Guides
Straight answers
Strength training, running, food and using your AI assistant to keep track. Every number is sourced.
Strength training
Lifts, splits and how to keep getting stronger.
How to bench press
Lie on the bench with your eyes under the bar, feet flat and shoulder blades pulled back and down.
How to deadlift
Stand with the bar over the middle of your feet, hip-width stance.
How to do push-ups
Start in a high plank with hands slightly wider than your shoulders and your body in a straight line from head to heels.
How to do a pull-up
Hang from a bar with straight arms and hands a little wider than your shoulders, pull your shoulder blades down, then pull until your chin clears the bar and lower all the way.
How to get stronger
Lift heavy for few reps on a handful of main exercises, about 1 to 6 reps with good form, two or three times a week, and add a little weight whenever you can.
How to squat
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and toes turned out slightly.
How to stay consistent with exercise
Plan exactly when and where you'll work out, and tie it to a cue you already have, like right after work.
How long to see results
You'll usually feel stronger within 2 to 4 weeks of regular strength training, mostly because your nervous system gets better at using your muscles.
Rest time between sets
Rest about 2 to 3 minutes between sets of big lifts like squats, deadlifts and presses, and about 1 to 2 minutes for smaller exercises like curls or lateral raises.
How many days a week to work out
For general health, US guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as five 30-minute sessions, plus strength training on at least two days.
Sets and reps to build muscle
To build muscle, aim for about 10 or more hard sets per muscle group each week, spread over two or more sessions.
Strength training over 50
Start with two or three sessions a week of a handful of exercises that train your whole body, using a weight you can lift for about 8 to 12 controlled reps.
How to warm up before lifting
Do 5 minutes of easy cardio to raise your body temperature, then warm-up sets of your first exercise: start with the empty bar or a light weight and work up in a few jumps, doing fewer reps as the weight climbs.
Strength training for women
Mostly, yes.
What is a drop set?
A drop set is a set where you lift until you're close to failure, then immediately lower the weight by about 20 to 30 percent and keep going with little or no rest, often for two or three drops.
Push pull legs split
A push pull legs (PPL) split groups exercises by movement: push days train your chest and shoulders along with your triceps; pull days train back and biceps; leg days train quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.
Upper lower split
An upper lower split alternates upper body days (chest, back, shoulders and arms) with lower body days (quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves).
Progressive overload
Progressive overload means gradually asking more of your muscles over time so they keep adapting, usually by adding weight or reps.
RPE scale explained
RPE (rating of perceived exertion) rates how hard a set was from 1 to 10, based on how many more reps you could have done.
Full body workout for beginners
A good beginner full body workout trains every major muscle group in one session, two or three days a week, with a rest day between.
How to track workouts
Write down the date, each exercise, and the weight and reps of every set, plus how hard it felt.
Running and cardio
Getting started, building up and staying with it.
How to start running
Start with run-walk intervals three times a week: for example, 1 minute of easy running and 90 seconds of walking, repeated for 20 to 30 minutes.
How many steps a day
You don't need exactly 10,000.
HIIT for beginners
Start with one or two sessions a week of short, hard intervals followed by easy recovery, for example 30 seconds hard and 90 seconds easy, repeated 6 to 8 times on a bike or while walking uphill.
Zone 2 cardio
Zone 2 cardio is steady, easy aerobic exercise at a pace where you can still hold a conversation, usually about 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Food and nutrition
Protein, calories and macros without the busywork.
Count calories without a scale
Yes.
Creatine
Creatine monohydrate is one of the most researched supplements.
Lean bulk
Eat about 10 to 20 percent above your maintenance calories and aim to gain roughly 0.25 to 0.5 percent of your body weight a week, which is the range a review of bodybuilding nutrition recommends for beginners and intermediates.
How to cut
Eat in a moderate deficit so you lose about 0.5 to 1 percent of your body weight a week, keep protein high, and keep lifting with the same intensity.
How to meal prep
Pick two or three meals you like and cook them in batches once or twice a week, then pack them into portions you can grab.
How to track macros
Tracking macros means counting the grams of protein, carbs and fat you eat each day against a target.
Calories to lose weight
Start about 10 to 20 percent below your maintenance calories (your TDEE), which for many people means 300 to 500 fewer calories a day.
Protein in an egg
A large egg (about 50 grams) has about 6 grams of protein and about 70 to 75 calories.
High-protein breakfast ideas
Good high-protein breakfasts give you about 25 to 40 grams of protein: for example, Greek yogurt with berries and nuts, eggs with cottage cheese on toast, a tofu scramble, or overnight oats made with milk and protein powder.
Macros for weight loss
Set calories first, about 10 to 20 percent below maintenance, because calories drive weight loss.
Weight loss plateau
Weight loss slows because a smaller body burns fewer calories, and your body also adapts by spending a bit less energy, so the deficit that worked at first shrinks.
Yoga and mobility
Getting started, basic poses and fitting it around other training.
Recovery
Rest, deloads and the days between workouts.
Foam rolling
A little.
Sleep and muscle recovery
A lot.
Deload week
A deload is a planned period, usually about a week, of lighter training to let your body recover, most often by cutting sets or weight.
Muscle soreness (DOMS)
Soreness that starts a day or two after a workout is called DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness).
Training with an AI assistant
Using your AI assistant to log workouts and food, and to plan what comes next.
AI personal trainer
An AI assistant can do much of a trainer's planning: writing workouts, adjusting them week to week and answering questions at any hour.
Can ChatGPT make a meal plan?
It can help, but check the numbers.
Can ChatGPT track my workouts?
ChatGPT can plan workouts and answer questions about them, but a chat is not a log.
Can ChatGPT write a workout plan?
Yes.
Does my AI assistant remember my workouts?
Only partly.
Log food by talking to AI
Tell your assistant what you ate in plain words.
TrainRec with Claude
Add TrainRec as a custom connector in Claude: open Settings → Connectors in the Claude app or on claude.ai, add TrainRec, and sign in when asked, with no password to make up.
Prompts for logging workouts and food
Say it the way you'd text a friend, with the numbers that matter: the exercise, weight, sets and reps for lifting; the time or distance for cardio; and what and how much you ate for food.