The total weight. Sometimes exercises suggest a weight that is lighter than a 45lb bar, in that case either use a lighter bar or change the weight to 45lbs and use a standard bar.
Need help?
Use the contents list to find information on how the app works
Or contact us at support@peakstrength.app
Contents
Tutorial
FAQ
Does the suggested weight mean the total weight or how much weight I put on the bar?
Do I need to follow the weight given on an exercise set?
No, the weight displayed is suggested meaning it is the app's best recommendation for how much you should lift. However, for multiple reasons you may know better and can absolutely adjust the weight. The app will then re-calibrate to the new weight you entered and better suggest.
Note that when you are just starting out, the app may tend to err to the light side on weight suggestions. If you feel the weight is too light or too heavy, just adjust the weight to give that input to the app.
Can I skip workouts or change the order of workout days?
Yes, when on the preview screen for another workout in the current week, scroll to the bottom of the page and select the button to skip to that workout.
You may then return to the original workout the same way.
I changed the equipment but my program didn’t change
In order to change the exercises built into your program you must rebuild your program. To do this go to account setting > Program > Build New Program.
If you only want to change the exercises for different equipment for the current workout, you may choose “replace exercise” within the workout and only exercises with your selected equipment will appear as options.
Onboarding Questionnaire
When entering the app for the first time, you will be prompted to answer a series of onboarding questions. This will allow the app to learn about you to build the best program specific to your needs.
Choose your units
The units you choose will impact how your weights appear in the workout. You can always change your units in your account settings
Strength training experience
Selecting your training experience lets the app know how difficult exercises to choose and factors into how heavy of weights to use.
Beginners: We suggest anyone who is just starting out in strength training, is under the age of 14, or would like to be slowly introduced to complex lifts like the clean or snatch to select Beginner.
Beginners start with a unique program designed to ease you into strength training and get you acclimated with various movements so you can progress towards the next experience level.
Intermediate: If you have at least 6 months of training experience, are comfortable with the squat and bench press, and may have had some exposure to the clean, we suggest selecting intermediate.
Advanced: Advanced: If you have at least two years of training experience and are comfortable with movements like the snatch and clean, we suggest selecting advanced.
Elite: Select elite if you have years of training under your belt, are comfortable with a wide range of exercises, and are proficient in the clean, snatch, and jerk movements.
Where do you lift?
We provide four preset equipment combinations based on the equipment available at common types of gyms. You can also select “I want to enter equipment manually” to select each piece of equipment available to you. You may always change your equipment selection later.
No Gym: The no gym option only includes small workout add-ons that are easy to acquire if training at home. The workouts are mainly built around bodyweight and banded exercises.
Bodyweight: You may use the app with no equipment at all and you will be prescribed 100% bodyweight exercises, however, we suggest for optimal performance to at least have bands. If you need bands, check out our highly versatile and durable Powerlastic Bands.
Home Gym: This preset is built for a typical minimalist basement or garage gym with a bench, squat rack, plates, and dumbbells
Local Gym: This preset is built for a typical high school gym or local commercial gym with most machines, platforms, and free weights.
Full Gym: The final preset includes all of the equipment we use in the app including jerk boxes, Olympic lifting pulling boxes, and sleds.
Your Strength Levels
Enter what you believe is the most weight, or one rep max, that you can currently lift.
If you don’t know what your max is, just enter a conservative number that you think you’ll be able to lift whether one rep or even five reps.
These numbers are just to give the app a baseline starting point to help suggest accurate weights for you during workouts. After logging a few workouts, the app will regulate based on your ability to provide the best weight suggestions.
Don’t enter lifetime bests that you lifted five years ago if you don’t think you can perform that weight today.
Note that this option is not available if you selected “Beginner” as your experience level or “No Gym” as your equipment preset.
What sport would you like to train for?
Select the sport you are currently training for. If you play multiple sports, select the sport that has a season coming up next.
Universal Athlete Training: This option is if you are not necessarily training for a specific sport but want workouts to make you stronger, faster, and more athletic.
What sport would you like to train for?
Select the sport you are currently training for. If you play multiple sports, select the sport that has a season coming up next.
Universal Athlete Training: This option is if you are not necessarily training for a specific sport but want workouts to make you stronger, faster, and more athletic.
What position do you play?
Some sports also require you to select a position, event, or focus. Select which fits you the best.
How many days a week can you lift?
Select how many days a week you would like to workout.
Depending on how many days you select, the app will narrow your workout days to the most important that you need for your sport
When do you want to be at your peak?
