The barbell
does not check your gender.
The squat rack stopped being the scary corner years ago. The supplement aisle never caught up. Half of it still thinks women want pink tubs of skinny tea. This file is the other half.
Your training desk
Keep your coach or workout app. Put the session on your calendar here, then check it off. Set-by-set logging is optional. There is no Garmin or Strava connection.
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Today
Check food and protein · Record a sweat measurement · Review race splits
Schedule and logbook
Completed sessions stay unchanged. Repeat or reduce creates a new session; reschedule changes only a planned session.
Your optional shelf
No products are selected for you. Choose only what you already use. Amounts are label servings you enter, not recommended doses. Estimates never count as logged use or orders. Check labels for overlapping ingredients; no stack is generated.
Legacy records and export
Older tools keep their original records. Archive first to preserve exact source JSON. Then preview conversion of logged training days and recorded lift sets. Dates, loads, repetitions and units are retained; missing duration stays unknown. Old Mission Planner plans, She Lifts configuration and cycle, sweat and food records stay in the archive and are not turned into invented sessions. Conflicts never overwrite completed history. Guest records are never uploaded automatically.
Erase this training desk
Erase the saved desk, completed sessions, shelf and copied archives for this account or guest workspace. This cannot be undone. It does not erase separate records in the older tools or another account's browser drafts. Download first if you want a copy.
Where do you actually stand?
Type your body weight. The table shows rough working-weight bands for the four big lifts, from common strength standards tables. Most people who lift three times a week cross the Novice column inside two months, and the first time you see your own body weight on the bar is a genuinely good day.
Plate math, so the gym brain can rest
Nobody does arithmetic well between sets. Enter the total you want and it draws the plates for one side.
The workbench.
Twelve weeks of full-body strength, three or four days a week. Log your reps and how many you had left, and it tells you what to lift next time.
Log a session
RIR means reps in reserve: how many more clean reps you could have done. RIR 2 is two left.
Saved in this browser only.
Cycle log (optional, private)
Note how you feel and which phase you think you are in, and the workbench shows your own patterns next to your lifts. Research on training by cycle phase is mixed: a 2020 meta-analysis found performance may be trivially lower in the early follicular phase for some, with large differences between studies, and a 2023 review found no clear effect on strength or on gains from resistance training. So this is personal tracking, not advice. It stays on this device unless you are logged in and tick sync below.
| Phase | Notes | Energy | Soreness | Sleep | Avg lower-body e1RM |
|---|
Progress card
Sessions, weeks and your best estimated lifts on a 1080 x 1920 card. Made on your device; nothing is uploaded.
Evidence notes
- Creatine monohydrate at 3 to 5 g a day is the most studied form, with strength and training benefits documented in women as well as men. Kreider RB et al. ISSN position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2017;14:18. Smith-Ryan AE et al. Creatine supplementation in women's health: a lifespan perspective. Nutrients 2021;13(3):877.
- Protein for people who train: 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg per day (ISSN), with benefits for muscle gain levelling off around 1.6 g per kg and an upper confidence bound near 2.2 g per kg. Jäger R et al. ISSN position stand: protein and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 2017;14:20. Morton RW et al. Br J Sports Med 2018;52(6):376-84.
- Cycle phase: McNulty KL et al. The effects of menstrual cycle phase on exercise performance in eumenorrheic women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med 2020;50(10):1813-27. Colenso-Semple LM et al. Current evidence shows no influence of women's menstrual cycle phase on acute strength performance or adaptations to resistance exercise training. Front Sports Act Living 2023;5:1054542.
- Estimated one-rep max uses the Epley formula, weight x (1 + reps / 30).
The myths, one tap each
"Lifting will make me bulky"
Visible muscle takes years of deliberate eating and training, and women average around one tenth the testosterone driving it. What lifting does in the first year is mostly strength, posture and bone density. The physiques you are picturing are built on purpose, over about a decade, usually by professionals. You will not wake up bulky any more than you will wake up fluent in Portuguese.
"Creatine is for gym bros and it causes bloating"
Creatine monohydrate is one of the most studied supplements in existence and the research on women shows the same strength and recovery effects. The water it pulls goes inside the muscle cell, which reads as firmness, not puff. Three to five grams of Payload daily. No loading phase, no cycling, no drama.
"I should tone with light weights first"
Toning is muscle. There is no separate lighter substance called tone. Light weights for high reps build some of it slowly; heavier weights for 5 to 10 reps build it faster and carry over to daily life sooner. Start with the empty bar, add weight when sets feel controlled, and let the word toned retire with dignity.
"I need way less protein than men"
Per kilogram, the target range is the same. A 145 lb woman lifting seriously lands around 105 to 145 grams a day. Under-fueling is the most common reason women stall in month three while their training partners keep progressing. Run your number in the calculator.
The 4 week on-ramp
Three sessions a week from the Fieldworks Strength track, scaled for a first month under the bar. Weights are placeholders; your controlled sets decide the real ones.
- Week 1. Goblet squats, incline push-ups, one arm rows, suitcase carries. Learn the shapes. Film one set from the side; your future self will thank you.
- Week 2. Same sessions, slightly heavier. Add dead hangs for grip, because opening jars is also strength sport.
- Weeks 3 and 4. Barbell versions where the shapes feel solid. Empty bar counts. The 15 lb technique bar also counts. Everyone who ever lifted started with one of them.
What the quartermaster actually recommends
Two things, and only after the food is roughly in order: Workhorse Whey to cover the daily protein gap and Payload Creatine for strength work. If late training wrecks your sleep, Re-Entry earns the third slot. A pink label usually marks a smaller dose at the same price, so read panels, not marketing.
Tools for this file
Start logging
Twelve weeks on the workbench above, or eight on Fieldworks. Both free.