Brosiology
Open

Changelog

What’s new

Everything that has changed in Brosiology, newest first. Your log, programs and settings carry over through every update.

  1. Tap an exercise to see what it is. In a program you’re building or editing, in setup, the Program Lab or the Plan tab, tapping an exercise’s name now opens its details first: the motion, the muscles it trains, how hard it loads each joint and how well the map is backed. Under them, “Swap it for” lists the four closest swaps for that program’s equipment, the same move on other kit first and labelled as such. One tap swaps, “i” shows a swap’s own details, and See all options opens the full search. The ⋯ menu still goes straight to the full search.
  2. Lower-back loads, re-checked. Every exercise’s lower-back rating was checked against the spine-load studies and plain mechanics. The hip thrust now counts as real lower-back work: a study found the lower back works about as hard as in a deadlift to hold the trunk level off the bench. Shrugs, dumbbell lunges and split squats, the hack squat and the standing calf raise now show the load they send down the spine, and the sumo deadlift is rated only a little easier on the back than conventional. The evidence notes say what the ratings are for: picking kinder lifts while your back is sore, not a list of lifts to fear.
  3. Fixed: narrow phones scrolling sideways. On setup’s last step, Back, Shuffle exercises and Save & make active didn’t fit one row on a phone and pushed the page sideways. Save now takes its own row below the other two. On phones with a notch or a home bar, the Program Lab and other full-page screens could also scroll past their end; they now stop at their buttons, and the app can no longer be panned sideways.
  4. Setup asks what you’re training around. A new step lists nine joint areas, from shoulder to ankle: tap a sore one or one you protect, set it to go easy or avoid, or tap “Nothing right now” and move on. The program that follows says what the protection changed, worked out by building the same program without it: “Hack squat → leg press: loads the knee 3/5 instead of 4/5”, lifts left out, and anything the Program Lab still flags, with See all opening the Lab’s joint findings. The same short card shows once on Plan each time you protect a joint later, from You or after a flare-up, then waits behind a link on the program’s summary line. A protection that changed nothing says so.
  5. Usage statistics that say what’s working. The anonymous statistics now count whether people come back (days since you started and which workout this is, worked out on your phone, so no date is sent), what people set up (goal, experience, days a week, equipment setup, and counts such as protected joints), which features get used, errors and load times, and which buttons are tapped, by the app’s own name for each. Still never your weights, reps, body weight, names or anything you type, and still off with one switch on You. The privacy page lists every part.
  6. The whole library from the start. The Library and Add exercise now open on every exercise instead of core lifts and variants only, so nothing is hidden before you choose to hide it. The Core, Variant, Specialty and Modified chips are still there to narrow the list, and the filter from your own equipment and joints works as before.
  7. Made for a big screen too. On a desktop or a tablet held sideways the sections move to a sidebar, and every screen spreads into two columns: the Library shows the exercise you tap beside the list, a live workout keeps today’s exercises in view beside the current one, Plan puts the Program Lab beside your days, and Progress lays the muscle map beside joint load and your lifts. Tablets in portrait keep the bottom bar with its buttons grouped in the middle. Phones look exactly as before.
  8. Weight and reps read as one line. “kg ▾” and “reps ▾” now sit beside the number instead of underneath it, and on a narrow phone the workout card shrinks the numbers just enough to keep weight × reps on one row.
  9. Usage statistics count visits as one person. They now carry a random id kept on your device, with no name or account attached, so visits can be counted as one person over time, plus your training habits in bands, such as weeks since your first workout and how many workouts. Reset the id or delete it (turn the statistics off) in You → Usage statistics; Erase all data deletes it too.
  10. Back in Firefox’s app, and full screen that stays. In Firefox’s home-screen app, Back at Train now shows “Back again to leave Brosiology” instead of closing at once. Full screen is only offered in the installed app, where it now comes back on your first tap after opening or returning to the app, however often you leave it; a browser tab leaves it to the browser’s own toolbar, which hides as you scroll. The Firefox install steps now name Firefox’s current menu: ⋮, More, Add app to Home screen.
  11. Back again to leave, full screen returns on a tap, and the Android bars match your theme. In the installed app, Back at Train now says “Back again to leave Brosiology”, and a second Back closes the app. Full screen comes back on your first tap after opening the app; a scroll can’t bring it back, because the browser only allows it from a tap, and a scroll no longer stops it asking. Chrome gives an installed app’s navigation bar one colour for both themes, so it is now dark and no longer glares white under the dark theme; the status bar follows your theme. Chrome updates an installed app’s colours within a few days.