The peak date determines when the app will prepare you to be at your greatest strength and power level. When you have 4 or 5 months until your peak date, your workouts will be high volume with high sets and reps to build muscle. As you get closer to your peak date, your workouts will increase in weight and intensity, making you more powerful and explosive.
We recommend choosing a date 3-6 months from now. However, it is okay to choose a date sooner or further off than that. After you reach your peak date, you will be prompted to pick your next peak date to continue training.
Team Sports: If you play a team sport, we recommend setting your peak date for the week before your competitive season begins to enter the season at your highest strength levels. If you are using the app in season, set the peak date for your biggest game or competition of the season, and reduce the number of days you workout to 2 or 3.
Individual Sports: If you play an individual sport, we recommend setting your peak date for the biggest competition you will have during your upcoming season. The app will prepare you to be at your strongest, fastest, and most explosive self at that point. You may reduce your number of days to 2-3 workouts per week two weeks before your peak date.
Multisport Athletes: If you play multiple sports throughout the year, set your peak date to the week of your biggest competition of the season. When one season ends, set your next peak date to the biggest competition of your next season.
No Season Coming Up: If you don't have a season coming up or don’t regularly compete, set your peak date for any time you want to be at your strongest or hit a big max in a lift.
It is also okay not to set a date, and the app will automatically schedule your peak date 20 weeks out from the current date.
Note that if you selected “Beginner” for experience level, the app will automatically schedule your peak date 20 weeks from now. In addition, Intermediate experience level athletes may not select a peak date closer than ten weeks. This is so that you are not prescribed lifts that require you to lift too heavy in your first workouts.
Overview Check
Check over your questionnaire answers to make sure everything looks correct. You may edit any answer on this screen. If everything looks good, click “Build My Program,” and the app will build your training program!
Home Screen
Periodization Overview
The graph at the top of the screen represents your periodization. Periodization refers to the structure of how your workouts change over time leading up to your peak date. Learn more about periodization here.
The Peak Strength training system is divided into 2-5 week-long blocks. Each bar in the graph depicts one week, and multiple weeks are grouped into blocks. Within one 2-5 week block, the exercises will be the same for each workout day. For example, if the Power Clean is the first exercise on day one, it will be the first exercise on day one for every week in the 2-5 week block. This is to ensure that you are making progress on individual exercises week to week.
The periodization model follows five unique phases, to which each block is assigned. Each phase provides a different amount of volume, intensity, and variation in the complexity of exercises as you progress towards your peak.
The order of the phases is Exposure, Comprehension, Ascension, Summit, and Realization.
Week Navigation
By clicking the arrows on either side of the graph, you can scan the weeks ahead or behind to preview or review the workouts each week.
Workout Days
The number of workout days that you selected will display on the home screen. The highlighted day is your workout for today. Clicking start will allow you to preview the workout before getting started.
Clicking on any other day will allow you to preview that workout. At the bottom of the preview screen is the option to skip to that workout if you prefer.
If you do not complete all of the workouts by the end of the week (Saturday), you will automatically be moved to the next week starting on Sunday.
Program Overview
Exercise Layout
In the exercise preview, you can see all of the exercises in the order that you will perform them in the workout.
If you are previewing today’s workout, clicking the exercise will allow you to enter the workout at that point. When previewing other workouts, clicking the exercise will take you to the video and description of the exercise.
Reps vs sets
The reps and sets are displayed underneath the exercise name. Sometimes an exercise will have a different number of reps for each set. In that case, the reps for each individual set are displayed. Otherwise, the prescription is displayed in the traditional “sets x reps” format.
Circuits
Some exercises are paired together in groups of two (supersets) or even three (circuits). For these exercises, you will alternate between the exercises until all sets are completed.
Skip to Workout
If you are previewing a workout from a different day, at the bottom of the screen, there is a button to skip to this workout. The workout day that you are previewing will become the active workout day and will allow you to start the workout.
Using the same method, you can always skip back to the first workout day if you prefer.
Workout
Warm Ups
When starting a workout, you will be prompted to complete a warm up consisting of a few exercises.
Some warm up exercises have more than one set. Complete all sets of the warm up exercise, then press next to progress.
Warm Up Sets
Exercises that require heavier weights will often have a couple of warm up sets prescribed before starting the actual working sets.
Complete all warm up sets, then select next to progress to the working sets for the exercise.
Note that the given weights for the warm up sets are suggestions. If they seem too heavy or too light, you may perform a different weight.
You may also decide to add more warm up sets to further prepare for the workout.
Rep Scheme
Perform the number of reps displayed for the current set
Some reps will display as “on each side.” Perform the total number of reps on the right and left sides of the body.
Sometimes instead of reps, distance or time will be prescribed.
