The fastest way to understand RepCanvas is to log a session. This page walks from a blank account to a finished workout in roughly five minutes. By the end, you will have adopted a program, logged a set, and seen the app record a personal best automatically.
Pick a hypertrophy program
Open the Programs tab from the bottom navigation. The program catalogue lists 32 vetted hypertrophy and strength templates filtered along three axes: training goal, training days per week, and experience level. The defaults show every template at every level - narrow the list until something fits.
The catalogue covers push pull legs splits, upper lower splits, full-body templates, HST, bro splits, specialisation blocks for chest, back, glutes, and arms, and equipment-constrained templates for home gyms or limited setups. Tap a card to open the template detail. The detail page shows the structure week by week, the day-by-day exercise list, and the periodisation pattern.
Tap Adopt to create your own copy of the template. If nothing in the catalogue is a fit, build a custom program instead.
Set your training start date
After adoption, the app asks for a start date. The start date anchors every microcycle to a real-world calendar date so the workout history, calendar view, and date pickers all line up with how you actually train. The date is editable later if you push the program a week or skip a microcycle.
If you train Monday Wednesday Friday, pick the Monday you intend to start. If you have already done day one elsewhere, pick today and edit the day-one date afterwards.
Open the workout logger
Tap Train from the bottom navigation. The logger defaults to the current week and day of your active program. Each exercise renders as a card. Cards collapse by default to keep the screen clean during a long session - tap the header to expand.
Inside an exercise card you will see one row per prescribed set, with a target weight, a target rep range, and an empty weight and rep cell waiting for input.
Log a set
Type your weight into the weight cell. Type the rep count into the rep cell. The set saves automatically the moment you tap elsewhere. There is no save button to find, no separate confirm step. A small status indicator marks the set as logged.
If the load you just lifted beats anything in your history for that exercise - heaviest weight at any rep range, best weight times reps combination, or highest session tonnage - the app marks the set as a personal record automatically. RepCanvas detects every personal best across weight, rep, and tonnage records without you flagging it.
Finish the workout
When every prescribed working set is logged, a Session Complete prompt appears with the session stats: total sets, total reps, total volume, and any personal bests you set. Tap Finish to close the workout. The session is recorded against today’s date, the workout ends up in your history, and the logger advances to the next training day in the program.
If you cut the session short, you can finish manually from the bottom of the exercise list. The app will warn about unlogged sets and let you confirm.
What to read next
- How logging works covers the mechanics of the workout logger, set status, and personal-record detection.
- Strength trends explains how the app turns logged sessions into a strength progress tracker per exercise and muscle group.
- How programs are structured covers the microcycle and mesocycle model the app uses across every program.