Glossary

The words a program assumes you know, each in one plain sentence and one drawing.

Sets and reps

The kinds of set, and the ways sets are put together.

Back-off set A back-off set is a lighter set done after the top set, to add work without repeating the heaviest weight.

Here the weight comes down 15%: 85 kg after a top set of 100 kg. The reps stay at 5, so the sets add work at a weight you can handle again.

Planning a week

How much, how often, and on which days.

Body-part split A body-part split is a training week that gives each session to one area of the body, so each muscle is trained once a week.

Lifters call it a bro split. The app has a ready-made one: one area a day, chest, back, shoulders, legs and arms. A 2016 meta-analysis found training a muscle twice a week gave more growth than once at equal volume.

The bar and plates

The parts of a bar and the things you load on it.

Barbell A barbell is a long steel bar that takes weight plates on both ends and is lifted with two hands.

Bumper plate A bumper plate is a weight plate covered in thick rubber, built so a loaded bar can be dropped to the floor.

Lifts and their short names

What the letters in a program stand for.

Barbell row A barbell row is a lift in which you bend forward at the hips and pull a barbell from arm's length up to your body, then lower it.

It trains the back, and is the usual pull paired with the bench press. It is one of the five lifts Masheen's strength levels cover.

Bench press The bench press is a lift done lying on a bench: you lower a barbell to your chest and press it back up until your arms are straight.

It is one of powerlifting's three lifts, counted in the powerlifting total. In competition the bar must reach the chest or abdominal area and finish with the elbows locked.

Numbers and scores

The figures lifters quote, and what each one measures.

Brzycki formula The Brzycki formula estimates a one-rep max from a set of several reps: weight ÷ (1.0278 − 0.0278 × reps).

Matt Brzycki published it in 1993. It agrees with the Epley formula at 10 reps and reads lower below that: 80 kg for 5 reps gives 90.0 kg by Brzycki and 93.3 kg by Epley. The app's 1RM calculator shows both.