How Gym Journal works

Getting Started

Tracking Workouts

Logging is built for one thumb, so the phone can stay on the bench between sets.

• 449 exercises across 17 muscle groups, each with an image, a compound or isolation tag, and form notes.
• 7 exercise tracking types: Weight & reps (standard strength), bodyweight, weighted bodyweight, assisted bodyweight, timed/duration (e.g. plank), timed + weight, and distance/cardio.
• Set types: working sets, warm-up sets and drop sets, counted separately.
• Supersets: link two exercises and log them back to back.
• Rest timer: starts between sets, keeps running when you leave the app, and shows the countdown on your Lock Screen.
• Warm-up generator and plate calculator: the percentage sets to build up with, and the exact plates for each side of the bar.
• Workout summary: review the session totals and the medal and PR count beside each exercise that earned a record.
• 40+ prebuilt routines & splits, from Push/Pull/Legs to the Arnold split, ready to start today.

Smart Progression

Gym Journal watches your performance set by set and tells you exactly when to add weight or chase more reps, using double-progression logic with micro-loading and safety thresholds so jumps never compromise form. It progresses barbell, bodyweight, and timed exercises alike.

AI Coach

Tap "Generate with AI" on the Train tab or in the Routines Library. Describe your goal, equipment, and experience, and the AI Coach builds a complete routine or multi-day split. Everything it generates is fully editable — swap exercises, adjust reps, change rest. Pro members get up to 40 generations per month.

Analytics & Statistics

What the numbers say once there are enough of them.

• Statistics ranges: the last 30 days on Free; Pro adds 90 days, six months, twelve months and all time.
• 1RM (One Rep Max) estimation using Epley's formula: 1RM = Weight × (1 + Reps/30).
• Volume load (Sets × Reps × Weight), the plainest measure of how much work a block actually contained.
• Consistency heatmap charting your training frequency throughout the year.
• RPE & intensity trends, so you can see effort climbing before performance drops.
• Monthly reports delivered automatically as a summary at the end of every calendar month.
• Strength projection: your estimated 1RM extended week by week from the trend your logged sets are actually on, so you can see where a block is heading before it ends.
• Per-muscle drill-down: tap any group on the muscle map for its own volume, sets and history.

Body & Progress Tracking

• Bodyweight charts and measurements tracker to log circumference values across multiple body parts.
• Muscle map heatmap showing which groups you have actually trained, not which ones you meant to.
• Body Recovery Tracker showing which muscle groups are fresh vs fatigued.
• Progress photos, private by default and stored on your device.
• Physique timelapse: stitches those photos into a video that stays on your phone until you share it.
• Apple Health (iPhone, opt-in): reads your latest weight, height and body-fat percentage into your profile and writes completed workouts back to Health. Off until you enable it in Settings, and revocable from iOS at any time.

Ranks, XP & Streaks

Three separate systems, deliberately measuring different things.

• Strength tiers — seven of them, Iron → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Diamond → Titan → GOAT. Computed from your lifts against strength standards for your bodyweight, so the tier moves when you get stronger, not when you log more.
• XP and levels — 50 XP per completed workout, 1 XP per tonne of volume, 25 XP per PR. Levels are recomputed from your local history every time rather than stored, so they can never drift out of step with your actual log.
• Weekly streak, with one freeze — the streak counts weeks you trained. Miss a single week and it’s forgiven rather than reset: the run survives, and the missed week simply doesn’t count toward the number.
• Per-muscle streaks — current and best run for each muscle group, alongside the sets you’ve put in this week.
• 30 badges across six categories — volume, sessions, PRs, streak, duration and grit, five tiers each. Volume badges unlock at 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 tonnes lifted, and they read lifetime totals so a lapsed subscription never costs you one.

Community

Share completed workouts to the Gym Bros feed, react with 🔥, drop comments, follow training partners, and compare metrics side-by-side on head-to-head stat panels. The trophy icon opens the Hall of Fame — leaderboards for workouts, volume, PRs, streak and hours — plus Challenges, which you score on Volume, Workouts, Hours, Sets or PRs. Seven strength tiers run Iron → Bronze → Silver → Gold → Diamond → Titan → GOAT, and 30 badges span six categories (volume, sessions, PRs, streak, duration, grit). Community splits and routines are browsable in the global Discovery Library.

Data & Sync

• Instant logging: every set, chart and search reads from the phone, so nothing waits on a signal.
• Cloud sync: your training log is backed up and kept current across every device you sign in on.
• Solo mode: no account, nothing to sign up for, everything on the device.
• CSV import and export: take your whole history out whenever you want, or bring one in from another app.
• 22 languages, set during onboarding and changeable in Settings.

Settings & Account

Everything under the gear icon, and what each control actually changes.

• Workout Settings → Effort Scale: log effort as RPE (how hard the set felt, 1–10) or RIR (reps left in the tank). They’re the same scale from opposite ends — RIR 2 is RPE 8. Switching converts the display; your logged sets are untouched.
• Workout Settings: choose previous values from any workout or the same routine, enable the inline timer for timed sets, and control live PR notifications, superset auto-advance, warm-up sets and the plate calculator. Sounds and the default rest timer are here too.
• Weight Unit: kg or lb, converted for display without rewriting your history.
• Workout Settings → Keep Screen On: holds the display awake during a session and releases it the moment you finish.
• Language: 22 languages across 25 regional variants, including separate US/UK English, Spain/Latin American Spanish and Simplified/Traditional Chinese.
• Public Account: controls whether other lifters can open your profile, stats and shared routines.
• Notifications: rest-timer alerts and community activity, each independently switchable.
• Blocked Users: manage anyone you’ve blocked; blocked accounts leave your feed and lose access to your profile.
• Sync with Apple Health (iPhone, off by default): reads your latest weight, height, body-fat percentage and dietary energy, and writes completed workouts back to Health. Revocable in iOS Settings at any time.
• Solo mode: no account, everything on-device. Link an account later from Settings and your history comes with you.
• Your Subscription: manage or cancel Pro, which hands off to Apple or Google — they are the merchant of record, not Gym Journal.
• Getting Started Guide and Training Intel: in-app walkthroughs, available offline.
• Request a Feature, Send Feedback and Support & Help: all route to the developer directly.

Free vs Pro splits

• Free Tier: unlimited workout logging, the full 449-exercise library, the Gym Bros feed, Hall of Fame leaderboards, cloud sync, up to 5 custom routines and 5 custom splits, plus one AI Coach generation to try it.
• Pro Tier: unlocks unlimited custom routines & splits, smart progression, the AI Coach (40 generations/month), your full stats history rather than the last 30 days, advanced volume & effort analytics, the muscle recovery heatmap, monthly reports, head-to-head stat comparison, body tracker with progress photos, AI Body Projection (4/month), timelapse export and CSV export.