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How Liftcadence builds your workout plan

Liftcadence builds your plan with a fixed set of training rules, not generative AI. Your answers choose a split, equipment and injury limits come first, and sessions are fitted to your minutes. The same answers and seed always produce the same plan, which is why it works offline.

No AI, and why that matters

Every decision in the planner is a written rule you can read here. There is no language model, no cloud call and no hidden step. The planner takes your answers plus a number called a seed, and returns the same plan every time it gets the same two inputs. Pressing Regenerate changes the seed, which reshuffles close calls between similar exercises without breaking any rule below.

Because the whole engine runs on your device, building a plan needs no connection and sends nothing to a server.

What the engine does, step by step

  1. Cleans your answers. Values are clamped to sensible ranges. A target weight is only used if it is above 30 kg and below 250 kg, and you can pick at most two weak spots to emphasise.
  2. Picks a split for your days and level. One or two days give full-body sessions. Three days gives three full-body sessions for beginners, and upper, lower and full-body for everyone else. Four days is upper and lower twice. Five days is upper, lower, then push, pull and legs. Six days is push, pull and legs twice.
  3. Applies constraints before preferences. Equipment you do not have, movements tagged as risky for an injury you marked, and exercises above your level are excluded first. Only then does your goal shape the choices.
  4. Fills each session slot with the best-scoring exercise. Each slot is a movement pattern such as squat, hinge, horizontal push or vertical pull. Scoring prefers compound lifts, your goal and your weak spots, and avoids repeating the same exercise across the week. A seeded tie-break settles any remaining draw.
  5. Balances weekly volume per muscle. Hard sets are spread across the days so no muscle is neglected, and weak spots get extra sets.
  6. Sets sets, reps and rest from your goal. Strength work uses fewer reps and longer rests. Muscle building sits in a moderate rep range. Fat loss and endurance use higher reps and shorter rests.
  7. Fits the session to your clock. The engine estimates how long the session takes. If it is too long it works down a ladder: shorten rests, pair compatible lifts as supersets when you allow them, trim sets, then drop the lowest-value accessories. It does not strip a session below a minimum number of exercises, except for very short sessions. Short sessions are topped up with filler exercises, and cardio is only added when there is time for it.
  8. Adds a warm-up and, by goal, a finisher. Cardio, mobility or finishers follow your goal and your cardio preference.

The 4-week wave and the deload

Training runs in a repeating four-week cycle: Foundation, Build, Push, then Deload. Over the first three weeks the target reps in reserve drops, so sessions get closer to hard. In the Deload week the engine cuts sets to about 60% of normal and loads to about 90%, then the cycle starts again.

How loads progress

Liftcadence uses double progression: you add reps until you reach the top of the rep range on every set, and then the load goes up and the reps drop back to the bottom of the range. Upper-body and isolation lifts take smaller jumps than lower-body and compound lifts, and bodyweight moves add reps or tempo instead. The suggested next set is based on what you actually logged last time, and strength is tracked with the Epley estimate of a one-rep max: weight multiplied by one plus reps divided by thirty.

Variants and swaps

For each exercise the engine can offer an easier, harder or similar version, plus small tweaks such as tempo or grip. Every option is filtered by your equipment and injuries and is never one you already have in that day. A swap replaces the exercise in place.

Nutrition estimates

Calorie and protein targets are estimates and are always labelled that way. Maintenance calories start from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation for resting energy, then multiply by an activity factor built from your job and training days.

  • BMR = 10 × weight (kg) + 6.25 × height (cm) − 5 × age + 5 for men, − 161 for women, and a mid value if you choose neither.
  • Fat loss aims about 18% below maintenance, never below 1.05 times your resting energy and never below 1,300 kcal (women) or 1,500 kcal (men and others). Under 18, no deficit is applied.
  • Muscle gain adds about 10% for beginners and 8% for others. Strength adds about 5%. Health and endurance stay at maintenance.
  • Protein is set per kilogram of bodyweight: 2.0 g for fat loss, 1.8 g for muscle and strength, 1.4 g for health and endurance, capped at 2.2 g per kg. Fat takes about 27% of calories and carbohydrate fills the rest.

How your weight trend is judged

The trend uses your last 28 days of weigh-ins and needs at least five days between the first and last point in that window. It then works out a rate in kilograms and in percent of bodyweight per week.

  • Fat loss: losing more than 1% per week is flagged as too fast. Between 0.3% and 1% is on track. Close to flat is flagged as stalled, and a rise is flagged as trending up.
  • Muscle gain: gaining more than 0.5% per week is flagged as too fast. Between 0.05% and 0.5% is on track. Less than that is flagged as not gaining yet.
  • Other goals: stable weight is shown as what you want, and movement is noted without judgement.

Cautious mode

If you are under 16 or 60 or over, or you mark heart disease, pregnancy, high blood pressure or osteoporosis, the engine treats your profile as cautious: intensity targets are lowered, training to failure is avoided and riskier movements are excluded. It also reminds you to get clearance from a doctor first.

Where the approach comes from

The rules follow widely used strength-training practice: regular full-body or split training, progressive overload, planned deloads and enough protein. They are consistent with public physical-activity guidance, for example the WHO physical activity fact sheet, which states that muscle strengthening benefits everyone, and with resistance-training position stands published by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Liftcadence is not clinically validated, and citing these bodies does not mean they endorse the product.

Limits and safety

Liftcadence gives general fitness guidance. It is not medical advice and it cannot examine you.

  • It only knows what you tell it. An injury or condition you do not mark, it cannot work around.
  • Rules are generic. A good coach or physiotherapist can adapt for you in ways a rule set cannot.
  • Calories, protein and rates are estimates built from population equations. Your body may differ.
  • Stop a set if you feel sharp pain, dizziness or chest discomfort, and see a medical professional.
  • If you have a health condition, are pregnant, or are recovering from an injury, check with a doctor before starting.

Read the full medical disclaimer or the FAQ. Ready to try it? Start freeOpen app.