Strength Training

Stride plans, logs and tracks strength training alongside your riding and running. A strength workout is a list of exercises with sets, reps, weights and rest. You tick the sets off in the iPhone or Android app as you train, and the session lands on your calendar with a training score, so time in the gym counts towards your Load and Fatigue like everything else.

Where to find it#

• On the web, Strength in the sidebar has three sections: Overview, Exercises and Library.
• In the iPhone and Android apps, Strength holds the same progress and library, and Log Strength Session in the quick actions menu starts a session.

Weights are shown in kilograms or pounds, following your units setting. For exercises done with a pair of dumbbells or kettlebells, enter the weight of one.

The exercise library#

The library holds nearly 1,600 exercises, each with a short demo animation, the muscles it works, the equipment it needs and how to perform it. Search by name, muscle or piece of kit, and filter by muscle and equipment. Exercises you have already done are marked Done. On the web, open an exercise to watch the demo, choose See progress, or Add result.

Building a strength workout#

There are two ways in, and both save to your workout library, where a strength workout can be scheduled, shared and edited like any other.

With Stride AI#

On the web, go to Workouts, choose New Workout and pick the Strength tab. In the app, open the New Workout composer, set the type to Strength and choose Build with AI. Describe the session in plain words, for example:

• “Upper body push day, 45 minutes”
• “Lower body, RPE based, with one superset”
• “Full body, dumbbells only”

Stride picks the exercises from the library and sets the reps, loads and rest. If it does not yet know what equipment you have or what you currently lift, it asks before it writes anything, because it prescribes real weights rather than guesses. Refine the draft by replying (“Make it shorter”, “Add a superset”), then save it.

The Available equipment menu in the web builder tells Stride what you have to work with: Full gym, Body weight only, or individual pieces. Stride remembers it for every later workout and for the Training Planner, so you only need to set it once.

By hand#

On the web, choose Manual builder from the strength builder. In the app, choose Build Strength Workout in the New Workout composer. Then:

1. Name the workout, and add a description and tags if you like.
2. Choose Add Exercise and pick from the library.
3. For each set, enter the reps, weight and rest. Reps can be a range, and a set can be timed instead of counted.
4. Mark sets as Warm-up, Drop or Failure where they apply. Warm-up sets are left out of your training score and estimated 1RM.
5. Use the exercise menu to add notes (tempo, cues, alternatives), duplicate an exercise, or choose Superset with next to pair it with the one below.
6. Save. On the web, Public lets other athletes find and use the workout, and team coaches can Assign to Team.

The web editor also has a Generate with AI button if you would like a draft to start from.

Logging a session in the app#

Open a planned strength session on your calendar and tap Start Workout. For a session you had not planned, choose Log Strength Session from the quick actions menu and add exercises as you go. The first time you open the logger, a short walkthrough shows you how it works.

• Tick each set as you finish it. The rest timer starts on its own, using the rest in the workout or 90 seconds if there is none. You can skip it or pause it. On iPhone, a sound and a tap tell you when the rest is over.
• Weights and reps are filled in: the planned weight if there is one, otherwise a weight worked out from your estimated 1RM, otherwise your top set from last time. Tap either number to change it before you tick. Suggested weights are rounded to 2.5 kg or 5 lb so they match the plates, and the Prev column shows what you did last time.
• Set types: tap the set number to mark it W, D or F for warm-up, drop or failure. Press and hold a set to delete it.
• Form check videos: tap Add video on an exercise to film one set or the whole exercise, with a note if you want one. Your coach sees it with the session.

When you are done, tap Finish, rate how hard it was (RPE, 1 to 10) and how it felt, then tap Save Workout. If you set a record, you will see it straight away. If you close the logger part way through, choose Save & Exit to keep what you have done.

Logging a session afterwards on the web#

If you trained without the app, you can tick the session off later. Click the session on your calendar and choose Log session, or open the activity and choose Log the session on the Sets tab.

Tick all as planned fills in every set from the workout. Adjust any you did differently, add exercises or sets you added on the day, and set the date, start time, duration and an optional session RPE. Then choose Save session. The same dialog reopens from Edit sets if you need to correct anything. You can only log your own sessions, and only ones dated today or earlier.

After the session#

A logged strength session opens on its Sets tab. For each exercise you see the prescription, every set and how it compared with the target (on target, above, below or skipped), what you did last time, and any records you set. Alongside it, the stats panel shows the duration, volume, training score, working and warm-up sets, total reps, your heaviest set, best estimated 1RM, average RPE and the muscles worked.