  12. Usage statistics include joint areas. To see which injuries people train around most, a pain report, a protected joint and a swap taken because something hurt now say which joint area it was, one of nine such as knee or lower back. Never which side, how it happened or anything you typed. You → Usage statistics still turns it all off; the privacy page lists exactly what is sent.
  13. Diagnostics, for phone-only problems. You → About → Diagnostics shows what your phone reports about the app (screen size, full screen, Back and closing) as text you can copy into a message. It stays on your device. Full screen also asks a second, plainer way when the browser turns down the first.
  14. Better usage statistics, still anonymous. Besides the short list of named events, the usage statistics now show which screens get used and which buttons are tapped, as a heatmap, and include anonymous screen recordings of how the app is used. Every word, number and input is masked and images and charts are blocked before anything leaves your device, so your weights, notes and pain reports never do. Page addresses are cut to the bare page, nothing is kept between visits, and nothing is looked up from your IP address. You → Usage statistics still turns it all off, and Global Privacy Control still keeps it off; the privacy page says exactly what is sent.
  15. Back works inside the app. Android’s Back button now closes the open sheet, then returns to the tab you were on before, and leaves the app only from the first screen. Before, Back left the app from anywhere, sometimes onto a blank gray screen. Full screen now starts on the first tap after launch in Chrome’s installed app, where before it missed it; Firefox’s installed app often keeps the bars showing, and the setting says so.
  16. Install from any page, and full screen on Android. Add to Home screen now installs the app from the home page, the privacy page and this page too, not only from inside the app; before, it made a plain browser shortcut. Firefox on Android, which has no install button of its own, gets the steps on the Train tab after your first finished workout. New on Android: You → Screen → Full screen hides the status and navigation bars while Brosiology is open. Swipe down from the top edge to see them for a moment; if you leave full screen, the next tap goes back in, and after the second time it leaves you be.
  17. Bring your log from another app. Plan → Start a new program, or You → Back up, restore or reset, now reads the CSV export from Strong, Hevy or FitNotes. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded. Warm-ups are left out, drop sets kept, failure and RPE become reps in reserve, and Strong’s unitless weights are asked about once. Each exercise name is matched to the library, most-logged first; a name it doesn’t know can be skipped, picked, or made a new exercise mapped like one you choose, and the choices are remembered for the next import. Workouts already in your log are skipped, so importing a newer export adds only what’s new. The routine your last six weeks repeat becomes a program you can save and open in the Program Lab; if nothing repeats, no program is made. Your own log now downloads as CSV, one row per set, from You → Back up.
  18. Paste a program as its page writes it. Review my routine now reads the set notation programs use. Percent waves like nSuns’ “65%x8, 75%x6, 85%x4+” or 5/3/1’s “5/5/5+ @ 65/75/85%” count as the sets they are, and a percentage is never taken for a weight. “+”, AMRAP and “to failure” mean 0 in reserve; on “5x3+” only the last set does, and it gets its own line so the Lab sees it. “(1-2 RIR)” and “RPE 8” set reps in reserve. Supersets (“A superset w/ B”, “A ss B”, “A1 / A2”) split into two lines, “T1” and “A1” prefixes are dropped, and “Day A1”, “Workout A” and “Week 1” are headers. A bare name goes to the usual lift without asking (“leg curl” is the lying leg curl, one tap to change), so far fewer lines need checking.
  19. A sharper Program Lab, checked against fourteen popular programs. We ran StrongLifts, Starting Strength, GZCLP, nSuns, 5/3/1 Boring But Big, PHUL, PHAT, a classic bro split, the Arnold split and five more through the Lab, compared what it said with what coaches say about them, and fixed where it was wrong. It now notes a big muscle trained once a week, and a week planned mostly to failure. Face pulls and pullovers count as pulls, and pressing with no pulling at all is flagged. Three training days are no longer called back-to-back, since they usually have rest days between. A flat then an incline press, or back-off sets of the same lift, aren’t called repeats. Volume far over the ceiling is a suggestion rather than a note, and front delts, lower back and the other muscles with no minimum are now checked against their ceiling. Two heavy lifts on one joint is a note; three, or a joint you protect, a suggestion. A described routine’s main lift is its first compound that loads well, not a warm-up listed first. Rows count 0.3 for biceps, as the exercise rubric says. New: the single-leg hip thrust, and the routine describer knows Nordic curls, frog pumps, Egyptian lateral raises and a few more names.
