• Save the garage as its own gym

  List exactly what's in it. If you also train at a commercial gym, save that one too and switch between them; each machine remembers its own loads.

• Swap the machine moves once

  When a plan calls for a pulldown or cable pressdown, open the swap picker and choose from what you have. It shows the starting weight for the replacement.

• Enter your plates and bar

  On Pro, set the plates you own and your bar's weight, including fractional plates. Every suggestion and the plate calculator use them.

• Set the block's finish line

  Give the program an end date and Journey shows where your main lift is headed by then. Change the plan and the projection follows.

• Keep the phone off the rack

  Run the session from Apple Watch: log sets, start rest and check the plates per side without walking to your phone.

Questions

Read next

• Barbell calculator

  Plates per side for any total, before you open the app.

• Barbell exercises: the 18 lifts worth learning, and how to put them together

  Everything a rack and a bar can train.

• Pull-up bar exercises for back, arms, grip and abs, with plans for your first rep to your first muscle-up

  What to swap in for the pulldown.

• How to break a lifting plateau and start progressing again

  What to try when the deadlift stops moving.

• How RIRLift picks your next weight

  The rules behind every number in the examples.

More ways lifters use RIRLift

• The workout app for home that plans around what you own

  Bare floor, a pull-up bar, bands or one kettlebell: a plan for your gear that gets harder as you do.

• The powerlifting app for building your squat, bench and deadlift

  Heavy triples adjusted set by set, plate math on your wrist, and no max test to get started.

• The dumbbell workout app that knows when to grab the next pair

  One fixed pair or an adjustable set: plans that fit, and weights that step the way your dumbbells do.

• The strength training app that turns heavy sets into your next weight

  Heavy sets of 3 to 5, a weight for every one, and a clear answer when a lift stops moving.

Every lifter and goal