Workout Builder: Strength Training Tracker with Sets, Reps & PRs
Strength training data is fundamentally different from endurance training data. A heart rate zone tells you nothing about whether you added weight to the barbell last week. A VO2 max estimate does not capture whether you hit a new three-rep max on the squat. Fitiv Pulse's workout builder is designed specifically for the mechanics of resistance training — tracking the sets, reps, and weights that determine whether progressive overload is actually happening.
What is the Fitiv Workout Builder?
The workout builder is Fitiv's strength training interface, integrated with both the iPhone app and Apple Watch. It lets you create custom workout templates, execute those workouts with per-set logging, and automatically track personal records across every exercise in your history.
The core workflow: build a workout template with your chosen exercises, then execute it in the gym — logging actual weight and reps for each set as you go. The Apple Watch displays your workout in progress, accepts set completions directly from your wrist, and tracks rest timers between sets so you do not have to watch the clock.
Workout history accumulates over time, building a complete log of every set, rep, and weight ever recorded. This history is the foundation of PR detection, progressive overload analysis, and strength-based training load calculation.
Creating Custom Workouts
Workout templates are built in the iPhone app from an exercise library covering major movement patterns across all equipment types. Exercises can be organized by muscle group, equipment, or movement category.
For each exercise in a template, you set:
- Target sets: How many sets are planned
- Target reps: Planned rep range (e.g., 4-6, 8-12, 15+)
- Target RPE: Optional perceived effort target for auto-regulation
- Rest timer: Automatic countdown between sets
Templates can be as simple as a three-exercise full-body session or as complex as a periodized powerlifting program with multiple working sets, warm-up sets, and deload parameters. Multiple templates can be saved and organized by training phase or day of the week.
Workouts can also be started from scratch without a template — useful for deload weeks, accessory work, or when you want to train by feel rather than a rigid structure.
Tracking Sets, Reps, and Weight on Apple Watch
During a workout, the Apple Watch displays the active exercise, target sets and reps, and a log of completed sets. After each set, you enter the actual weight used and reps completed directly from your wrist — no phone interaction required during the workout.
The watch face shows:
- Current exercise name
- Sets completed vs. total planned
- Last completed set's weight and reps (for reference on subsequent sets)
- Rest timer countdown
- Elapsed workout time
- Current heart rate
Set logging from the watch is designed for one-handed operation — you tap to confirm reps and use haptic input to increment or decrement values. The interaction takes 3-5 seconds per set, minimally interrupting the workout flow.
If you deviate from the template — adding sets, dropping weight, changing rep targets — the actual logged values are recorded as performed, not as planned. The template is a guide; the log is ground truth.
Automatic PR Detection
Fitiv tracks personal records across multiple rep ranges for every exercise in your history. When a completed set exceeds any of your recorded bests, the app immediately flags the PR.
The PR categories tracked include:
- 1-rep max (1RM): Heaviest single completed
- Estimated 1RM: Using the Epley formula (weight × (1 + reps/30)) to estimate 1RM from multi-rep sets
- Rep PRs: Heaviest weight completed for each rep count from 1-20
- Volume PR: Most total volume (sets × reps × weight) for a given exercise in a session
Estimated 1RM is particularly useful because most athletes rarely train at true 1RM. The Epley formula provides a reliable estimate from working sets — a 5RM at 90 kg estimates a 1RM of approximately 107 kg — allowing strength progress to be tracked without risky maximum lifts.
PR history is visible per exercise, showing the progression over time. This timeline is the clearest evidence of whether your training is producing strength gains.
Progressive Overload Tracking
Progressive overload — consistently increasing training stimulus over time — is the fundamental mechanism of strength adaptation. Without systematic overload, training maintains current strength but does not build it.
Fitiv's progressive overload tracking compares each workout to your last session for the same exercise and flags opportunities for progression. If you completed 4 × 6 at 80 kg with RPE 7 last week, the system notes that you likely have capacity to increase weight or reps this session.
The analysis accounts for RPE: a set completed at RPE 6 (easy) suggests more in the tank; a set completed at RPE 9 (very hard) suggests that weight is near your current limit. This context prevents the common mistake of adding weight arbitrarily without regard for how the previous session actually felt.
Volume load trend (total sets × reps × weight per session per exercise) provides the broadest view of progressive overload, capturing increases in total training stimulus even when individual set parameters stay constant.
Apple Watch Gym Mode
When a Fitiv strength workout is active on Apple Watch, the watch automatically pauses heart rate-based calorie calculation during rest periods and resumes during working sets. This prevents the inflated calorie counts that result from treating gym workouts like continuous aerobic exercise.
Heart rate data from strength sessions feeds into Fitiv's training load calculation alongside volume load, giving a more complete picture of the session's physiological demand.
Strength Training Load in the Context of Overall Training
Strength training load is integrated with endurance training load in Fitiv's overall training management system. The AI coaching engine accounts for yesterday's heavy squat session when assessing your readiness for today's interval run. Muscle damage and neuromuscular fatigue from high-volume strength training suppresses performance and increases injury risk in concurrent endurance sessions — a relationship that training load integration makes explicit.
The combined load view prevents the common mistake of treating strength and endurance training as entirely separate systems with independent recovery demands.
Why a Dedicated Workout Builder Matters
Most fitness apps that track endurance metrics treat strength training as an afterthought — a calorie log or a generic activity type. The result is that athletes who do both — the majority of serious recreational athletes and virtually all CrossFit, HYROX, and obstacle race competitors — have no visibility into whether their strength training is progressing.
Without set-by-set logging and PR tracking, strength gains are invisible. You might feel stronger, but you cannot confirm it, periodize around it, or identify plateaus that require programming changes. Systematic logging converts strength training from an intuitive activity into a data-driven process with measurable outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I use the workout builder without an Apple Watch? A: Yes. The workout builder is fully functional on iPhone. You log sets and reps manually after each set using the phone screen. The Apple Watch provides convenience (wrist-based logging, rest timers without touching the phone) but is not required.
Q: How many exercises are in the exercise library? A: Fitiv's library includes hundreds of exercises across all major movement categories. If a specific exercise is not in the library, you can create a custom exercise with the movement pattern, target muscle groups, and equipment type of your choice. Custom exercises support the same set/rep/weight logging and PR tracking as library exercises.
Q: Can I import a training program from another app? A: Fitiv does not currently support direct import of training templates from third-party apps. Programs can be manually built as templates in the workout builder. For complex periodized programs, you can create multiple templates (one per workout type) and organize them by day or phase.
Q: Does Fitiv track bodyweight exercises? A: Yes. Bodyweight exercises (pull-ups, dips, push-ups, pistol squats) are logged with body weight as the load. If you use added weight (a dip belt, a weight vest), you can log the added load separately. PR tracking for bodyweight exercises tracks the maximum rep count at bodyweight and estimates of 1RM equivalents using standard formulas adapted for bodyweight movements.