  20. A thank-you every 25 workouts. After the first one (5 finished workouts, or 2 weeks with at least 3), the thank-you on the Train tab now comes at every 25 finished workouts, 25, 50, 75, 100 and on, as well as each year since your first. The same rules hold: never twice in 4 weeks, never during a workout, on sample data, beside a check-in or on a day you logged pain; Dismiss hides it until the next one, and tapping Support keeps it away for 3 months. The card now looks like the support card on the home page, with a yellow edge and a yellow Support button, so it is easy to tell apart from a warning.
  21. A thank-you at milestones, never a nag. The one-time thank-you on the Train tab now comes after real use (5 finished workouts, or 2 weeks with at least 3) and then only at milestones: 25, 50, 100 and 250 workouts, and each year since your first. Never twice in 4 weeks, never during a workout, on sample data, beside a check-in or on a day you logged pain. Dismiss hides it until the next milestone; tap Support and it stays away for 3 months. Brosiology stays free to use with no paywall, and the Support row in You → About is always there.
  22. Anonymous usage statistics, with an off switch. To learn what to improve, the app now sends PostHog a short note when a feature gets used (a workout finished, a program scored in the Lab, a backup made), with whether it’s installed, the kind of device and the app version, under a random id that lasts one visit. Never weights, reps, body measurements, exercise names, pain locations or anything you type, and nothing that links one visit to the next. Turn it off under You → Usage statistics; it’s always off when your browser sends Global Privacy Control. The privacy page lists exactly what is sent.
  23. Bands, logged as bands. List the resistance bands you own under You → Equipment, lightest first, by level, colour or the figure on the label (“15–35 kg”, “50 lb”, entered in your units); give every band a figure and the list orders itself. Any lift you do with a band (a band row, or a cable pushdown at home with no cable) asks which band you used instead of a weight. You add reps at one band, then the next band up starts you back at the bottom of the range, and once you’re past your heaviest band, two bands together come next. A band never turns into a kilogram number: its pull changes through each rep and between brands, so bands stay out of estimated maxes, strength standards and goal plans. A new Bands + bodyweight setup builds a full program from bands and a pull-up bar, or bands alone.
  24. LiftMap is now Brosiology. Same app, new name: “LiftMap” turned out to be a registered trademark of an unrelated software company. Your log, settings and programs carry over untouched, and share codes made before the change still import.
  25. Same move, other kit. Every exercise now belongs to a named move (lunge, bench press, row…), and its page lists the same move done with other kit: the barbell, dumbbell, cable, band or suspension-trainer version. Searching a move’s name finds all of them. Twenty lifts fill the gaps that had a reason, among them barbell lunges and split squats for home barbell setups, an incline press on the Smith machine and the press machine, and band and suspension-trainer versions of the press, row, pulldown, curl, triceps extension and leg curl for kits with nothing else. Versions that don’t make sense (a barbell lateral raise, a Smith-machine deadlift) are left out on purpose.
  26. 41 new exercises, and the evidence behind every one. The library grows to 184 lifts, each added for a stated reason: bodyweight rows, presses and curls for training with just a pull-up bar, dumbbell and band options for home setups, and gentler swaps for sore shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and hips. Every exercise now shows how well its map is backed (measured by a study, coaching consensus, or our estimate) and opens its movement family’s evidence notes with the studies, texts and clinical guidelines behind it. An audit of the original maps corrected the front squat’s knee load and the pullover’s chest work, and graded three lifts down where no study tested them.
  27. A library you can narrow down. Every exercise now says why it’s there: a core lift, a variant of one, a specialty lift for a sticking point (pause squats, deficit and rack pulls), or a modified version for a sore joint. The Library shows core lifts and variants first, with chips for the rest, and “More filters” adds movement family and how well each exercise’s muscle and joint map is backed by research. A search that matches something tucked away offers to show it.
  28. A privacy page. One short page, linked from the footer and the You tab, sets out what stays on your device (everything you enter), the few things that go over the internet (loading the site, its fonts from Google, and whatever you back up or share yourself), and that there are no ads, trackers or analytics.
