Strength Workouts

Strength workouts need exercises, sets, repetitions, load, effort, and rest rather than endurance steps based on time and distance. Trainingload.ai provides a dedicated strength editor and can show the planned prescription alongside the completed strength activity.

Before you begin

• Open a plan draft or an editable future workout. Do not rewrite a completed activity as a new prescription.
• Choose Strength Training as the sport to open the strength editor.
• Decide whether to use Manual or Rules mode. Both resolve to the same workout structure.
• Gather exercise names, equipment, reliable loads or 1RM values, and the intended RPE/RIR. Choose Open Load when a numeric load is not known.

Structure at a glance

1. Choose Strength Training

Open the manual workout editor and select Strength Training. The editor switches from endurance steps to the strength builder.

2. Set session guidance

Add planned duration and session RPE only when useful for the plan. Session RPE describes the intended overall difficulty, not the effort target of every set.

3. Add an exercise

Every exercise must have a non-empty name. Use a stable, recognizable name so the plan and completed session can be compared later. Equipment is optional and should describe what the athlete needs, not duplicate the exercise name.

Examples:

• Back Squat — Barbell
• Romanian Deadlift — Barbell
• Pull-up — Bodyweight
• Split Squat — Dumbbells

4. Add set groups

A set group describes repeated sets with the same prescription.

• Warm-up — preparation sets; optional.
• Work — the sets that define the main training prescription; required for every exercise.

Choose repetitions for rep-based work or time for an isometric/timed set. For a repetition range, keep minimum no greater than maximum.

5. Choose load

• Open load — no numeric load is prescribed. Use this when equipment or current strength is unknown.
• Fixed weight — a numeric weight with a supported unit.
• Percent of 1RM — appropriate only when the relevant 1RM is known and current.
• Bodyweight — the athlete's bodyweight.
• Bodyweight offset — bodyweight plus or minus an external amount where supported.

AI-generated strength plans should not invent kilograms, pounds, or percent 1RM when the athlete has no tool-backed history or known 1RM. Open load plus an RPE/RIR cue is the safer default.

6. Add effort and rest

Use RPE to describe perceived effort or RIR to describe repetitions left in reserve. Keep the cue internally consistent; avoid prescribing an aggressive load and a very easy effort target unless that contrast is intentional.

Rest is stored per set group. Use enough time for the intended quality rather than forcing every exercise into the same rest value.

7. Write the same workout with Strength DSL

In Rules mode, a strength session can be written as:

duration 50m
session rpe 6

exercise "Back Squat" equipment barbell {
  warmup 1x5 weight 40kg rest 90s
  work 3x5 weight 80kg rpe 7 rest 3m
}

exercise "Pull Up" equipment bodyweight {
  work 3x8 bodyweight rir 2 rest 90s
}

Follow Strength Workout DSL for the complete grammar, localized exercise names, load forms, validation flow, and error fixes. Strength DSL is a static prescription: it does not execute if/else, weekly progression, deload scripts, nested blocks, or arbitrary executable scripts.

Verify the workout

Before saving, confirm:

• At least one exercise exists.
• Every exercise has a name.
• Every exercise has at least one set group.
• Every exercise includes at least one work set group.
• Sets, repetitions, seconds, effort, and load are within supported ranges.
• The preview reflects the intended session.

After saving, reopen the workout and confirm the same structure appears in the visual builder or normalized Strength DSL. The preview summary should count the intended exercises and work sets.

Troubleshooting

• “Enter a name for every exercise”: add a non-empty quoted name in DSL or fill the Exercise field in the visual builder.
• “Each exercise needs at least one set group”: add a warm-up or work group before closing the exercise.
• “Each exercise needs at least one work set”: a warm-up-only exercise is invalid; add at least one work line.
• A repetition range fails: write the lower value first, such as 3x8-12.
• Load or effort fails validation: use a supported load form and choose RPE or RIR, not both.
• The closing brace is rejected: close each exercise once and do not nest exercise blocks.
• Switching from strength to endurance clears the editor: the structures are intentionally different. Save or copy the intended text before changing sport.

Completed strength sessions

Strength activities can record exercises, set completion, and session completion. After the workout, open the strength activity detail and verify exercise names, completed sets, load, repetitions/time, and overall session context before using it for review.

Next steps

• Follow Strength Workout DSL for a complete text-mode tutorial.
• Add the workout to a plan and continue with Plan Lifecycle or Manage an Active Plan.