Best progressive overload apps

If you want a number for every set of a plan you control, Alpha Progression is the most complete. If you want a proven coach’s program that progresses itself, Boostcamp, mostly free. If you want to write the rules, Liftosaur. If you want the app to plan everything, Fitbod or Gravl.

Progressive overload means doing a little more over time: more weight, more reps or more sets. A notebook app shows you last week and leaves the decision to you. The apps here make the decision, in different ways, and the way matters more than the feature list. All facts were checked on each vendor’s site or store listing in September 2026. We make Beatweek, which is one of the options, with its gaps stated.

Alpha Progression

Alpha Progression recommends a specific weight, rep count and optionally RIR for each set, based on your previous workouts, what you have already done today and what the plan calls for, so set 3 can differ from set 1. It accounts for the weights your gym has, and it can add periodization and deloads that ramp sets and effort week by week. There is no recommendation the first time you do an exercise.

The free version is generous for logging: unlimited workouts, your own plans, a rest timer and CSV export, with no ads and no account required. The recommendations, charts, generators and calculators are Pro, about $12.99 a month or $79.99 a year with a 14-day trial on yearly. There is no watch app yet (the lock screen shows the current set instead) and no import from other apps.

Liftosaur

Liftosaur is for lifters who want to define the rules. It has built-in linear, double and rep-sum progressions, and Liftoscript, a small text language, for anything else: a line like progress: lp(2.5lb) adds weight after each successful session, and scripts can change weight, reps, RPE or rest. Built-in programs such as GZCLP and 5/3/1 are free to follow. It runs on iPhone, Android, the web and Apple Watch. Premium is about $4.99 a month, $39.99 a year or $99.99 lifetime. The learning curve is real; the payoff is that nothing is a black box.

Boostcamp

Boostcamp’s answer is a coach’s program. It hosts more than 130 coach-designed programs, from coaches including Eric Helms, Greg Nuckols and Jim Wendler, with their progressions, periodization and deloads built in, and auto-progression sets your next weights. Most of those programs, the full tracker, RPE logging and a plate calculator are free; Pro, about $14.99 a month or $59.99 a year, adds exclusive programs, a personalized program generator and deeper analytics. There is no watch app, and no one-click Strong import.

RP Hypertrophy

RP Hypertrophy runs mesocycles. Weight goes up a few percent each week, or a rep is added when the next jump is too big, and set counts change from your feedback on pump, soreness and how beat up you feel. It is aimed at muscle growth rather than strength. It works on iPhone, Android and the web, with no watch app. It is the most expensive here: about $34.99 a month or $299.99 a year, with no free tier and a 30-day money-back guarantee on web purchases.

Fitbod

Fitbod chooses the exercises too. Each workout is generated from your goal, equipment and how recovered each muscle group is, and sets, reps and weight come from your logged history, rising when you finish comfortably and easing back when you struggle. Reps-in-reserve ratings recalibrate it. There is no free tier; the subscription is about $15.99 a month or $95.99 a year.

Gravl, Dr. Muscle and the rest

Gravl estimates your one-rep max from history, climbs reps set by set, then steps the weight up to what your plates allow; Easy or Hard ratings adjust the next session. Premium is about $14.99 a month. Dr. Muscle updates your program after every set using methods such as daily undulating periodization and rest-pause; after a 2-week trial the free plan gives one exercise recommendation a day, and the full plan is about $49.99 a month or $399.99 a year. JEFIT’s Elite plan (about $12.99 a month) includes an AI system that suggests weight and reps from your logs. Hevy’s Pro Hevy Trainer raises the weight in the programs it generates.

Beatweek

Beatweek runs double progression on the routine you already follow. Before each exercise it reads your last sessions: some set short of the top of the range, beat each set by a rep; every set at the top and the effort was not brutal (average RPE at or under 8.5), add the smallest step, 2.5 kg on a barbell; two sessions in a row well under the range, deload 10 %. Each target has a one-sentence “Why?”. How the engine decides has the full rule.

The engine is free on one exercise per workout; Pro ($3.99 a month, $29.99 a year, $79.99 lifetime) runs it on all of them. It imports Hevy and Strong CSVs, and its Wear OS app shows the target on the wrist. What it lacks: it is young and in beta, the iPhone and Apple Watch apps are a beta, it does not write programs from scratch the way Fitbod or RP do (it ships a small program library), and there is no social feed.

Who should pick what

• You own your plan and want a target on every set: Alpha Progression, or Beatweek if you want free import and a Wear OS app and can accept a beta.
• You want a famous coach’s program, mostly free: Boostcamp.
• You want to script the progression yourself: Liftosaur.
• You train for size and like weekly volume adjustments: RP Hypertrophy.
• You do not want to plan at all: Fitbod or Gravl.
• You are happy with Hevy or Strong and only want the arithmetic: try the one-rep max calculator and a simple double progression rule.