  29. You choose what the app tells you. On the You tab, each kind of prompt (stalls, volume, balance, deloads, joint load, check-ins, pain) can prompt you on the Train tab, stay quiet in the Progress suggestions list, or be turned off, and check-ins can come every block, every other block or only when you ask. Stalls, deloads, check-ins and pain prompt by default; volume, balance and joint load stay quiet until you turn them up, and pain reports always stay at least in the suggestions list.
  30. Fewer false alarms, steadier weights. Months of simulated lifters through the real engine found where it misled. A lift is now called stalled only after about six sessions over four weeks with no better set, so a lifter still climbing the rep range isn’t told to swap; deloads come every mesocycle, not every month, and a deload week you take no longer drags your weights down afterwards. Big stack and dumbbell jumps (5 kg on a 15 kg stack) are earned with a few extra reps first instead of failed and dropped, weights add exactly one step in lb as in kg, first-time estimates keep climbing while every set is easy, and an Easy rating on a goal-plan set keeps the plan’s reps.
  31. A check-in after every block. At the end of each block (the goal’s 5 or 6 weeks, counting only blocks where you logged most sessions) the Plan tab shows what moved, with percentages; from the second block it also shows which lifts have gone flat, and how it decided, and says when a deload week is next. You choose: keep going, swap just the flat lifts for one proposed variation each (stretched-position work first where a muscle has none), or start a new block with the other rep scheme. You can also check in any time from the Plan tab. Lifts that are still climbing and goal lifts are left alone, and nothing changes until you accept it.
  32. A setup that explains itself. A new install asks four quick, skippable questions (experience, goal, equipment, days a week), suggests a split and says why, then builds a program you can edit before saving; every program now says how it was built.
  33. How it thinks. A new page in the app, under You → About or at app/#how, explains how each part reasons with the numbers it uses: how sets are counted per muscle, the weekly ranges per goal, how the generator picks exercises, what every Program Lab finding checks and how solid it is, how joint protection and “something hurts” decide, and where first-time weights come from. Small “Why?” links beside the volume charts, the Lab’s findings, the joint settings and a first-time weight open it at the right section.
  34. Where your sets come from. Tap a muscle on any weekly volume chart to see which exercises its sets come from and the arithmetic behind the number: “3 sets × 0.5 = 1.5” for a muscle that only assists, with the bar split by exercise and main movers listed first. In the Program Lab, a muscle under its range gets an “Add an exercise” button that opens the picker filtered to that muscle and adds your pick to the day that already trains it most. On Progress, each exercise links to its trend.
  35. A tidier exercise editor. When you make your own exercise, each muscle now gets a card like each joint does: tap its name to pick from a list grouped by muscle, with heads indented under their muscle, a search box and the body chart. Adding a muscle or joint opens the list straight away, and movement pattern, animation and equipment are taps too.
  36. Install it, use it offline. Brosiology installs to your home screen and opens without a connection, so a dead spot in the gym doesn’t stop a workout. Your log is now kept in the browser’s database (IndexedDB) and saved the moment you put the phone down, and the app asks the browser to keep it rather than clear it when space runs low.
  37. Your programs, up front. The Plan tab lists every program you’ve saved right under the Program Lab: switch with one tap, open any of them in the Lab, duplicate or delete, or start a new one. Sharing is one tap from the header or any program: send it through your phone’s share menu, copy the import code, or copy it as plain text for friends who don’t use Brosiology.
  38. Log it instead. Not every workout needs your phone out. “Log it instead” (or “Log a past workout”) opens the day’s plan as a log: tick an exercise when it went to plan, tap any set to change its numbers or how it felt, add or drop exercises, pick today, yesterday or a date, and save. It counts exactly like a workout you ran live.
  39. When something hurts mid-workout. Tap Hurts and say where (a joint or a muscle) and how bad. Brosiology then suggests what to do: go lighter when it’s mild, swap to a lift that’s easier on that spot for moderate pain, skip it, or stop for the day if it’s sharp. It also checks the rest of today’s workout and offers to swap or lighten anything else that loads the same spot. If it keeps flaring, you’re offered one tap to protect it, and the Program Lab reworks your program around it. Next time that exercise comes up, the card reminds you and offers to start lighter.