If you performed a different amount of reps, you may adjust the rep number.
Note that changing the reps will not affect the reps prescribed on successive sets.
Weight Suggestions
Each set will suggest a weight to perform. Understand that the weight is a suggestion, and it is ultimately up to your judgment to perform a load that is safe and within your ability to lift. You may adjust the weight to reflect how much you lifted that set.
The weight suggestion will generally increase from set to set and is determined by the difficulty rating you assign to the set.
Difficulty Rating
After performing a set, use the slider bar to indicate how difficult the set was that you performed. The difficulty you choose will indicate how heavy your next set is.
Log Set
After you made all necessary adjustments to the reps, weight, and difficulty rating, select “Log Set” to progress to the next set.
Rest Timer
After logging the set, the rest timer will indicate how long you should wait to begin the next set. Use this time to load the new weight on the bar, get a drink of water, and recover.
You may choose to skip the rest timer if you feel fully prepared.
Exercise video and descriptions
You can view more information on an exercise by selecting the name or image of the exercise or by selecting “Watch video” at the bottom of the workout screen.
View a demonstration of an athlete performing the exercise.
Some exercises have instructional videos attached to them to help learn proper lifting technique.
Learn the function, technique cues, and instructions for completing the exercise by reading the description text below.
Exercise video and descriptions
View your workout history for an exercise by selecting “View history” on the workout screen or selecting the “History” tab on the exercise video screen.
If you previously performed the exercise, your estimated one rep max will display in gold text. This weight is based on the weights that you logged during workout sets.
The heaviest set you logged for an exercise each workout is displayed at the bottom. Included are the weight, the number of reps performed, and the date completed.
Replace Exercise
You may replace an exercise in a workout by selecting “Replace exercise” at the bottom of the workout screen.
You may choose to replace an exercise if you are unfamiliar with the exercise, you lack the equipment to perform the exercise, you have an injury preventing you from performing that exercise, or you simply don’t like performing the prescribed exercise.
The app will suggest a select number of exercises that we believe are suitable replacements for the prescribed exercise.
Once you select an exercise, you will be prompted to confirm your selection. Checking the box “Remember replacement” will replace the exercise for the rest of the program block. Otherwise, the exercise will only be replaced for today.
Before confirming the replacement, you may tap the image to preview a video of the exercise.
Set Navigation
Use the set navigation button next to the log set button to move to a different set for that exercise.
If you are in a circuit, select the exercise you would like to navigate to, then select the set.
Updating Sets
If you navigate to a set you already completed, you may select “Update Set” to change the reps, weight, or difficulty rating for that set.
Log the set to save the new input values.
To return to the current set, select the three gold arrows at the top right corner of the screen.
Completing Workouts
Once you complete the last set in the workout, the workout is finished, and you may choose to begin the post-workout mobility.
You may also choose to finish a started workout on the workout overview screen by selecting “Finish” at the top right corner of the screen.
Mobility
Choosing target area
When starting mobility, you have the option to choose which part of the body you would like to target. You may choose “General” to get a mix of mobility exercises, and you may also complete multiple target areas in one workout.
The exercises will change block to block as you progress through the program.
Workout navigation
Some exercises have multiple sets. Complete all sets for the given number of reps or time duration, then select “next” to progress to the next exercise.
Some exercises may include equipment like foam rollers or dowel rods that you do not have access to. Try to find a suitable replacement for the equipment or skip the exercise.
Completion
When you finish all the exercises in a target area, you may choose to finish the workout or select another area to target.
Account Settings
Access your account settings by selecting the user image at the top left-hand corner of the screen
Strength levels
Your estimated one rep maxes for the bench press, back squat, and clean are displayed on the account screen.
These values will change as you complete workouts and log higher weights for those or similar exercises
Account information
You may update your subscription and account information by selecting the “Account” tab.
Equipment
Select the “Equipment” tab to edit the individual pieces of equipment that you have access to.
Some changes may require your program to be rebuilt. For example, if you originally selected “No gym” during the initial questionnaire, adding additional equipment will prompt a program rebuild to provide you with a higher quality program.
Note that making an equipment change will not automatically change exercises already programmed into your workouts. You may either replace the exercises inside the workout or rebuild your program to enact equipment changes.
Program Rebuild
You may change your program settings by selecting the “Program” tab.
Some changes will prompt a program rebuild such as changing your peak date, changing your sport, or changing your experience level to or from beginner.
You may also select “Build new program” to rebuild your program from scratch. Any time you rebuild your program, you will have the option to change any other settings. Once you are satisfied with your changes, select the gold button “Build my program” to save the changes. Your new program will be built.
