Log every set the moment you finish it.

A session is a list of exercises, each with its own sets. You add an exercise, and it appears as a card with a row for every set you plan to do. As you work through them, you fill in what you actually did and tick each set off.

The layout is deliberately plain. The set you are about to do is right in front of you, the ones you finished sit above it with a done mark, and everything you need for the next set is one tap away.

Logging a set is three small actions: enter the weight, enter the reps, and tick it done. That is the whole loop, and it is quick on purpose so you spend your rest resting, not typing.

Weights accept decimals, and a decimal comma works just as well as a point, so 62,5 and 62.5 both land as 62.5 kilograms. If a set is already prefilled from a plan, you only change what differs from what you actually did.

1. 1
   Enter the weightTap the weight field and type the load. Decimals are fine, with a comma or a point.
2. 2
   Enter the repsType how many reps you completed for that set.
3. 3
   Tick it doneMark the set complete. It moves into your done sets and the next one comes into focus.

When a set comes from your coach's block or a template, its planned targets appear in the set row. Values your coach typed explicitly arrive as regular prefilled values that you can edit, standing out clearly from the faint grey placeholders. Inherited hints stay as grey placeholders, the effort target in RPE or RIR always appears as a grey hint, and rep ranges such as 8-10 and AMRAP always stay grey because they do not prescribe one exact number.

Tick a set with targets in place, and Ironstead logs the effective values in one tap. Weight, duration, distance, and the plan's effort target in RPE or RIR fall back to their targets when you leave them empty. Reps fill only from one exact number; a range or AMRAP waits for what you actually did.

If reps are still empty for a range or AMRAP, the set stays open. The row shakes and pulses, then puts the cursor in the reps field. This is deliberate: the range is the bracket your coach gave you, and only you know where you landed.

• "+ Add set" fills that row with grey hints from your previous sets. Weight, reps, duration, and distance each come from the nearest earlier working set that has that value.
• Warmup sets are never the source, and RPE or RIR never carries over. You rate every set yourself.
• The hints are a snapshot from the moment you add the set.

When your coach writes a comment on an exercise in your block, it travels with the plan and is there while you log. It sits in a highlighted Coach block, so it reads as an instruction from your coach and not as one of your own numbers.

Where that block sits depends on which sets the comment belongs to. A comment that covers the exercise from its first working set sits in the exercise header, above the set rows. A comment that starts later, say on the last two sets of a back-off, sits directly above the first set it applies to. Consecutive sets that share the same comment show it once, so a note meant for all four sets does not repeat four times.

In the workout the comment is read-only, because it is your coach's instruction. Your own exercise note stays a separate field of its own. Coach comments are stored with the session on your device, so an offline session keeps them and they are still in place after a sync.

Some exercises are tracked by time instead of reps, including planks, carries, and machine cardio. Their exercise card shows a play button in the header. Tap it to start a stopwatch for the first open set, shown as a pill at the top of the screen.

This is not the rest timer, and the two are easy to mix up. The stopwatch measures the set you are doing; the rest timer counts the pause after it. When both run, the stopwatch owns the pill at the top and the rest countdown keeps running underneath, taking the slot back the moment the stopwatch stops.

You can pause and resume the stopwatch, then stop it when the set ends. If the set has a duration target, the pill turns green the moment you reach it and, if you have "Sound at end of rest" enabled in your profile, the app plays a short sound. On a phone the app also sends a notification, so a finished plank reaches you with the screen off. Both signals follow your rest notification settings. The stopwatch keeps counting past the target, so overtime stays visible.

Stopping writes the time you actually did into the set, so your log holds the real number, not the plan. The set is checked off automatically when nothing else is unresolved; if the exercise also tracks reps and the set still has an open rep range or AMRAP target, it stays open until you enter the reps you did. Only one stopwatch runs at a time. It follows you if you leave the Workout screen, staying visible in the minimized workout bar while it keeps running.

A set row shows the fields its exercise tracks and nothing else. A bench press row is weight and reps. A treadmill row is duration, distance, calories and incline, with no weight box in sight. When more fields are active than fit side by side, they wrap onto a second line inside the same set instead of shrinking into slivers.

Calories go in as kcal, incline as a percentage from 0 to 50, and level as the whole-number resistance setting on a bike, rower, elliptical or stair climber. Incline and level are machine settings, not quantities you pile up over a session, so a logged 0 counts. A flat treadmill is 0 percent, and that is not the same as leaving the field empty.

Everywhere else these fields behave like weight and reps. A value your coach typed into a template or a block arrives prefilled and editable, an inherited hint arrives as a faint placeholder, and either way what you enter replaces it. The finished set turns up in your session detail and history with the numbers you logged, joined by dots: 8 km · 42:10 · 480 kcal.

Ironstead also lets you record how hard a set felt. There are two common ways to do that, and the app treats both as equals.

RPE rates a set from roughly 1 to 10, where 10 means you had nothing left. RIR counts the other direction: how many reps you could still have done. They describe the same thing from opposite ends, and neither is more correct than the other.

You pick which one you prefer in Profile settings, and the app shows that scale on your sets. If you leave effort blank, that is fine too: it is always optional.

Resting the right amount matters, so the app has a built-in rest timer. When an exercise has a rest time, from your coach's block, from a template, or set by you during the workout, the timer starts by itself the moment you check off a working set. A countdown pill appears at the top of the screen, and the app notifies you when time is up.

You stay in control. The three-dot menu on an exercise has a Rest timer entry where you set or change the rest time for this session; setting it to 0 turns auto-rest off for that exercise. Exercises without a rest time never start a timer, warmup sets never start it, and un-checking a set cancels a running countdown.

Sometimes you pair exercises and move between them with little or no rest. That is a superset, and Ironstead marks paired exercises so you can see at a glance which ones belong together.

Grouped exercises carry a shared label, so a session that alternates between two movements stays easy to read while you are in the middle of it.

When you are done, you finish the session and get a short summary of what you did. If you started something by mistake, you can discard it instead, and nothing is saved.

Sometimes a workout gets interrupted before you finish it. If that happens, the app holds onto the session so you can pick it back up. Your logged sets are not lost just because you closed the app or your battery died.

Gyms are not known for great signal, so Ironstead is offline-first. Every set you log is saved on your device immediately and syncs up when you are back online. A dropped connection never costs you data.

A small sync indicator tells you when everything is saved to the cloud. And if you leave the Workout screen to check your history, the session stays available as a minimized bar so you can jump right back in.

Common questions

I forgot to finish a workout. Did I lose it?

No. Ironstead holds onto an interrupted session so you can reopen it and finish, or discard it if you no longer want it. Your logged sets stay saved either way.

RPE or RIR, which should I use?

Whichever you find easier to judge. They describe the same thing from opposite ends, and the app treats both equally. Pick your preferred scale in Profile settings and switch any time.

Where do my coach's comments on an exercise show up?

In the workout, in a highlighted Coach block: in the exercise header when the comment covers the exercise from its first working set, and directly above the first set it applies to when it starts later. Sets that share the same comment show it once.

Can I fix a set after I finished the workout?

Yes. Open the session in History and edit past sets there. Corrections you make are reflected in your records and charts.