Workout planner tool inspired by 3DMJ's book Muscle & Strength pyramid

[savis]

I recently finished the 3DMJ's books - the training pyramid and the nutrition pyramid. They're so awesome! Probably the best books I've read so far on lifting and nutrition.

It felt a bit tricky to apply the program building principles in practice. For nutrition, they have FitGenie app (which is actually great), but not for the training planning.

Eric lists a bunch of principles how to build programs, like sets per muscle group ranges, strength / hypertrophy split, how to plan mesocycles (like - reducing volume / increasing intensity), etc, etc. Kinda a lot of variables to keep in my head.

Since I'm a software engineer, I decide to write a tool for that (when you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail).

So, meet the Workout Planner: https://www.liftosaur.com/planner

It allows to plan your workout programs, to ensure you have proper number of sets per muscle group, or per movement (push, pull, etc). It also tries to predict the total workout time based on the exercises in the workout and the number of sets x reps.

Type your exercises in the text field for each day (it'll show the autocompletion to speed it up), and put your sets x reps after the slash (/). One exercise per line. I.e. something like this:

Bench Press / 5x5  
Bicep Curl / 3x8  
Standing Calf Raise / 3x8-12
// ... and so on ...

If you put a cursor to some exercise, it'll show additional info - info about that exercise muscles / muscle groups, also intensity and volume graphs week over week for multi-week programs. The graphs and the weekly stats may help to plan intermediate / advanced weightlifting programs, with mesocycles, volume accumulating blocks, deload periods, etc. In the Settings, you can specify the set ranges per muscle group, your desired hypertrophy/strength sets split and rest timer.

You can also share to the programs built in that planner, by clicking on a "link" icon it'd copy the URL. E.g. this is the novice program from the 3DMJ's book: https://www.liftosaur.com/n/8608cecb

And this is a multiweek program by Cody Lefever - GZCL: The Rippler: https://www.liftosaur.com/n/79520ff

The tool specifically doesn't try to specify solve progressive overload - it's IMHO orthogonal to picking exercises and spreading volume across days / weeks. Yes, you need it, but it's a next step.

So, what do you think? Useful tool? Or overcomplicated thing nobody needs?

 

[liz1965]

@savis I like it. There's a spreadsheet I've found that did similar, but this was simpler.

 

[liz1965]

@savis I created an Excel spreadsheet for the 3DMJ Muscle and Strength Pyramid book. It calculates Volume, Intensity, and Frequency per week.

Here's a link to an Excel spreadsheet I created that will calculate the Volume, Intensity, and Frequency of your workout plan, based on the Muscle and Strength Pyramid book. I am not affiliated with 3DMJ in any way, I just thought others who are on the program might find this as useful as I do.

M&S.xlsx

It's not all encompassing, as it isn't designed for tracking progress over time, diet, or anything else, but it takes the work out of calculating volume and intensity on a weekly basis, which I found extremely helpful.

Description:

• Create up to 6 workouts for the week, with up to 8 exercises each.
• Reps per body part per day are calculated, along with weekly totals.
• Percent of 1-6RM of total volume and percent of 6-12RM of total volume are calculated. Which one is shown is based on whether you select the Strength or Hypertrophy radio button.
• Totals within the desired range are placed on a spectrum from light green (low end) to darker green (high end). Totals above the desired range are light red and totals below the desired range are light blue. I tried to make them more subtle in the spirit of the book's loose rules.
• The main exercises from the book are in the "Exercises" tab, but there is room for up to 100 exercises, with up to 6 muscle groups worked for each.
• If you enter in an exercise that is not in the list, it will let you know, and you can then go ahead and add the custom exercise in the "Exercises" tab.
• Desired daily rep range is adjustable.
• Desired weekly intensity is adjustable.
• The sample program is based off of the Intermediate Bodybuilding Sample Program from the book.

I believe it is bug free, but if you use it and find something strange please let me know!

 

[liz1965]

Credit to @happynlife71

 

[savis]

@liz1965 Oh nice, kinda similar to what I made, that's good Also doing the set number per muscle group, split between strength/hypertrophy, frequency - cool! Thanks for sharing!

 

[happynlife71]

@liz1965 Should anyone want it, I have a new one that has been updated based on the second revision of the book, where volume requirements are based on total number of sets, but I’ll need to go dig it up.

 

[dawn16]

@happynlife71 Could you post this updated version?

 

[happynlife71]

@dawn16 Here you go: https://docs.google.com/file/d/1RfN...KTZIhO/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msexcel

 

[javetuka]

@happynlife71 Quick question: Is it possible to change the muscle groups? For example if I change Upper Back to "Lats", it isn't recognised on the main screen.

Any ideas?