Recent sessionsWeekly balance
See your week in balance.
Logged workload puts muscle and movement balance in context.
How TotalBodyIQ thinks
Your training has a history.
Your next session should use it.
Your goals, equipment and recorded training feed a rules-based training engine. It brings exercise selection, workload and progression together, so your next session has a reason behind it.
The TotalBodyIQ training cycle
You train.
It connects the dots.
Your goals set the direction.
Every logged session informs the picture.
- 01 / YOUR DIRECTION
Set your goals.
Your profile, experience and training priorities.
- 02 / YOUR REAL LIFE
Make it fit today.
The time you have. The equipment available.
- 03 / YOUR APPROACH
Choose your way.
My PlanSmartBalancedCustom - 04 / YOUR SESSION
Train. Log. Repeat.
Exercise demos and cues. Record sets, reps and weight.
- 05 / YOUR TRAINING PICTURE
See the work add up.
Muscle load, movement balance and progress.
- 06 / YOUR NEXT STEP
Give the next session a reason.
Smart guidance uses your history to inform focus, reps and load.
The loop continues. Your goals stay in view. Your training updates the context.
Love data? Explore the detail. / Just want to train? Choose Simple Mode.
Inside the thinkingGuidance varies by mode, recorded history and plan access. Smart mode and the Workout Generator require Pro. Balanced, My Plan and manual logging are free.
The thinking behind your training
A reason behind the next step.
Reps + effort
Progress from what you log.
Performance at your current load helps guide the next suggestion.
Time awayRestart
ExperienceExercise choice
ReadinessPlanning context
Fit where you are today.
Time away informs your restart. Experience shapes selection; readiness adds context.
Smart planning requires Pro. Your training log and body insights remain free.
Explore the decision rules
The work across your week
Muscle-group workload and movement-pattern balance help contextualise recent training. Weekly targets are app-model settings that take account of goals and experience, not universal doses copied from a paper.
Progression, with a reason
The engine checks performance at the current working load before suggesting more weight. It can prioritise repetitions, hold the load after repeated high-effort sets, or suggest an increase. Recorded reps in reserve add context when available.
A return after time away
The inspected engine reduces its restart reference for an individual lift after 14, 28 and 56 days away. Those reductions are TotalBodyIQ implementation choices, rather than research-proven prescriptions for every person.
Experience shapes selection
Beginner automatic selection is capped at difficulty 3; intermediate and advanced selection at difficulty 4. Recorded behaviour may raise the effective experience tier by one step above the self-reported floor. Difficulty-5 movements remain outside automatic selection.
A model of readiness
Recent workload and available readiness inputs provide context for planning. A readiness score is an app estimate, not a direct measurement of muscle recovery. Workload ratios must not be presented as reliable individual injury predictions.
The decision stays connected
Programme structure, exercise guidance and the training log serve different jobs. Session generation and progression use the recorded history where supported by the selected mode; access and available data affect the guidance.
The research behind the principles.
Read the evidence, then see how the app applies the principle. These publications support training concepts; they do not independently validate TotalBodyIQ’s algorithm or every numerical setting.
Resistance-training prescription
The 2026 ACSM overview of reviews examines how training prescription relates to strength, muscle growth and physical performance.
In the app: goals and experience shape prescriptions. The app’s exact rules remain its own implementation.
Read the ACSM evidence review ↗Journal of Sports Sciences
Weekly volume matters
Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger’s 2017 meta-analysis examines the relationship between weekly resistance-training volume and muscle growth.
In the app: weekly workload provides context for planning. The paper does not validate the app’s specific muscle targets.
Read the volume research ↗Workload research
Understand the limits, too
Impellizzeri and colleagues’ 2020 paper identifies conceptual and methodological problems with acute-to-chronic workload ratios.
In the app: workload is planning context, not a promise to predict injury or measure recovery.
Read the critical appraisal ↗Source names and the ACSM logo identify referenced publications. They do not imply partnership, certification or endorsement of TotalBodyIQ. Research reviewed 05/09/2026.