Fitness

Plans and progresses workout programs — strength, muscle building, cardio, endurance, and general conditioning — with quantified rules. Use when designing a training plan, routine, or split, choosing sets, reps, weights, or heart-rate zones, when a lift, pace, or the scale has plateaued, when sessions were missed or illness, injury, or travel interrupted training, when planning deloads, training at home or with minimal equipment, or reading training logs and wearable readiness data. Not for meal-level nutrition planning or rep-by-rep set logging.

Training logs, preferences, and derived baselines (e1RMs, resting HR, attendance rate) persist in ~/Clawic/data/fitness/ as plain markdown (see setup.md on first use, memory-template.md for file formats). If you have data at an old location (~/fitness/ or ~/clawic/fitness/), move it to ~/Clawic/data/fitness/. Advise mode: this skill coaches a human who performs the training; escalation thresholds live in the Red Flags table.

Configuration

User-dependent variables. Defaults apply until the user states a preference; store them in ~/Clawic/data/fitness/config.yaml.

Variable	Type	Default	Effect
units	metric | imperial	metric	All loads, distances, and body-mass numbers render in this system; formulas unchanged
training_days	number (2-6)	3	Selects the split (program-design.md) and divides weekly set targets into sessions
session_minutes	number (20-120)	60	Caps sets per session; under 40 switches to the time-crunched templates in minimal-equipment.md
equipment	full-gym | home-rack | dumbbells | bodyweight	full-gym	Filters exercise selection and drives the substitution table in program-design.md
primary_goal	strength | muscle | endurance | fat-loss | general	general	Picks the Quick Reference row used as the program base
age	number (years)	none	Feeds the Tanaka HRmax estimate (Rule 5) when measured_hrmax is unset; falls back to ~/Clawic/profile.yaml
measured_hrmax	number (bpm)	none	Replaces the Tanaka estimate in every heart-rate zone calculation (Rule 5)

Preference areas to record as the user reveals them:

• schedule — preferred training days and times, cadence constraints — places sessions in the weekly template
• exclusions — movements ruled out by pain, injury history, or dislike — drives substitutions instead of repeated suggestions
• risk posture — conservative vs aggressive load jumps and comeback ramps — scales Rule 1 increments and the Rule 6 rebuild
• data sources — which wearable or app supplies HR, sleep, and steps — sets how tracking.md interprets their numbers
• coaching register — terse prescriptions vs explained reasoning — controls how much rationale accompanies each plan

When To Use

• Designing or adjusting a training program: strength, muscle, endurance, or general conditioning
• Diagnosing a stalled lift, pace, or body-composition plateau
• Deciding what to prescribe after missed sessions, illness, injury, or a multi-week layoff
• Turning workout logs or wearable trends into a concrete next-session prescription
• Adapting training to home equipment, travel, or a compressed schedule
• Not for meal-level nutrition planning (dietitian/calories) or rep-by-rep set logging (gym)

Quick Reference

Situation	Play
Goal: strength	3-6 reps at 80-90% e1RM, 3-5 min rest, 2-4 compound lifts per session, each lift 2-3x/week
Goal: muscle	6-12 reps at RIR 1-3, 10-20 hard sets per muscle per week, each muscle trained 2x/week
Goal: endurance	80/20 split (Seiler): 80% of weekly minutes conversational, 20% hard
Goal: fat loss	Keep lifting heavy to preserve muscle in a deficit; deficit math routes to calories
No training history on file	Baseline and starting-load protocol in assessment.md before prescribing loads
Returning after 2+ weeks off	Apply the layoff discount (Rule 6); full gap-length table in comeback.md
Lift stalled 3 sessions	Run the diagnostic order in Progression and Plateaus; playbooks in progression.md
Scale flat 2+ weeks	Weekly-average check in body-composition.md before touching calories or cardio
Pain reported	Check Red Flags first, then the DOMS-vs-injury test in Recovery and Readiness
No gym, hotel room, 25 minutes	Substitutions and time-crunched templates in minimal-equipment.md
Wearable flags "low readiness"	Validate against resting HR + sleep + log (tracking.md) before changing the plan
Anything else / no stated goal	ACSM baseline: 150 min/week moderate cardio plus 2 resistance days covering all major muscles

Depth on demand: assessment.md baselines, testing, starting loads · program-design.md splits, templates, substitutions · progression.md progression models and plateau playbooks · cardio.md zones, intervals, concurrent training · recovery.md readiness, deloads, overtraining · comeback.md layoffs, illness, injury return · body-composition.md fat-loss and muscle-gain phases · minimal-equipment.md home, travel, time-crunched · tracking.md logs and wearables.

Core Rules

1. Progress by double progression, not by feel. Assign a rep range (e.g. 3x8-12). When every set reaches the top of the range at the same load, add 2.5% for upper-body lifts or 5% for lower-body lifts and drop back to the bottom of the range. Worked example: 3x12 at 60 kg squat completed, next session is 3x8 at 63 kg. This makes overload automatic and stall detection unambiguous.
2. Estimate max with Epley; never test it casually. e1RM = load x (1 + reps/30). Example: 100 kg x 5 reps gives 100 x 1.167 = ~117 kg. Estimate e1RM only from sets of 3-8 reps — the formula drifts above ~10 reps and predicts nothing from a high-rep set. Program percentages from e1RM; true 1RM attempts belong only in a planned peak week.
3. Prescribe effort in reps in reserve (RIR). Most sets at RIR 1-3; RIR 0 only on the last set of the final week before a deload. Chronic failure training roughly doubles fatigue for a similar stimulus.
4. Volume has a floor and a ceiling. Start near 10 hard sets per muscle per week; add 2 sets/week only while logged performance and sleep hold; past ~20 sets/week returns flatten or reverse (Schoenfeld dose-response work). A hard set ends within 3 reps of failure.
5. Cardio: the 80% easy share is the load-bearing number. Easy means full sentences are speakable. For HR targets use Karvonen: target = HRrest + intensity% x (HRmax - HRrest), with HRmax = 208 - 0.7 x age (Tanaka; the 220 - age formula drifts 10+ bpm off past age 40). Read age from age (config, or ~/Clawic/profile.yaml); a measured max (measured_hrmax) overrides the estimate and needs no age.
6. Layoff discount by gap length. A single missed session (gap under one week) costs nothing: skip it, resume as planned, never stack two workouts into one. One full week missed but fewer than two weeks off: resume at the last logged load with no jump, treating the return as a re-entry rather than a discount. Two or more weeks off: apply the discount, subtracting 10% of load per week missed, floor at 50%. Three weeks off a 100 kg lift means resuming near 70 kg, adding back ~10% per week.
7. Deload on evidence, calendar as backstop. Trigger: two consecutive sessions below logged numbers on the same lift, or resting HR 5+ bpm above baseline for 3+ mornings. Deload = 1 week at 50% of normal set count, same loads. Even without triggers, cap hard blocks at 4-8 weeks.
8. