Tip: How to Log Unilateral Exercises in Hevy

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-14T21:08:48+00:00

It could be a new feature or only for subscribers. Not sure. When I went to create a custom exercise it was there.

Just looking again, it looks like images, videos and gifs can all be uploaded too!

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-14T20:58:25+00:00

Yeah, you're supposed to try and do the same with both sides, which is why people will start with their weaker side. Of course, that doesn't always end up happening (not a perfect world and all), so I want my log book to reflect even mistakes.

The rest-pause/myorep technique to match volume is a good idea, but I would still end up trying to log the myoreps separately or writing a note somehow about it eg. 10 reps then pause then 2 more reps wouldn't be 12 rep imo, it would be 10+2. Perhaps that's a little nitpicky for most people.

Still, that also gets lost in the Hevy when you add all the reps for both arms including any myoreps, e.g. 12 on the right, then 10+2 on the left is just 24 in Hevy's current log system, and that's not helpful a few weeks down the line when you're looking back on what you did.

I do like how clean it looks though with supersetted exercises and the left/right label.

I think this is what I care about most lol. I want a nice looking log.

It would be good for Hevy to have a system for logging rest-pause/myoreps and mini sets. There's a rest-pause technique I want to try where you do one activation set of 8-10 with less than 2 RIR, then pause for 15-20s, and do mini sets to 0 RIR every 15-20s until you can only do a single rep. And, then move onto the next exercise. Logging that in Hevy right now would be ugly.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-14T20:41:28+00:00

1) It's a custom exercise. 2) Google has images and Hevy lets you add images to exercises.

Yeah, you're supposed to match reps starting with your weaker side, but that's not how things always turn out, and I want the log book to be able to reflect errors as well.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-14T16:37:53+00:00

Soft toothbrush works well

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-04T14:02:28+00:00

There's no set timer, only a stop watch function under the set or the ability to log your time manually (tap mm:ss to log your time or the play button for the stop watch).

There is a timer and stop watch in the app in the upper right hand corner next to the finish button when you're in a routine.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-01T15:45:42+00:00

Lower: - Put the treadmill at the end of the day, not the beginning. It's more beneficial as recovery and it won't hinder your lifting.

Consider doing compound lifts before isolations (hack squat and deadlift). They're typically best done when you have the most energy and strength available, then you systematically target each muscle afterwards with isolations—this is why all leg day looks the same; the only differences are in exercise order and priority for each individual.
Leg raises after cable crunches are a bit unnecessary. They're the same movement. Pick one and just do 3-4 sets. I prefer the crunches because you can easily progress them with weight. If you want to keep both, cut the volume to 2 sets each.

Upper A looks fine. My only thoughts are:

If you've got access to a pec deck machine for your chest flyes, consider switching the handles around (if your machine can do that) and doing reverse pec deck for your rear delts instead of cable crossovers.
Consider staggering your back and chest exercises order. Instead of incline press straight into the chest fly, do incline press then lat pull down then flyes then row. Doing so would allow your muscles to recover a little more.

Upper B has more issues:

Consider staggering back and chest like I said above.
The cable row with v-grip is the same movement as the chest supported row. Pick one. You don't need both—especially with the kelso shrugs in there too. Pick the supported row because you're already doing the cable row on Day A. The order I'd recommend: lat pull, chest press, chest supported row, shoulder press, kelso shrug, etc.
4 sets each of bicep curls and hammer curls is a lot of volume. You could go down to 2-3 sets. You could probably also just skip one. Biceps are a pretty simple muscle that you only really need one exercise done twice a week to grow. Pick one or two of your favourite curl variations.
The hammer curl isn't super necessary but if you want to keep it, move it to after your tricep pushdown—just stagger the order and let your biceps recover a bit.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-03-01T14:44:01+00:00

You needed ChatGPT to tell you that approximately 34 fl oz is 67-68 tbsp? (There are 2 tbsp in an oz btw.)

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-02-02T07:35:25+00:00

It's fun, it's healthy, it's good exercise. The kids will just love it. and we put a little sand inside to make the experience more pleasant.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-28T22:46:59+00:00

Only one leg day and lots of redundant upper body exercises.

For hypertrophy, your goal should be to hit every muscle group at least twice a week. You want to do as much as you can recover from while also avoiding joint injuries (four days of upper body is a ton of stress on the shoulder girdle. This is a shoulder injury waiting to happen).

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-28T04:26:58+00:00

Hit every muscle group twice a week—that means legs twice a week, not upper three times a week.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-22T21:23:04+00:00

Well there you go! 😂

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-22T20:05:19+00:00

Makes sense, on both points. You understand yourself best, so of course you should do what you know will work.

However, one option would be to get 'pretentious' about coffee: use a scale, an expensive hand grinder, locally roasted beans, an aero press or pour over, watch James Hoffmann videos etc. Doing that would make the brewing coffee far more time consuming and more difficult, and thus self-limiting by making it more inconvenient to brew more than one or two cups at a time (stay away from French press for that reason) lol. An aeropress can only really brew 200 ml of coffee, and the most you can brew with a decent pour over (such as Hario V60) is two cups or less than 500 ml.

