You train.
It reckons the rest.
Reckoner reads what you actually lifted, works out what should change, and writes next week around it. Then it puts the whole thing on your watch, so there is no phone in the gym.
Free while we build it. Logging stays free for good. No card, nothing to cancel.
You hit the top of the range at RPE 8, so the bar goes up 2.5 kg to 82.5 kg and reps reset to six.
It reads what you did
Reps, load and effort, lift by lift. Hit the top of the range at RPE 8 and the bar goes up. Grind at RPE 10 and it holds, because grinding is a recovery signal.
It tells you why
Every change comes with a sentence and a number. No black box, no dashboard you have to interpret, and nothing you have to take on faith.
It is on your wrist
The week syncs to Garmin by itself. Sets, reps, target load and rest, with a cue per lift. Log from the watch and it reaches the site when you have signal.
Your next session, already on your wrist.
Pair once. From then on each reckoned week syncs to your Garmin automatically. Walk in, open Reckoner, and run the day.
How it decides, written out in full.
Guide Overload
What progressive overload actually means
The demand has to keep rising or the body has no reason to change. That is the whole principle, and the weight on the bar is only one of the things that can rise.
Everything we have written-
Guide Endurance
Strength training for runners
Runners are told to lift and the advice usually stops there. The research is more specific than that, and the part…
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Guide Splits
Push pull legs: the PPL split, three days to six
The split people mean when they say they are on a program. It decides where your sets go, which matters, and not…
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Answer Warm-up
How many warm-up sets before a heavy lift?
As many as it takes to arrive at your working weight having already lifted something close to it. The research…
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Answer Recording
Does a Garmin track strength training?
Yes. It records the session and counts your reps from your wrist once you have done at least four, and you add the…
Help us build it. Keep the reckoning.
Reckoner is free while we build it, and logging stays free for everyone, for good. The first hundred people who help us test it get their first year of reckoning free when it goes premium, then the intro price for life. The grant is theirs for life, and the price never moves.
The first hundred keep their first year of reckoning free.
A number and a date
Nobody can be given one later. That is the whole idea.
What the engine does with last week, rule by rule
Double progression with an effort ceiling. Reps climb inside the range first, then the load moves and the reps reset. Every lift carries its own rule, so your bench and your squat are not forced to progress at the same pace. These are the actual rules, not a summary of them.
If you have run 5/3/1, Starting Strength, GZCLP or nSuns, you know the shape of it. A linear progression works until it does not, and then you are the one guessing at the deload. Reckoner runs the same arithmetic every week from your own log, per lift, and picks the mesocycle length from how the last three weeks actually went.
| What you logged | What next week says |
|---|---|
| Top of the rep range on every set, RPE 8 or lower | Load goes up by that movement's own increment, which runs from 1 kg to 5 kg across the library. Reps reset to the bottom of the range. |
| Inside the range at RPE 8 or 9 | Load holds. The target grows by one rep on the weakest set you were asked for. |
| Range hit but RPE 10 on the last set | Load holds for a second week. Hitting the range twice at RPE 10 is a recovery problem, not a strength one. |
| Short of the range on two sets or more | Load drops 10% and rounds to the nearest plate. Reps stay where you earned them. |
| Five build weeks, or two weeks over your own set ration | A lighter week. 40% of the sets come off, the load stays, and the next block starts from the same bar. |
| A session skipped, or logged with no effort rating | Nothing moves on that lift. The engine will not guess a number it was not given. |
Optional: put the week on your wrist
Everything works in the browser without a watch. If you own a Garmin, install the app from the Connect IQ store, sign in once with a 6-digit code, and the week lands on the watch through Garmin Connect. It runs offline in the basement gym. Sets logged on the wrist reach reckoner.fit the next time the watch has a connection.
- The week is cached on the watch. No phone, no signal, no Bluetooth needed once it has synced.
- Set by set on the wrist: target load, rep range, the rest timer, and one cue per lift.
- Log a set, and the next set adjusts on the spot if you came in under the range.
- It runs on watches Garmin stopped selling years ago, not just the current ones. Nothing is dropped for being old.
Watches it runs on
69 watches across 12 families, counted from the app's own build manifest. Anything on Connect IQ 4 with a touch or five-button layout. No Apple Watch, no Wear OS, and no plans for either yet. Every model, listed.
141 movements, and the rule behind each one
Every movement Reckoner can prescribe, with the rep range it belongs in, the increment it moves by, and what it swaps to when the rack is taken. Filter by muscle or by the kit you actually have.
Chest 13
Barbell bench press, Dumbbell bench press, Dumbbell floor press.
Back 23
Barbell row, One-arm dumbbell row, Chest-supported dumbbell row.
Shoulders 17
Barbell overhead press, Seated dumbbell shoulder press, Seated neutral-grip dumbbell press.
Quads 20
Barbell back squat, Barbell front squat, Box squat.
Hamstrings 9
Romanian deadlift, Dumbbell Romanian deadlift, Single-leg Romanian deadlift.
