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Logging and the set shorthand

The logger is built for the gym floor: one row per set, big numbers, and one tap for a set you repeat.

One row per set

Each exercise shows its sets as rows: the set number, what you did last time, the reps, the weight and a tick box. Reps always come first, everywhere in the app: a set reads 10 × 40 kg. The current set is highlighted.

• Prefilled from last time. From your second session on, every row arrives with the reps and weight you logged last time. Did the same again? Tick it. Did more? Tap the number and change it. Your first session of a lift starts at 0 kg, at the bottom of the rep range: type the weight you lift.
• One step heavier when you earned it. When every working set last time reached the top of the rep range, the rows come prefilled one weight step heavier (2.5 kg on a barbell, machine or cable, 2 kg on dumbbells, 5 lb in lb) at the bottom of the range. Check the number before you tick: ticking logs what the row says.
• Tick to log. Ticking a set saves it and starts the rest timer. The timer runs while Liftorra is open; -15 and +15 change it, Skip ends it, and tapping the time opens the rest sheet (below).
• The keypad. Tapping a number opens a keypad on the reps first, then the weight, with weight steps, plate maths, an optional RPE (rate of perceived exertion: how hard the set felt, from 1 to 10), and Type (below).
• More per set. Open a set to change its kind (working, warm-up, drop set, to failure), add an RPE or a note, add drops, duplicate it or delete it (with Undo).
• Exercises. Add, replace, reorder or remove exercises during the workout. The exercises you are not on fold down to one line.
• Drag to reorder. Press the handle (six dots) beside an exercise’s name and drag it to a new place. Its logged sets go with it, and Undo puts it back. On a computer, focus the handle, press Space, move it with the arrow keys and press Space again (Escape cancels). Move up and Move down are still in the exercise menu.
• Warm-ups in one tap. Before you tick anything, Add warm-ups puts lighter sets in front of your first working set: on a barbell the empty bar for 10, then about 50 % for 5, 70 % for 3 and 85 % for 1 (the bar and 60 % under 60 kg). Dumbbells from 15 kg and machines get two. Warm-ups never count toward records or volume. Once you add them, that exercise gets them every time; the exercise menu has Stop adding warm-ups.
• Machine busy? From the exercise menu, Machine busy? Swap it lists exercises that train the same muscles the same way, the ones you have done before first. One tap swaps it for today, and in a program workout you can tick Also change it in your program. Sets you already logged stay.

When you are done, press Finish. If some rows have numbers but are not ticked, Liftorra asks whether to save them or drop them. Then choose who can see the workout and save. New bests are marked for you: heaviest weight, estimated max and session volume, one gold medal per lift per session. The first time you log a lift it is marked as your baseline.

Timed and distance exercises

Not every exercise is reps and weight. Each one is logged the way it is done, and its rows follow:

• The hold timer. On a hold, Start opens a big timer that counts up and shows your target. When you reach it the phone gives a short buzz and says so. Stop and log saves the time on the row and ticks it; Cancel leaves the row as it was.
• The keypad types a time as minutes and seconds from the right (1, 3, 0 is 1:30) and a distance in whole metres, with steps of 5 seconds and 10 metres.
• Last time reads the same way: Last 0:45 · 0:40.
• Bests per kind. A hold tracks your longest time, a carry the farthest distance (and the heaviest weight), a cardio machine the farthest distance and the fastest pace, and a reps-only exercise the most reps in one set. New bests get a medal like any lift. Timed sets add nothing to your volume, which stays weight × reps.
• Programs. A timed or distance exercise gets a target range in seconds or metres instead of reps. Once every set reached the top, the next session adds 5 seconds or 10 metres, or one weight step on a weighted hold or a carry.

Your own exercises can use any of these: pick how it is logged when you create it.

The rest timer

Tap the running timer to open the rest sheet: pick a length (0:30 to 5:00), nudge it with -15 and +15, Skip it, or choose Use this for the exercise from now on. In a program workout that saves the rest on the program; otherwise Liftorra remembers it for that exercise. In Settings you set the default rest and whether it starts by itself after a tick (when it does not, the bar at the bottom offers Start rest).

Your usual rest. Liftorra notes when you tick each set. After a few sets of an exercise it knows how long you really rest between them (the middle value of your recent sessions, between 0:45 and 5:00) and uses that, shown as “your usual”. A rest you chose in your program, or for that exercise, still wins.

Plates

In Settings, under Plates and warm-ups, pick your bar and the plates your gym has. The plate button on the keypad then shows what to put on each side (Bar 20 · each side 25 + 10), or the closest load you can make. Suggested weights, drops and warm-ups round to what you can load, and the next step on a barbell is one pair of your lightest plates. On dumbbells and machines the plate button shows the steps they go up in.

The same bar and plates drive Me > Tools (also a row at the top of Settings): a one-rep max calculator that can fill from your best recent set, a plate calculator (tap a weight in the rep table to see its plates) and kg to lb. It works offline.

It keeps your sets safe

The workout in progress is kept on your device as you log it. If the browser closes or your phone dies, Today offers to continue where you left off. Without signal, finished workouts are kept and sync when you are back online.

The set shorthand

On the keypad, Type lets you write a whole set the way you would in a notes app. It is logged on the row you typed it for, and a whole exercise like 3x8@60 fills that row and the ones after it. From the exercise menu, Type sets takes several sets at once, separated by commas. You always see what will be added before it is.

The order is reps, then weight, unless the weight carries its unit. × and * work in place of x, @ means “at” (10@40 is 10 reps at 40 kg), and → works in place of ->. Anything you write after the set is kept as the set’s note. A time like 1:30 only reads as a time on an exercise that is logged by time, so it never lands on a lift by mistake.

Say it instead of typing

Type sets also reads what your phone’s keyboard writes when you tap its microphone: “3 sets of 8 at 60 kilos”, “eight reps at sixty two and a half”, “60 kilos for 8” or “bench, 3 by 8 at 60”. Numbers as words, kilos and pounds, reps and sets all work. Liftorra has no microphone of its own: the dictation is your phone’s, and Liftorra only reads the text it types.

Bodyweight and assisted exercises

Exercises like pull-ups, dips and push-ups are logged as bodyweight: 0 means bodyweight only, a positive number is weight you added, and a negative number is assistance. That is why 8x-20 reads as 20 kg of help, not a negative weight.

Dumbbell and kettlebell exercises are logged per hand: log the weight of one dumbbell, and your volume counts it twice.

Records and progress

Liftorra finds three kinds of best for every lift (timed and distance exercises have their own, above):

• Heaviest: the most weight in a working set.
• Estimated max: the best estimated one-rep max, from sets of 1 to 12 reps (the Epley formula; try it in the 1RM calculator).
• Session volume: the most weight × reps in one session.

Your history, records, a chart of your estimated max per lift and your weekly volume are under Me. When every set reached the top of your rep range, the next session’s rows come prefilled one step heavier; when a lift has not moved for three sessions, the coach suggests a variation from the same movement.