LiftEllect™ User Guide

The Dynamic Engine builds your week from your answers. This is the path a new account takes. Every answer can be changed later in More › Training.

1. 
   Step 1

   Choose Dynamic Engine

   During setup, right after Equipment, the app asks “How do you want to train?”. Tap Use Dynamic Engine.

   Already in Custom? Open More › Training and tap Change to Dynamic Engine.

2. 
   Step 2

   Pick your schedule

   The card shows what is recommended for your goal, here 4–5 days of 60–75 minutes for Build muscle. Choose Days per week and Minutes per session, then Continue. Or tap Use the recommended schedule.

   Next, choose the muscle groups to train.

3. 
   Step 3

   Your week is ready

   Workouts › Routine shows the week the engine built: each day's muscle groups, how long it takes, and its exercises.

   Hold a day and drag it to train in another order. Rest days move too.

4. 
   Step 4

   Open a day

   Tap a day to review it before you train. Warm-ups (WU) come first. Last shows what you did the last time, and Time for this day changes today's length only.

   Tap Start workout when you're ready.

5. 
   Step 5

   Load the bar

   Tap any weight. The editor draws the plates for each side, adds it up in one line, and holds the reps and effort for the set.

6. 
   Step 6

   Log as you go

   Tick each set when it's done. The rest timer starts by itself, and the sets still to come adjust to what you logged.

A hybrid cycle mixes the two ways of building a day: days you write exercise by exercise, and days the Dynamic Engine builds for you in one tap. Here is the sample built below, six days with four workouts:

1. 
   Step 1

   Switch to Custom

   Open More › Training and tap Change to custom mode. The app says what changes, then switches. Nothing is deleted.

   New account? Choose Build my own during setup instead.

2. 
   Step 2

   Start the cycle

   Workouts › Routine shows “Build your cycle”. Tap Workout day. (Rest day adds a rest day.)

3. 
   Step 3

   Choose the kind of day

   Custom day starts empty for your own exercises. Pull day, Push day, Upper day, Leg day and Full body are built by the Dynamic Engine.

   For the sample, tap Push day.

4. 
   Step 4

   Choose how long

   Set the length on the slider, from 30 to 90 minutes, then tap Build the day. The engine picks the exercises for your equipment and goal, and the day joins your cycle, ready to train.

5. 
   Step 5

   Add the rest of the cycle

   Tap Add day, under the last card, for each new day: a Custom day for Arms & shoulders, a rest day, a Leg day and a Pull day at 60 minutes, then another rest day. The header now reads 4x per 6 days.

   A day's ⋯ renames it, adds a day after it, skips it or deletes it. Hold a day and drag it to reorder.

6. 
   Step 6

   Fill in your own day

   A Custom day opens on its workout screen. Tap + at the end of the exercise pictures to add exercises, then set the sets, reps and weight of each. Add your own warm-ups with Add warm-up.

   Save keeps the day. Update & exit saves it and leaves. Here an EZ bar preacher curl was just added, so Save is showing.

How the two kinds of day behave

• The Dynamic Engine's days are refreshed on its cadence, every 8 weeks for upper body and every 12 for lower body, when you start a new cycle.
• Your days keep the exercises you chose. When one has been in your cycle for a long time, a notification suggests a change. Nothing changes unless you swap it.
• Both adjust your next sets during a workout and earn records. When every workout day of the cycle is trained or skipped, Start cycle 2 appears and updates sets, reps and weights for your goal.

The Dynamic Engine plans your training for you. Custom lets you write the plan yourself, and the engine handles the numbers.

Both modes adjust your next sets during a workout, award records, and keep the same history and charts.

The switch is in More. The Routine screen shows whichever mode is active.

1. Finish or discard any workout that is open. You can't switch during a workout.
2. Open More › Training.
3. Tap Change to custom mode, or Change to Dynamic Engine if you're in Custom.
4. Read what the switch changes, then confirm.
5. Open Workouts › Routine to see your plan in the new mode.

• Nothing is deleted. Your Dynamic Engine week and your Custom cycle are both kept, so switching back picks up where you left off.
• Your workout history, records and charts are shared by both modes.
• The first time you move from Custom to the Dynamic Engine, it asks for your Schedule and Muscle groups so it can build your week.
• In Custom, the Schedule and Muscle groups rows in More show what your cycle holds. You change them by editing the cycle.

Let the Dynamic Engine lead when

• You want progression decided for you, set by set and week by week.
• Your goal, level and equipment in More › Training are up to date. The plan is built from those answers.
• You can log each set's weight and reps, and from Intermediate level, how hard it felt.