Glutes 14
Conventional deadlift, Trap bar deadlift, Barbell hip thrust.
Calves 6
Standing calf raise, Seated calf raise, Leg press calf raise.
Arms 19
Farmer's carry, Barbell curl, EZ bar curl.
Core 20
Suitcase carry, Front-rack carry, Bear crawl.
Each one carries the rep range and the increment the engine actually prescribes it with. Browse the library.
Estimated 1RM, and where that puts you
Reckoner never asks you to test a one-rep max. It estimates one from the sets you already did, using reps and reps in reserve, and it updates the estimate every session.
Reps to percentage of 1RM at RPE 10
| Reps | % | On a 100 kg max |
|---|---|---|
| 1 rep | 100% | 100 kg |
| 2 reps | 94% | 94 kg |
| 3 reps | 91% | 91 kg |
| 5 reps | 86% | 86 kg |
| 6 reps | 83% | 83 kg |
| 8 reps | 79% | 79 kg |
| 10 reps | 75% | 75 kg |
| 12 reps | 71% | 71 kg |
Computed from the same Epley estimate the app runs on every set, not from a chart. One rep in reserve costs roughly 3%, so eight reps at RPE 8 reads like ten at RPE 10.
What the estimate is for
It is the number every progression decision is measured against, and it is why you are never asked to work up to a single. It sets the opening weight for a movement you have never done, it is what a percentage in a warm-up is a percentage of, and it is the figure that moves when a lift genuinely gets stronger rather than when you simply had a good day.
Your own bands come from your bodyweight, sex and age once you have answered the seven questions.
Questions people ask before they sign up
01 Do I need a Garmin watch?
No. Reckoner is a web app first. It plans the week, runs the session set by set in your browser on a phone or a laptop, and logs everything without a watch anywhere near it. The Garmin app is the version that gets your phone out of the gym.
02 Does Reckoner work with Garmin?
Yes. It is a Garmin Connect IQ app as well as a web app, and the watch is the nicest way to train. The site plans the week, the watch runs it as a gym workout with a rep and rest screen, and the log syncs back through Garmin Connect. It runs on 69 watches, across the D2, Descent, Enduro 3, epix, fēnix 5, fēnix 6, fēnix 7, fēnix 8, fēnix E, Forerunner, Instinct 3 and MARQ families.
03 Is it a workout tracker or a workout planner?
Both, and the point is that they are the same thing. A tracker records the session and leaves you to decide what happens next. A plan generator writes twelve weeks in advance and never looks at you again. Reckoner writes next week from the log it just took.
04 What does it cost? Is there a subscription?
Nothing today, and no subscription while we build it. Logging your training stays free permanently. When the reckoning engine goes premium it will be a paid tier, and the first hundred testers keep a free year and the introductory price for life.
05 Do I need to know what RPE or RIR means?
No. It asks how many reps you had left after the set, which is reps in reserve, and it is a question you can answer honestly. That number is what stops it adding weight after a bad night.
06 Can I use it for hypertrophy as well as strength?
Yes. The goal you pick sets the rep ranges and the increments, so the same engine runs a 3 to 5 rep strength block, a powerbuilding block, or 8 to 15 reps for muscle gain. Nothing about the progression logic changes.
07 Which split does it use? PPL, upper lower, full body?
Whichever one fits the days you gave it. Upper lower on four days, push pull legs on three, PPL run twice through on six, full body on two or three, and a bro split if that is what you like. You can name the split yourself and it will fill the sessions in.
08 Does it work for beginners?
Yes, and it is a good place to start, because the first block is deliberately conservative and the increments are small. It also works for an intermediate lifter who has stalled on a linear program and wants the deload decided for them.
09 Does it work in pounds?
Yes. Kilos, pounds, or stones on the scale with kilos on the bar, because that is what the plates say in a British gym. Increments round to the plates you told it you own.
10 Is there an app to download?
No download needed. Reckoner is web based and runs in any browser, on an iPhone, an Android phone or a laptop, so there is nothing in an app store to update. The only install is the Garmin watch app, and that is optional.
11 How many sets per muscle per week does it give me?
It depends on the muscle and on the goal you picked, and the bands are published. Building muscle runs from 4 to 16 hard sets a week depending on which muscle it is, and it moves inside that band based on what you recover from. Adding sets is the last lever it pulls, after load and reps, because volume you cannot recover from is not volume.
12 What if I train in a busy gym and the rack is gone?
Swap the lift on the watch. Reckoner offers the substitutes it thinks are equivalent, carries the target across, and notes the swap so the progression is not credited to the wrong movement.
13 Does it replace a coach?
It replaces the part of a coach that spends Sunday evening in a spreadsheet. It does not watch your bar path, and it will not talk you into a third attempt.
14 Can I edit what it wrote?
Always. Change a load, drop a set, move a day. Manual edits are treated as data rather than errors, so a lift you keep dialling back gets a lighter rule next block.
Programs and splits
Each of these gets its own page as we write it. What is linked works today, the rest is on the list.