Using the Long Haul Fitness App

Published March 6, 2024

Thanks for your interest in Long Haul Fitness! I hope this is a new beginning for physical and mental improvements in your life.

The Main Idea

The goal of Long Haul Fitness (LHF) is to provide a simple way to structure workouts for the average gym-goer. Conceptually, LHF hinges on the concept of "coldest exercise, coldest muscles." In other words, the app picks the exercises you haven't done in the longest amount of time. This means that every workout will be different from the last, and you maximize the recovery time for each muscle group.

Getting Started

With luck, you have account credentials for LHF and you're ready to use it.

I know you're busy, so let's make sure we share the same terminology, and then get going.

Definitions

Here are things that you'll encounter in the app:

Exercise
A strength training movement. Each exercise activates specific muscles, encouraging them to grow and become stronger. For example, the Barbell Bench Press is a classic exercise that activates multiple muscle groups, including the chest and triceps.
Set
Your individual performance of an Exercise. A Set details the number of repetitions (reps) you perform an exercise, the weight you used, and your Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE, which you'll learn about later). You can think about sets as the work performed continuously without rest.
Session
The time you spend working out. A Session is a collection of Sets of Exercises.

Definitions out of the way, let's use the app!

Session Plan Page

At its core, LHF follows a simple plan:

Pick the coldest exercises for my coldest muscles

Where "coldest" means: "I haven't done the exercise or used the muscle for the longest period of time."

Let's see LHF's plan in action. Sign in at https://app.longhaul.fitness. You see a Plan New Session button. Click it. Don't worry about the date for now, you can change it at any time.

Now we're in! You see a page that's building your custom strength training session. LHF suggests five muscles to target.

LHF goes on to suggest an exercise that activates each of the five muscles.

LHF picks randomly at first, but these recommendations will become personalized based on your sessions over time. Let's analyze one of the blocks:

Screenshot of LHF's exercise planning inputs with no suggested values

1. Muscle Selector shows you the LHF selected muscle. Try changing the muscle. Notice that the recommended exercise in the 2. Exercise Selector changes too. Click on the Exercise Selector. Notice that there's a list of exercises that target the selected muscle.

Click 3. View Exercise. Your browser opens another page which describes the exercise. Navigate back to the planning page. Click 4. Next Exercise. LHF selects the next coldest exercise for the chosen muscle. Right now, with no sets logged in LHF, a lot of these selections feel random. Trust me, LHF refines the selections over time.

Speaking of refinements, 5. Remove Exercise lets us refine your exercise preferences. There are exercises you may prefer not to do. You may not have the equipment. You may not like the exercise. Whatever the reason, click the Remove button, and LHF won't suggest this exercise to you anymore. Don't worry though, the exercise isn't gone forever. You can always adjust your Exercise Preferences to add and remove exercises as your routine and preferences change.

Enter three reasonable values in the last three inputs: 6. Suggested Reps, 7. Suggested Weight, and 8. Suggested Weight Unit. If you're not sure what a reasonable value is for this exercise, enter "1" rep and "0" weight. You can try the exercise during the session and record the actual reps and weight that you're able to complete.

As mentioned, the suggested reps and weight get better over time. Recording the actual reps and weight you complete during a session will affect your suggested reps and weight the next time you plan this exercise. To be specific, after I complete an exercise, LHF recommends my max weight and reps the next time I plan the exercise.

For an example, this screenshot shows my exercise history for the Good Morning exercise, and suggests the reps/weight I do at my next session. I'm free to adjust the suggestion however I like.

Screenshot of LHF's exercise planning inputs with suggested values

These recommendations will come in time. First, you have to complete a session. Let's finish planning your session, click Submit, and arrive at the Session Detail page.

Session Detail Page

Exercises

When you're ready to workout, you'll open the session detail page. This page shows the exercises you planned with inputs ready to capture the details of each set. Let's analyze the inputs for a single exercise:

Screenshot of LHF's exercise inputs with suggested values

In a nutshell, you'll record your effort for three sets of the Good Morning exercise in this block. The numbers you entered during session planning serve as placeholders for the reps and weight of each set. Your past self made this gym session easier! You don't have to think about it while you're working out.

Personally I use each block by:

  1. Reading the Exercise I'm supposed to do.
  2. Maybe clicking View if I need a refresher on how to do the exercise.
  3. Grabbing the weights or equipment that I need and loading the suggested weight.
  4. Performing the exercise, using the suggested reps as a guide. I may push beyond or back off of that number depending on how the set goes.
  5. Grabbing my phone and enter the reps, weight, and RPE.
  6. Repeating steps 4 & 5 for each set.

I said that "RPE" word again. Now is a good time to learn about RPE and how it helps your workouts.

Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE)

RPE is a subjective scale that is used to measure the intensity of an exercise based on how hard you feel like your body is working. Notice the word "feel". RPE is meant to be an individual's subjective measurement. This is a number between 1 - 10 that measures the intensity of a set. I personally think of RPE like this:

  • 10: I failed to complete the final rep or compromised form to complete it
  • 9.5: I may be able to complete one more rep. This is likely my safe maximum reps/weight for this exercise
  • 9: I could complete one more rep
  • 8.5: I think I could complete 2 more reps
  • 8: I could complete two more reps
  • 7.5: I think I could complete 3 more reps
  • 7: I could complete 3 more reps
  • 6 and below: I generally don't use, but are available for your personal interpretation.

Feel free to use this scale or make your own! You have all the numbers between 1 - 10 to categorize your effort however you like.

The purpose of tracking RPE is to make each set count. You'll perform a set, then analyze it. "How did that feel? What are my strength training goals? Could I do one more repetition next set? Should I add a bit more weight? Should I back off on reps or weight?" By analyzing your sets you make sure you're getting what you want from your workout. You're consciously pushing yourself. Don't just follow the reps/weight numbers in the app; listen to your body and adapt the numbers. Getting injured is the last thing you want to do, but you do want to gradually increase your strength over time. RPE is a guide towards safe progress.

Details

The last section on the session detail page includes general information about this session. Remember how you didn't have to worry about the session start time during planning? You can adjust the start time here. You can also enter the session end time and any notes you want to include for the session. Use the notes area however you like. This is a freeform input where you can track anything from pain or soreness to the music that boosted you to a new personal record.

Now, Repeat!

That's the loop. Plan a session. Put in the effort. Repeat! Hopefully the variety of muscles and exercises makes strength training fun. With regard to variety, life doesn't come at you like a perfect barbell bench press every time. Life comes at you from all different angles. So, you train your muscles with all different exercises. Today a barbell bench press, tomorrow a One-Handed Landmine Press. Use your muscles like the versatile, evolutionary masterpieces that they are. Keep your body from becoming the limiting factor to all the things that you want to do. Remember, we're in it for the Long Haul!