Build steadily. Know your next step.

Start with a week you can complete

Two or three training days use full-body sessions. Longer schedules use upper and lower sessions, with a full-body day in a five-day week. Main work covers squat, hinge, push and pull patterns using your stated equipment. Body-part priorities can add work where your time allows. Warm-up and rest time count towards the session budget.

Primary muscle-group sets are shown as planned and recorded work. Supporting work from compound exercises is not counted twice. Short sessions begin with less volume; adding sets depends on available time and your recovery. With bodyweight alone, shoulder movement practice is labelled honestly and does not count as resisted back work.

The 2026 ACSM position stand reviewed 137 systematic reviews and supports progressive resistance training. Higher weekly volume can support greater hypertrophy, while training to failure is not consistently necessary. This informs gradual workload and repeatable technique; it does not establish a universal ideal set count for every member. ACSM position stand, 2026.

Earn reps, then weight

Record actual working sets, using the same exercise setup and weight convention each time. Keep warm-up sets separate. Reps in reserve means the good repetitions you could still have performed; begin with two or three left.

• Complete all planned working sets in one session. Separate incomplete sessions never combine to earn a heavier target.
• At a repeatable load, build one extra repetition in total towards the top of your working range.
• When every working set reaches the top with at least two spare reps, your available increment can become the next target. Jumps above 5% are held; choose a smaller increment where possible.
• Bodyweight work can build controlled repetitions up to 20. Different exercises start with their own baseline; another movement’s load is never carried across.

The next unlogged session can reflect recent working-set records immediately. Pain, very poor daily readiness, high session effort and recovery weeks can hold an increase or clear heavier targets. Records older than 14 days do not drive a new session increase. These are conservative product rules, not a claim that a particular increment or cutoff is optimal for every person.

Use a stable programme that fits your gym

If equipment is busy, choose an available alternative for the same muscle group that still fits the session’s time budget. The current unlogged session changes, and your preference is retained for later weekly reviews. Completed sessions keep their history. Related exercise images are labelled as related guides; follow the instructions for your actual movement and equipment.

Weekly reviews use training completion, actual working sets, energy, sleep, soreness and weight records. Every fourth programme week reduces volume. The Foundation, Growth and Intensification stages provide structure, with recovery taking priority over the calendar.

Connect food to the growth decision

Calories begin as an estimate. Your working gain-rate setting is a scale-weight target, not a promise of muscle gain. Repeated weigh-ins or weekly averages establish the trend; one reading does not justify a calorie cut.

Log meals you actually ate using the ingredient-based recipe estimate, or enter label values for your real portion. Drinks, oils, sauces and snacks belong in the record. Recipe estimates and daily targets are shown separately; unknown ingredients require a label check.

Once you start food logging, a weight-trend adjustment requires at least four explicitly completed days in the past seven, with average calories within 10% of the current target and protein at least 85% of target. Partial days never count as full intake. These completeness thresholds are product rules to avoid reacting to missing food data. If the current food target has not been followed, the review asks for consistency first. Low energy, strong hunger and recovery needs can still call for more fuel.

For a muscle-building goal, the standard protein calculation begins around 1.8g/kg/day and is refreshed from current bodyweight. The ISSN position supports roughly 1.4–2.0g/kg/day for most healthy exercising adults. Individual needs and dietary constraints can differ. ISSN protein position, 2017.

Judge the result from your records

Use comparable working sets, attendance, weight trends and optional measurements to assess your progress. The programme explains why a target increased, stayed steady or became easier. Published research informs this approach; Tailored has not been tested head-to-head against other apps and does not guarantee a particular muscle gain.

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