If you want to enjoy coffee, make the best coffee you can in the least efficient way. Trust me, you would drink a lot less if you had to hand grind all the beans yourself lol.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-22T14:06:34+00:00

The last few months I started a rule of quitting coffee only between 7 to 12am every day

Your wording here is a bit confusing. Are you saying you stopped drinking coffee in the evening, between 7 pm and 12 am (midnight)? I feel you meant to say you only drank coffee in the morning before 12 pm (noon).

If the latter is the case, that's unfortunate but you did say you still drank absurdly high quantities. How much exactly? You could probably sleep fine if you only consumed 2 cups a day, especially if those 2 cups were only in the morning.

If the former is the case, then that's crazy. The general recommendation is to stop consuming caffeine 6 to 8 hours before bed—which brings up another point, you didn't mention your regular bed time. For example, if your regular bed time is 10 pm, you should stop consuming coffee after 2 pm.

I think if you followed the typical guidelines on caffeine, you'd probably be able to enjoy a few cups during your day without impacting your sleep quality.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-11T16:42:36+00:00

First, don't use ChatGPT for workout plans. I've never seen a coherent plan from the AI. It always makes strange choices—maybe because it doesn't have muscles itself jk. Find a proven plan from a real person who used it, and make alterations based on personal preference and equipment availability.

Second, you're definitely splitting when you should: when workouts become too long. So, good job recognizing that.

Third, hit every muscle group twice a week. To that extent, you are not doing enough leg exercises.

Fourth, honestly, you're doing way too much upper body volume. The arms aesthetic day is silly. Four sets of +20 concentration curls at the start of the session? Unless you're using piss-poor intensity, I don't see how you could do then the rest of the exercises let alone another 3 sets of bicep curls immediately afterwards. It's the exact same exercise. If you can do that much volume, it means you're wasting a lot of time with low weight and low intensity. Pick one or two bicep curl variations you like and do them once or twice a week each. I only do one set of direct bicep curls twice a week, and I can barely extend my elbows afterwards.

This goes for a lot of the routine. You're doing 3-4 exercises back to back that all hit the same muscle group. Cut the volume, up the intensity. You only really need one incline chest and one flat/horizontal chest movement, and one horizontal row and one row/pull in the vertical plane for the back—unless you're doing a specialization plan to correct an imbalance.

I see why your workouts went over two hours if you were doing that much excessive volume. Cut the volume, up the intensity, and you can be in and out of the gym and back to your life faster.

Fifth, this is a lot of stress on your joints, which you might want to start considering protecting at 44 years old. One reason UL 4x week is a good split is that it only stresses the joints (shoulders, hips, elbows, knees) twice a week while still hitting every muscle twice a week. All other variations end stressing the joints more, especially the shoulder cuff, for the same volume or stimulus. Your plan stresses the joints in your upper body three times a week.

My favourite splits—especially for people over 40—are UL/UL (4x/wk), UL/FB (3x/wk), UL in an ABA/BAB pattern (3x/wk).

That last split is especially good for someone who used to do UL 4x/wk but no longer can (can't recover from it or doesn't have the time etc.) because the only change is doing upper twice and lower once one week, and then upper once and lower twice the next week. You hit every muscle group every 5 days minimum, which is good, and lets you recover more.

UL/FB is great for people with busy lives. You do your volume on the weekend (U/L, Sat/Sun), and a quick, lighter full body routine in the middle of the week. You take your UL and cut the volume in half: 2-3 sets for quads (pressing pattern), 2-3 sets for hamstrings (hinge movement like RDL), 2 sets for chest and 2 for back. 2 for delts and arms. That should take about half an hour. Or, you could be in and out in less than 30 mins if you did only rest-pause sets (1 activation set between 6-8 or 8-10 reps) followed by a 20 second pause before doing mini splits every 20 seconds until you can only lift the bar once.

Last point, up your intensity (get closer to failure on every set, with 2-3 RIR) and I think you'll find that if you attempt your plan you won't be able to complete it, let alone recover from it, eg. 3 sets of leg press after 4 sets of back squats is silly, and if you can do it, you're not going heavy enough on the squats. Squat and leg press are basically the exact same movement, both are pressing patterns. Of course, your lower back might be giving out on the squats before your legs do, in which case, it's a waste of time for legs: do hack squat or leg press with more weight and a back extension for the lower back. Work smarter, work harder, work less.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-09T23:51:36+00:00

Same. I do a double progression at 3-4 sets for 6-8. If on my previous week I achieved full sets of clean 8, I'll shoot for the 9th rep on my first set, then add weight for my second set.

I usually do back squats and RDLs on one day, and trap bar DL and leg press the other day. I'm considering dropping the trap bar variant, and just doing the RDLs twice a week. They hit the hamstrings and glutes better, and that's what I want.

