How to use percent of max without a spreadsheet

How the math works

Pick % of Max as the load for an exercise and type a percentage. Coach Reps takes that percentage of the athlete’s max for that exercise, then rounds up to the next 5 lbs.

Here’s 80% for three athletes:

• A 225 max: 80% is 180, so the athlete sees 180 lbs.
• A 315 max: 80% is 252, which rounds up to 255 lbs.
• A 185 max: 80% is 148, which rounds up to 150 lbs.

It always rounds up, never down. Weights are in pounds.

Set it on an exercise

1. 1

   Open the block

   Click a block on the calendar, and the exercise panel opens.

2. 2

   Open the exercise

   Click its name to expand it, then fill in Sets and Reps.

3. 3

   Pick the load

   Under Load, pick % of Max.

4. 4

   Type the percentage

   Type the number only, like 80.

You don’t type a single weight. Once you press Deliver to Athletes, each athlete’s phone shows their own number on every set.

Write it once for the whole group

This is where percentages pay off. Click Multi-Athlete, pick a team or a position group, and program Back Squat at 80% once. When you deliver, every athlete gets their own copy of the program.

Each phone shows that athlete’s own weight, worked out from their own max. In pounds, you’d need a separate program for every strength level in the room. In percentages, one program fits them all.

Maxes are per exercise

A max belongs to one exercise. A Back Squat max is used only for Back Squat. If you program Front Squat at 75%, the athlete needs a Front Squat max too.

So record maxes for the lifts you program by percentage. For everything else, like a sled push or a carry, use pounds or a load of your own.

Where maxes come from

Here are the main ways a max gets in:

• You add it. On the Athletes page, open an athlete and click Athlete Metrics. Search for an exercise, then add or change the max.
• Your athletes add it. In the iPhone app or on the web, they can enter their own under My Exercise Metrics in their profile.
• They add it when they join. In Settings, under Programming, the head coach can pick exercises in Athlete Signup Fields. New athletes are asked for those maxes when they sign up.
• You add it while you build. When you give each set its own percentage for one athlete with no max on file, the exercise panel offers to set it.

When a max is missing

An athlete with no max for an exercise still sees the percentage, like 80% of max. Under the sets is a prompt: Enter your max to calculate weight. Once they enter it, their weights show up.

If you’d rather enter it yourself, add it under Athlete Metrics. Either way, the program doesn’t change. Only the max it works from does.

When an athlete beats a max

If an athlete logs a set heavier than their max, Coach Reps saves that weight as the new max and marks the set PR. From then on, every percentage for that lift works from the new number.

That only happens when there’s a max on file to beat. A first set with no max on file never turns into a max by itself.

Change the max, not the program

When an athlete tests a new max, update the max and leave the program alone. Every percentage you wrote for that lift now works from the new number.

That goes for days you already delivered, too, because the phone works out each weight from the latest max. Sets that were already logged keep what was lifted.