A program in RepCanvas is alive. After you adopt a template or build a custom one, the entire structure stays editable - exercises, set counts, rep ranges, periodisation, day labels - and most edits save the moment you tap away. This page covers the editor surface and how changes carry forward across the weeks that haven’t happened yet.
What saves automatically
Most of the program editor uses settings-style screens with picker-based controls. Anything you change on those screens - rep range, RIR, tempo, rest, progression mode, week type, day labels, location - saves automatically. There is no save button to find and no risk of losing an edit because you forgot to confirm.
The exceptions are the few free-text fields in the editor, like the program name and any custom day labels you type by hand. Those still require an explicit save action and you’ll see a save button when one is needed.
How edits propagate
Edits at the program level apply to every microcycle that hasn’t been trained yet. If you change the program’s default rep range in week three, weeks four through eight pick up the new range; weeks one and two - already logged - stay as they were. The rule keeps your training history honest while letting you adjust the plan as you learn what’s working.
Edits at the microcycle level (the periodisation row for a specific week) apply only to that week. Edits at the exercise level apply only to that exercise within the program. Mid-workout adjustments - added sets, swapped exercises, set count changes made while you train - are documented separately on the mid-workout changes page; the short version is that they propagate forward by default.
A useful shortcut, “Apply week 1 to all”, copies the periodisation settings from your reference week to every other microcycle. If any week has overrides, the action surfaces a confirmation per field so you can choose whether to keep or overwrite them. This is how most lifters set up an eight-week template that doesn’t quite match their preferred deload pattern.
What you can’t edit
A few fields are intentionally locked once a program is in motion:
- Microcycles you have fully trained stay as logged. Editing the prescription retroactively would distort the historical record.
- The program length below your current week - you can still extend the program past your current week, but you can’t shorten it before it.
- An exercise can’t be deleted from a microcycle once a set has been logged for it. You can change its attributes, swap it for another exercise, or skip its sets, but deleting it would orphan logged work.
These constraints exist to keep the past honest. Anything you can edit, you can edit. Anything you can’t, the editor disables visibly so you don’t have to guess.
Deleting a program
The program overview includes a delete action at the bottom. Deleting a program removes it along with its microcycles, exercises, and logged sets. The action is irreversible - there is no archive or recovery window - so the editor surfaces a confirmation modal before completing it.
If you want to keep historical data but stop training the program, finish the current week and don’t start the next one. The program stays in your programs list, the history stays accessible, and you can return to it later or build something new alongside it.
Where to read next
- How programs are structured - the layered model under every program.
- Mid-workout changes - adjustments you make while training, and how they propagate.
- Building a custom program - when an edit gets too large to do in place.