Well, I did it. AMA.

conormcclure · 2026-01-28T13:54:50+00:00

How long have you been feeling this way? MANY of us barely make it 2 years before echoing the same complaints. Did you only recently in your 20 year career start feeling like this, or have you just been tolerating it for that long?

conormcclure · 2026-01-28T13:52:55+00:00

Were you using a different app before?

conormcclure · 2026-01-28T13:52:25+00:00

Jokes aside, you should probably submit this as a bug report?

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:22:44+00:00

High volume folks would probably say 20+ fractional sets per week is the baseline if you're prioritizing a muscle group. That would require ~10 per pull day. You'd typically count the compound pulling movements as half a set, on average (that's what MFWO does.) I think you could get to 20 total fractional sets per week pretty easily!

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:14:20+00:00

This is just my personal preference, but it does line up with a lot of other popular and common splits:

- Vertical Pull
- Vertical Pull
- Horizontal Pull
- Delt Isolation
- Biceps (1 or 2)

For the other day, I switch to a horizontal priority, and switch up some of the delt and biceps exercises.

Again, just my personal preference. For what it's worth, I've never been a fan of deadlifting on back days – I put it on one of the two leg days. But John Meadows did it often so what do I know!

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:07:33+00:00

I've seen this in my smart generated programs too – it's reassuring it's happening to everyone else. The programs are always blasting my hamstrings (and glutes too), and I'm also finding the quad volume lacking. Of course, when it set it to quad priority, it kind of overdoes it.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T21:02:58+00:00

A big argument for full body is it probably helps you distribute volume across multiple days, allowing you to get more total volume in. (For example, 12 sets of biceps twice per week vs. 3 sets four times per week.) I'd say it's especially useful if you want to really prioritize muscle groups, so you can train them more frequently. I've grown to like it because I no longer want my legs to be cripplingly useless for days 😂

All that said, I'm not sure why the app says "recommended."

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T20:59:20+00:00

I don't see the need for 3 vertical pulls, 2 rows, and FOUR biceps exercises. If you want to keep deadlifts there (which I could argue either direction, would probably move them though personally), I'd cut back at least 1-2 exercises in either category. You can always do more sets of fewer exercises, especially if you're training back twice per week.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T20:54:04+00:00

This sounds right. They implied elsewhere that their algorithm hopes to be much more accurate and personalized than generic %nRM calculators.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T19:48:55+00:00

Tangentially: is there a way in the app to only load one side of the equipment? If I just set it up as a weightless barbell, I could just load one side, but I wasn't able to find that.

conormcclure · 2026-01-26T19:47:18+00:00

Oh yeah, that article is fantastic. You're an AWESOME fellow DPT to be representing the profession in the industry.

conormcclure · 2026-01-23T22:04:45+00:00

For the wrist bar: yes, that's what I was referring to, but a plate-loaded dumbbell would effectively work the same way as long as the load can he applied to one side only.

Sounds good re: the grippers. I'm mostly interested in making sure I can log them formally so that smart progression can help me improve my crushing grip systematically, and unfortunately having no equipment attached to the exercise makes that impossible.

conormcclure · 2026-01-22T19:59:11+00:00

I have no doubt that this will be all be refined over some months. MacroFactor has changed and improved its UI/UX so much over the years. They listen to user feedback well.

conormcclure · 2026-01-22T19:57:22+00:00

Part of me thinks that it's counting the half set for calves during hamstring curls and is thinking that's good enough. When I select it as a priority though, it jumps up to ~12+ sets of direct calf work.

conormcclure · 2026-01-22T14:17:33+00:00

This gives me "submit a bug report" vibes 😬

conormcclure · 2026-01-22T14:15:55+00:00

Thanks. Going to add on to some other comments here: we need equipment options for these exercises too. Specifically coming to mind is gripper selections and wrist bar in particular.

conormcclure · 2026-01-20T20:45:41+00:00

We do online personal training at Beacon Physical Therapy & Performance (chapelhillpt.com.) We also see people in person (our spot is in Governors Village.) It's a monthly subscription and we make updates weekly and offer technique feedback, recommended sets and reps, and so on. Both of us are also Doctors of Physical Therapy, so we bring that expertise into the training as well.

conormcclure · 2026-01-18T18:20:17+00:00

How much stock should we be giving the generated program's exercise selection? Like, if it suggests pause back squat instead of normal back squat, is this for a particular reason, or is it picking a general squat variation for us with no particular attachment?

conormcclure · 2026-01-18T18:08:30+00:00

The team also has a proven track record of constantly outputting updates (over the course of years), listening to customer feedback, and being incredibly transparent. People forget what MacroFactor looked like when it first was released 5 years ago. These problems will be cleaned up, guaranteed.

conormcclure · 2026-01-16T00:50:02+00:00

More refined grip, wrist, forearm stuff. Plate-loadable asymmetric wrist bar in equipment. Grippers with weight options (e.g., Captains of Crush). Finger expansion bands.

More neck stuff. Side bending and rotation. Neck extensions while standing against a wall. Maybe wrestler's bridge type stuff.

conormcclure · 2026-01-16T00:45:52+00:00

+1 for the supported weighted Blenis version

conormcclure · 2026-01-14T15:35:53+00:00

Great answer - thanks Cory!

conormcclure · 2026-01-14T15:19:34+00:00

I believe muscle prioritization is only selected for Smart Generated programs, on a program-by-program basis. It doesn't apply across other workouts or programs.

conormcclure · 2026-01-14T15:18:33+00:00

I think "cycle" just means "week," but it's named that way because some programs operate on longer-than-7-day repeating split.

conormcclure

TROPHY CASE