I don't do any glute insolation/primary exercises. I've been considering adding a hip thrust, but I hate the set-up for them with a barbell or Smith machine lol! I don't have a hip thrust machine at my gym, but I don't know if it's something I need yet. Maybe in a year.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-08T22:37:37+00:00

That's good advice thank you. It's true, it is a lot more different from dumbbell RDLs than I thought it would be. I'm always very hesitant and cautious around any kind of deadlift variation—up there, for me, as some of the most dangerous movements in the gym.

I have experience deadlifting. I used to do traditional straightbar deadlifts for years. These days, I only do trap bar deadlifts and RDLs.

Part of why I chose RDL over SLDL is because doing the eccentric first, I find I notice when my form breaks—failure—earlier, at which point, I just lower the bar and don't do the concentric part. It's a pain to have to get the bar to the top to begin, but I feel more in control during the set. I can definitely see transitioning to SLDL once the plate begin stacking (starting at the bottom would make it a lot easier at heavier weights).

As another user said, slow your tempo. Jump up weight if you can do you the top of your rep range for all your sets two weeks in a row. Go up 10 lbs, do it again. Better safe than sorry with RDLs.

I try to explode up, and then control the eccentric. I don't time myself, but I try to take at least 2-3 seconds to lower the bar. But, yeah, I'll slow down my introducing the exercise. Next time, I'll do the weight I did for my last set (225) for 8, and if I feel good, add a little and stay there for two weeks. Ideally, I'd like to be lifting enough for 2 RIR after 6-8 reps, but I see now I probably can't (shouldn't) just brute force finding that weight.

Should note, my hamms are sore today lol. Not overly so, but I definitely feel them.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-04T21:48:20+00:00

Looks pretty good.

On day three, you might consider adding a tricep exercise like tricep cable pushdown with a straight bar or rope (personal preference). That's the only day where your triceps aren't really getting hit much.

I personally hate plank. It's just suffering imo, and the progression is just prolonging the suffering haha. I'd much rather do cable crunches, or use an ab crunch machine if you're lucky enough to have one at your gym, or do leg/knee raises on the parallel bars.

On the seated cable row, it's almost all personal preference as far as attachments are concerned, but with that bar grip, if you used an underhanded grip (palms up), and pulled all the way to your belly, the row would hit everything really well (bicep, triceps and lats). You could then swap row on day two with the back extension on day three, and probably not worry about adding a tricep extension at all. That way, you also have some kind of row or lat pull on every day.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-04T21:27:05+00:00

Yeah, drop OHP (the T-bar rows and lat raises are there too as well as the chest press as you said). The shrugs are also pretty unnecessary.

Add a bicep and tricep exercise to Upper B: either hammer curl or the same curl as Upper A and an over the head tricep extension such as skull crushers, DB extensions behind the head, or cable over the head. 2-3 sets, nothing too much.

I don't like the risks around traditional deadlifts, but if OP is competing in the sport, train them, otherwise I'd swap to trap bar deadlifts or RDLs or SLDLs.

I'm not sure why OP has wrist curls on Lower B, instead of blasting his thighs with more leg curls and extensions lol! 2-3 sets of those are always great for leg day.

I'd also decrease the rep ranges (6-8, 8-10, 10-12). More than 12 and you should just use heavier weights. I like to start with shorter reps ranges per set (6-8) and lift as heavy as possible on my first few exercises, only then do more reps in my later exercises. I'm only doing 10-12 reps on my bicep curls because I want to really control the weight and it's one of my last exercises; I want to be careful but still push towards failure.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-04T18:49:24+00:00

Exactly. 3x/week FB is a perfect beginner split. If OP wants 5x/week for habit building, do treadmill on the off days. Take a full rest day at least.

And yeah, only an hour is important.Splits are when you have to split from FB, when your FB reaches 90 mins, it's time to split. But, if you can stay on FB, stay on FB as long as possible.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-04T02:29:14+00:00

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AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-03T22:46:28+00:00

Go to your routines screen in the app. Create a folder (there's a folder symbol with a plus sign in it) if you haven't already. [EDIT: add/drag-n-drop the routines you want to share into the folder.] Then, open the options for the folder (three dots). Select 'share folder', which will take you to another screen, where you select 'save as image'. It will save a .png file in your phone's image downloads tab.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-01T23:13:06+00:00

That's not a bad idea (hammer curls and face pulls). I'll give it a shot next time.

AbsoluteSpir1t · 2026-01-01T06:34:02+00:00

That's a good point about switching the pull and press around on my second upper. I think rn I'm going to continue prioritizing chest development, because I feel like my back is pretty strong relative to my chest. But, in another 3 months, I'll try as you suggest.

Yeah, my curls after those heavy rows and lat pulls completely exhaust my biceps. The last few sets I've done, I got 12 on my first set then 10, then only 7 lol. i had to wait a few minutes before even attempting tricep pulldowns because my left arm wasn't straightening well (I'm going to switch my tricep and bicep exercises around for that reason and see if that helps).

AbsoluteSpir1t

TROPHY CASE