If a watch recorded the session, the usual Overview tab with your heart rate is there too. Once the sets are logged, Stride AI writes an insight on the session just as it does for a ride or run.

Progress and records#

The Strength Overview shows your sessions, sets, reps and volume over the last 30 days, 3 months, year or all time, compared with the period before. Muscle distribution shows sets per muscle group: a set counts in full for the muscles an exercise targets and half for the ones it also works. A weekly chart shows sets or volume over time.

Exercises lists everything you have logged, with your best set, best estimated 1RM and whether you were up or down on last time. Open one to see its progress chart and six records:

• Heaviest weight
• Estimated 1RM
• Tested 1RM
• Best set volume
• Best session volume
• Most reps

Estimated 1RM uses the Epley formula, weight × (1 + reps ÷ 30), on your working sets. Warm-ups and sets of more than 12 reps are left out, because the estimate stops being reliable at high reps.

Adding results you already know#

If you were lifting before Stride, or tested a max somewhere else, choose Add result on the Exercises page. Pick the exercise, whether it was Working sets, a Tested 1RM or an Estimated 1RM, the date, and the weight and reps. Results appear as hollow points on the progress chart, count towards your records, and give Stride AI real numbers to prescribe from.

Achievements#

When a session sets a new Heaviest Weight, Best Estimated 1RM or Best Session Volume on an exercise, it is saved as an achievement. You can see them all under Account, then Achievements, in the app.

Custom exercises#

If the library does not have an exercise, or you coach a movement your own way, make it yourself. On the web, open Library and choose New exercise. The apps can create them too, and record the clip straight from the camera. Give it a name, a short video of one or two reps, steps for how to perform it, the main and supporting muscles, and the equipment.

For body-weight exercises, Body weight moved (%) tells Stride how much of you the movement lifts (about 65 for a push-up), so your volume and training score come out right.

Under Shared with, keep it to Just me or share it with a team you coach. Everyone in that team and its sub-teams can find it, use it in workouts and log it, and the team's coaches can edit it. Deleting an exercise takes it out of the library, but sessions that already used it keep showing it.

Training score, Load and Fatigue#

A strength session's training score comes from the weight you moved in your working sets, relative to your body weight. Warm-up sets are left out, and body-weight exercises count the share of your body weight they move. Stride uses your most recent weight from Metrics, or 75 kg if you have never entered one, so it is worth keeping up to date. Sessions with nothing to weigh, such as timed core work, are scored from their duration and session RPE instead.

The score feeds Load and Fatigue in exactly the same way as a ride or run. Training Load and Fatigue explains how those work.

Strength and the Training Planner#

The Training Planner can put strength sessions into your plan alongside everything else. The first time, it asks what equipment you have, what you are training for and what you currently lift, and saves your answers so it does not need to ask again. Loaded exercises are always prescribed as a weight; RPE is used only for body-weight and band work. When your lifts change, tell it or add a result, and later sessions build from the new numbers.

For coaches#

• You can see your athletes' logged sessions, sets, records and form check videos. Only the athlete can log a session or add a video.
• Build strength workouts as you would any other, and use Assign to Team to share them with a team.
• Share custom exercises with your team. An athlete can also log one of your private exercises when it is part of a session you set them.

Watches, devices and Apple Health#

• Strength workouts are not sent to devices. Planned strength workouts do not go to Garmin, Wahoo, COROS or any other connected device or platform. Log them in the Stride app instead.
• Recording on a watch. A strength activity recorded on a watch arrives with its heart rate but no sets. Open it on the web and choose Log the session on the Sets tab to add them; the activity keeps the watch's start time. If you log in the app and record on a watch at the same time, Stride may keep them as two separate activities, and you can delete the one you do not need.
• Apple Health. Strength workouts in Apple Health, including ones from an Apple Watch, import as strength activities. Sessions logged in Stride are not written back to Apple Health.

Troubleshooting#

• The suggested weights are wrong. Change them before you tick the set, and the next session starts from what you actually lifted. For AI-built workouts, add a result or tell the planner your current working weights.
• The session is not on my calendar. If you logged it without signal, it is saved on the phone. Open the app with a connection and it uploads, or tap Retry on the banner.
• The training score looks too high or too low. Check your body weight in Metrics, since the score is relative to it. For body-weight exercises you created yourself, check Body weight moved (%).
• I can't find an exercise. Try another name, or search by the muscle or kit it uses. If it really is not there, create it as a custom exercise.