Change a day without leaving the Dynamic Engine

Choose Custom when

• You follow a program from a coach, or a plan you trust, exercise for exercise.
• Your training doesn't fit a 7-day week, or you want each day's exercises fixed from one cycle to the next.
• You're an advanced lifter who wants to choose every exercise and its order, and leave the weights, reps and rest to the engine.

Keeping progress moving

• Log effort honestly. From Intermediate level, the engine uses it to set your next sets and your next block.
• When most of your lifts stop progressing, the engine can bring a lighter week forward on its own.
• When an exercise you picked has been in your plan for a long time, a notification suggests changing it. Nothing changes unless you swap it.
• When your progress shows you're ready for the next level, the app suggests it. Your level never changes without your say.

With a standard 7-day week, a block is six weeks.

• Weeks 1 to 5 are working weeks. Sets, reps, weights and effort follow a planned pattern for your goal.
• Week 6 is the deload: fewer sets, lighter weights, and every set stops well short of failure.
• The next block starts from your results. If you earned an increase, it starts heavier.

Days per week and session length

1. Open More › Training › Schedule.
2. Tap Use the recommended schedule, or Choose my own training days and session length.
3. Save. Your week is rebuilt for the new schedule.

A longer block, laid out by hand

1. In More › Training › Schedule, open Advanced.
2. Set Days in the block, from 7 to 14.
3. Tap each day to choose what it trains: Push, Pull, Upper, Legs, Full body or Rest.
4. Save.

• A block keeps at least one rest day and one workout day.
• Two days that train the same muscles can't be back to back, the last day and the first included.
• More than 3 training days in a row shows a warning, so you can add rest between them.
• Longer than 7 days, your plan runs in cycles: the screens say “Cycle 2” where they said “Week 2”, and a block is four cycles instead of six weeks. The last one is the deload.
• To go back, tap Use the system's schedule.
• On the Functional hybrid mix goal, your week is always the system's own.

In Custom

Your cycle is as long as the days you add, from 1 to 14, rest days included. Add days in Workouts › Routine › Add day. Sets, reps and weights update when you start the next cycle.

No. The deload is part of the block, and you can't move it by hand. The engine can bring one forward on its own when most of your lifts stop progressing.

If you need less training before the deload comes, use these:

If a week's days pass without being trained, the app offers the next week anyway. Days left untrained count as skipped.

In the Training Block Review. One is written each time you start the next week, or the next cycle.

• It appears in your notifications, the bell on Today.
• All reviews are in Workouts › History › Training Block Review.
• It covers last week's workouts, sets, volume and records, then each change to next week, with the reason for it.

1. On the workout screen, find the row of actions under the exercise name: Info · Swap · Note · Progress · Set Type.
2. Tap Swap. The list shows exercises for the same muscle group that your equipment allows.
3. To reach the other muscle groups in today's workout, type in the search field.
4. Tap an exercise. It takes the old one's place for the rest of the workout.

What happens to your history

• Sets you already logged on the old exercise stay in your history and count in today's totals.
• Each exercise keeps its own history. The new one starts from its own last session, or from a starting weight worked out from your profile if you've never done it.
• A cardio machine swaps for another cardio machine.

Other changes during a workout

• Remove an exercise: swipe the action row left to show Delete.
• Add an exercise: tap + at the end of the exercise pictures along the top.
• Change the order: hold an exercise picture and drag it.

1. Open More › Training › Equipment. During a workout, open the menu (≡) and tap Equipment.
2. Tick what your gym has, and untick what it doesn't. Search finds a machine by name or by muscle: “hamstrings” finds the leg curl machines.
3. If you ticked dumbbells, set your heaviest dumbbell on the slider: 5 lb steps up to 150 lb (2.5 kg up to 75 kg).
4. Choose the plates your gym has, on the same screen.
5. Save, then choose how to apply it:
   • Update & keep my workouts: the same exercises with updated sets, reps and weights. An exercise you can no longer do is replaced.
   • Update & generate new workouts: a new week built for your equipment.

What the filter covers

• In the Dynamic Engine, an exercise that needs equipment you haven't ticked is never planned, offered in Swap or offered in Add.
• In Custom, search shows the whole library and marks the exercises that need equipment you haven't ticked.
• Weights are capped at your heaviest dumbbell. Past it, progress continues with more reps, then slower or paused reps, and on some goals shorter rest. The workout screen tells you which.
• Resistance-band exercises aren't prescribed past what a band can do. Once you're stronger than that, you get a machine or free-weight exercise instead.

1. During a workout, tap the weight of any set. The set editor opens.
2. At the top, the bar is drawn with the plates for each side, and one line adds it up.
3. Type the weight on the keypad, or use − and +. The plates update as you type.
4. Tap Save set, then tick the set when it's done.

