The RepCanvas custom program builder is for lifters who already know what they want to do and need a tool that respects the plan. If nothing in the program catalogue fits, the builder lets you compose a hypertrophy program day by day, exercise by exercise, with the same microcycle and mesocycle structure every catalogue template uses.
When to build versus adopt
Adopt a catalogue template when you are starting a known methodology - Hypertrophy-Specific Training, push pull legs, upper lower, full body, a specialisation block - and want a research-grounded starting position. Adoption is faster and the template is fully editable after, so you are never locked in.
Build custom when you have a specific exercise selection that no template covers, when you are iterating on a program you have run before, or when you are a coach building for a client. The builder is the right surface for those cases; the catalogue would slow you down.
What the builder asks for
The wizard is intentionally short and most decisions are choices between sensible defaults rather than free-text entry. You give it the high-level structure of the program, the exercises that fill each day, and the periodisation pattern that runs across the weeks.
Structure. Length in weeks, training days per week, day labels (a preset like push pull legs or upper lower, or your own labels), and a start date that anchors the first microcycle. Location is optional and useful later when you compare strength trends across gyms.
Exercises. For each day, add lifts from the exercise library. The picker drills down through muscle group, exercise type, equipment, and setup, so two or three taps usually lands on the lift you want. Each exercise inherits a default set and rep prescription from the program; you can override per exercise.
Periodisation. Set the week type for each microcycle - pre-load, training, peak, deload - which scales loads and volume relative to the program’s reference week. A typical eight-week build mesocycles as one pre-load week, five training weeks, one peak week, one deload. Diet phases (cut, maintain, bulk) sit alongside as informational context.
After the wizard
Saving the program lands you in the program overview, not the workout logger, so you can confirm the structure before training. From overview you can adjust set and rep defaults, rename day labels, add or remove exercises per day, and edit individual exercises. Edits made on settings-style screens save automatically; there is no save button to find.
If the program needs more iteration than the wizard supports, the editing your program page covers the full editor surface.
How the builder relates to the rest of the app
A custom program is structurally identical to a catalogue template. Once it exists, the workout logger, history, calendar, and strength trends treat it the same way they treat anything else - there is no second-class status. That matters when you are running a custom program for months: the strength progress tracker, workout history calendar, and personal-record detection all work without configuration.
Where to read next
- How programs are structured explains the layered model - program, mesocycle, microcycle, day, exercise, set.
- Editing your program covers the editor surface in detail and what propagates when you make a change.
- The exercise library is the searchable catalogue your builder pulls from.