  40. Muscles to protect. Alongside joints, you can now protect a muscle: tap it on the body chart (or pick a group), choose a side, and pick “go easy” or “avoid”. Avoid leaves out exercises where that muscle is a main mover or does about a third of the work; go easy keeps them but ranks them lower. Generated programs, swaps, the library, routine review and the Program Lab all respect it, and the workout card gives a heads-up on lifts that touch it.
  41. One Program Lab. Editing and analysing are now the same screen. Build, edit or tweak a program and the Lab checks it as you go: a slim bar keeps days, weekly sets, session length and findings in view, and each finding is pinned to the exercise or day it’s about, with its fix one tap away. Bigger screens add a findings panel beside the program. The Plan tab leads with it, showing your program’s numbers and its top finding.
  42. Easier tweaking. Every day in the editor and the Program Lab has a Sets × reps button that sets the whole day at once. The Lab now edits the program fully (rename, add, duplicate and remove days), shows its changes as one summary line you can open, and marks which scenario you picked. Tap any number on a stepper to type it. Goals and your profile got a bolder look, and the goal sheet sets your target and jumps in one place.
  43. Your workouts, after the fact. Tap any recent session for the same view as Progress, scoped to that workout: duration, sets, volume and PRs, a muscle map shaded from teal to amber by how much work each muscle got, sets by muscle, and each lift’s best set against last time with its trend. Below that, each exercise’s sets are a row of chips coloured by how they felt; tap one to fix a weight or rep count, change how a set felt, add notes to the session or an exercise, or discard it. Resting and lifting now share one card: the rest countdown sits on top, the next set stays in view with its plates, and one big button starts the next set. During a workout the card scrolls with Done always in reach, and shows form cues, the muscles worked and the rest of today’s exercises (tap one to jump to it). Dragging exercises and days works across side-by-side columns on wider screens. The program editor now opens on your days, with name, goal and equipment tucked into one settings line, and the Plan tab is down to Edit, Analyse and a ⋯ menu.
  44. Tap first, type last. The workout screen shows one exercise at a time with the set already filled in, so a planned set is one tap. Weights open a plate loader, reps and effort are chips, and you rate each set while you rest. Targets round to weights your plates and dumbbells can make, and new lifts start from an estimate based on your other lifts, your goals or your bodyweight. Each card shows how to load the bar, every set with how it felt, and what you did last time; the rest screen shows the next set’s plates so you can load while you rest. Goals, the program editor, joint feedback (tap where it hurts), routine review and your profile all work by tapping now. Reorder exercises and days by dragging, even from one day to another, and sets go up to 20. Suggestions on Progress and findings in the Program Lab are one line each until you open them, and the muscle chart now shows the lower back.
  45. Faster program building. Every add and swap now opens one picker with body-area and equipment filters (“chest”, “dumbbell”) and search that understands “db incline” or “rear delt”. Tick several exercises and add them at once. Start a program from a split outline, fill each day with suggestions in one tap, set sets and reps for a whole day, duplicate days and move exercises between them. Swap mid-workout keeps the sets you’ve already logged, and can update your program too.
  46. The Program Lab. Tweak any program and watch the analysis update: volume, balance, joints, recovery, time, progression and goals, with one-click fixes, before/after deltas and scenario variants.
  47. Every exercise re-checked. All 123 muscle and joint maps were reviewed against a written rubric, so a “0.5” means the same thing on every lift. Each exercise now shows how well supported its map is: measured, consensus or estimate.
  48. 35 more exercises. The variations advanced lifters reach for: sumo, deficit, snatch-grip and stiff-leg deadlifts, rack pulls, good mornings, pause, box, safety-bar and Smith squats, push press, Arnold press, decline bench, triceps dips, T-bar, Pendlay and machine rows, preacher, spider, concentration and reverse curls, glute-ham raises, pullovers, pull-throughs and more, each with its muscle and joint map and a 3D animation.
  49. Hands that really grip. Closed fists wrap every bar, dumbbell and cable handle, the right way round: thumbs inside on overhand grips, outside on curls and chin-ups, forward on neutral handles. The back squat bar rests on the upper back.
  50. Progression calculator and goal plans. Set strength goals, see realistic timelines and milestones, and train a 14-week cycle toward them, tracked against your logs.
  51. New 3D body. A smoother, more natural figure for every animation, with cleaner shoulders in overhead and racked positions.
  52. Easier program switching. One “Change program” button lists your programs and every way to start a new one.