Set up your bar and plates

1. Tap the bar picture to open the setup.
2. Choose the Bar type:

   Bar	lb	kg
   Olympic barbell	45	20
   Women's Olympic barbell	35	15
   Standard barbell	15	7
   Olympic EZ curl bar	25	10
   Standard EZ curl bar	15	7
   Trap bar	45	20
   Smith machine bar	20	10
   Fixed-weight barbell	The number printed on it is the total

3. Tap the plates your gym has, all in one row.
4. Tap Done.

• Plates are loaded largest first, from your own plates.
• If the weight can't be made with your plates, the editor says so and shows the nearest weight you can load, for example “Nearest achievable with your plates: 150 lbs”.
• Your plates are remembered. The bar starts from the one the exercise uses, such as an EZ curl bar for EZ curls, each time you open the editor.
• For an exercise where you hold a plate, the editor shows the plate in your hands. − and + step from one plate to the next, never past your heaviest.
• Machines, cables, dumbbells, kettlebells and landmine exercises have no plate calculator.
• The same editor holds the reps, the effort score and the tempo for the set.

It depends on your level, set in More › Training › About you.

RPE, rate of perceived exertion, is how hard the set felt, out of 10. RIR, reps in reserve, is how many more good reps you could have done. They're one scale read from two ends:

An advanced lifter sees both sliders. Moving one moves the other.

1. Do the set.
2. Tap its weight or reps. The set editor opens with the effort slider at the set's target.
3. Ask yourself how many more clean reps you could have done. Two left is RIR 2, which is RPE 8. Move the slider to match.
4. Check the weight and reps are what you actually did, then tap Save set.
5. Tick the set.

If a set felt exactly as asked, you can tick it without opening the editor. The target is logged.

To change a set after ticking it, untick it, edit it, and tick it again.

Each set's target sits beside it in the Target column, with the effort it asks for under the weight and reps. The same column can show Last instead: what you did the last time you trained the exercise.

• Count reps you could have done with good form, not reps you could have ground out.
• Warm-up sets take no effort score.
• A set taken to RPE 10 when RPE 8 was asked is useful information. Log it as it was.

During the workout

• Harder than the target: your next sets get lighter, and your rest is a little longer.
• Easier than the target: your next sets get a little heavier. On cardio-focused plans, they get more reps instead.
• Reps well above or below the target: the next set is reset to a weight you can do for its target reps.
• Unticking a set puts the following sets back as they were.

Next week and the next block

• Each week of the block follows the plan for your goal, including the lighter week at the end.
• Your results decide where the next block starts. Reach the top of your rep range on every set, or finish sets with more in reserve than asked, and the next block starts heavier.
• Fall below your rep range and the next block holds your weights. On the Lose weight and Improve cardiovascular health goals, it eases them slightly.
• Upper-body lifts go up in smaller steps than lower-body lifts. Where one step would be too big a jump, the heavier weight goes on some of your sets first, and on the rest as you earn it.
• Beginners progress on reps alone.

Every change is listed in the Training Block Review, with the reason for it.

1. Tap Search foods on Today, or Add food in Macro › Meals.
2. Before you type, Around this time shows foods you usually eat at this hour. Tap one to log it.
3. Or type a food. Foods on your phone come first. For brands and more choices, tap Search more foods online.
4. Choose the unit: g, oz, lb, the food's own measures such as “1 medium” or “1 slice”, portions for foods found online, or a portion you saved.
5. Enter the amount from your kitchen scale. Or type the protein, carbs, fat or calories you want, and the amount follows.
6. Check the time. It starts at now. Tap it to set an earlier time today.
7. Tap Add to today.

The food joins today's timeline under its time. Foods logged within 15 minutes of the first one are grouped together.

• Change an entry: tap it to correct the amount or time.
• Remove an entry: swipe it left.

Faster ways in

• Quick add: calories and macros without a food, with an optional name.
• Copy yesterday: copy a meal you logged yesterday.
• My Kitchen: the foods you keep at home, one tap away.

Not at the moment. LiftEllect has no camera or barcode logging. The fastest ways to log are Around this time, Copy yesterday and My Kitchen, described above.

The panel states the numbers and nothing else: what you've eaten, your target, and the difference. Figures are bold, targets and units are quieter, and nothing turns red.

What happens after you log

• The meals still to come today are re-planned around what you ate, protein first. The Up next card in Macro › Meals shows what's left for your next meal, with Suggest a meal.
• Nothing carries into tomorrow. Each day starts from its own target.
• Your targets follow your weight trend, not each weigh-in. Weigh in with Log today's weight in Macro › Today.