How to Plan and Track Workouts

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Introduction

The workout planning and tracking interfaces are intended to be highly customizable and handle many different kinds of workouts. Due to this, it can be a bit daunting to navigate as there are many options that may or may not be useful to you. This article is intended to guide you through setting up your first workout template, workout log and introduce you to most of the features.

Wait, what's the difference between a template and a log?

While the planning and tracking interfaces are similar, they are intended to represent different things. When planning a workout, you are creating a workout template, as opposed to tracking, where you are creating a workout log. A workout template is meant to be a general plan of what you're hoping to achieve in a workout. A workout log is meant to be one specific workout that you're actually doing or have already finished, filled in with the exact details of what you achieved. To put it another way, if someone is wondering what you usually do when you workout, you could show them a workout template. But if someone asks about your last workout, you could show them your latest workout log.

Planning Your First Workout

We're going to start with creating a workout template since we'll use it when logging your first workout later. A few things need to happen before you can plan a workout though. First, you'll need to be logged in. All workout templates and logs you create can only be seen by you (until I implement an option for sharing them). After that, you'll need to navigate to the Plan page and then click the link to Create a New Workout Template. If your screen looks like this, you're in the right place.

Template Info

From here, click the New Workout Template button to open the dropdown menu containing the different actions you can take. The first one you're going to want to click is the Edit Workout Info link. This will open a modal that lets you change the template's name, put in how many minutes it's supposed to take, and jot down any notes you might have. For now, let's just change the name to My First Template and then click the Submit button. You'll notice the main button's text is now the name you entered. I'll be referring to this button as the Workout button from here on out.

Adding an Exercise

Next thing we're going to do is add an exercise to the template. Click the Workout button to open its dropdown menu and then click the Add Exercise link. This will open a modal that allows you to select which exercise you want and which fields you want to be able to track data for. Let's choose our first exercise. Click the Exercise selection field and you'll see a search bar and a long list of exercises to choose from. Since there are so many options, we're going to use the search bar to find and select the Bench Press option.

Choosing which fields to track depends on what exercise you're doing and what you personally are interested in tracking. In this case, our exercise is the bench press, which is usually tracked using sets, reps, and the amount of weight lifted. To keep it simple for now, that's what we'll do. Simply click on the Sets, Reps, and Pounds buttons to select them and then click Submit.

Groups, Blocks, Schemes, and Sets

There are a few pieces that fit together to form a workout template. Let's start with the smallest piece, the Set, and work our way up. A single Set is composed of the fields that we just selected, so, in this case, sets, reps, and pounds. Each Set is part of a Scheme, which is quite simply a collection of Sets. Each Scheme is part of a Block. A Block is a collection of Schemes that are paired with a chosen exercise. Furthermore, each Block is then part of a Group, which is just a collection of Blocks. Got all that?

Adding a Set

To add a Set to a Scheme, click its associated Add Set button. In our case, there should only be one Add Set button, so click that which will open a modal. From there, you'll be able to enter information for the fields we selected earlier, so sets, reps, and pounds. Let's enter 3 for sets, 8 for reps, and 135 for pounds and then click Submit. You'll see this info fill in under its Scheme button.

Adding a Scheme

To add a Scheme to a Block, click the Block button. The Block button's text is the name of its exercise, so in our case, it will say Bench Press. Once you clicked the Block button you'll see a dropdown menu with all of its options. We want to add a Scheme, so we'll click the Add Scheme link. This will open the Add Scheme modal which allows you to name your schemes. Let's name ours Week 2 and then click Submit.

Why would I want multiple Schemes?

Having multiple Schemes makes a template much more reusable. You may want to keep the order of exercises the same, but change some details from workout to workout. In this case, we're on our way into organizing our schemes by week. So on the first week, we would do 3 set of 8 reps with 135 pounds. On the second week we could specify some totally different, like 5 sets of 10 reps with 95 pounds. During workout logging, you can choose which week you want to do. Go ahead and Add a Set to Week 2 to make things more clear for later in this guide.

Adding a Grouped Exercise (Block)

Now, let's say you want to alternate bench pressing with another exercise, like bent over rows. To do so, click the Block button for bench press to open the dropdown menu and then click the Add Grouped Exercise link. This will open the Add/Edit Exercise modal where you can select Bent Over Row as your exercise and sets, reps, and pounds as your fields. Click Submit and a Bent Over Row block will be added to your template in the same Group as your bench press block. Grouping is indicated by the background coloring. Each Block is light gray and is inside the darker gray of its Group.

Why would I want to group exercises?

Grouping exercises indicates the order in which they should be performed. Let's say a workout template has two exercises on it. If they're not grouped, this indicates that every Set of the first exercise should be performed before moving on to the second exercise. However, if they are grouped, this indicates that you should alternate between exercises each Set.

Additional Features

By this point you've been introduced to the main components of the workout planning interface and have a basic template started that you can make your own. There are a few features left, but we'll get through them quickly since you have a general familiarity for the interface.

Ordering

When an exercise is added, it's put at the bottom of either the entire workout or its Group. This is great if exercises get added in the right order, but in case they don't, both Groups and Blocks can be dragged and dropped be the up-down arrow icon in their respective top right corners.

Deleting

Each of the componenents can be deleted. In most cases, this is done through their dropdown menus. An exception to this is deleting Sets, which is done by clicking one of the Scheme buttons, clicking the View/Delete Sets link from the dropdown menu, and then clicking the X button for the Set you want to delete. Also, Groups can't be directly deleted. To delete a Group, you just have to delete all the Blocks inside of it.

Editing

Each of the componenents can also be edited. So if you've already added a component and need to change its details you can. Click its button to open the dropdown menu and then click its Edit link. There are two exceptions. Since Groups don't have their own button, they can be accessed through any of their Block's buttons. Sets can't be edited, so if you need to change one, simply delete it and then add a new one.

Do I have to save my template?

There's no need, everything you do is automatically saved.

Future Additions

There are a few more features that are in the works. Letting you see each exercises information, like form cues and visuals, as well as letting you view your past performance on each exercise are the two main ones at this point.

Your First Workout Log

The tracking interface is very similar to the planning one, so we'll get one started and then go through the key differences between a workout template and a workout log. To start a new workout log, you'll need to be logged in, navigate to the Track page, and then click the link to Log a New Workout.

A Note on Fitness Score Tracking

For a Fitness Score value to be automatically calculated for logged exercises, you'll need be sure to record your birth date, height, and weight in the Your Health Data page.

Edit Workout Log Info

There are a few more details you can record for each workout log than for a template. From the workout buttons dropdown menu, click the Edit Workout Info link. In the modal, you'll see that you can enter a date and body weight as well. The date fills in with the current date, but that can be changed if, for example, you're entering a past workout. You can also specify your body weight. If you have recorded your weight on Your Health Data page, the most recent entry will automatically fill in.

Add From A Workout Template

This is the reason we started with creating a workout template and one of the main reasons for making one in the first place. You can certainly build each workout log each time, but if there's a workout that you do regularly, this makes logging it even easier. To Add From a Workout Template, click the Add From a Workout Template link in the workout button dropdown menu. This will bring up a modal where you can select which template you would like to add from. Let's choose My First Template and it will add it to this workout log.

You'll notice that the Schemes from the template show up if there was more than one for an exercise. What you can now do is choose the one you're going to use for each exercise by clicking its name. Let's choose Week 2 for bench press and you'll see the other option disappears. Since there's no need for multiple Schemes during a workout log, Sets are simply added to each Block.

That's it!

You should now be able to navigate the planning and tracking interfaces. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions on improving this documentation let me know.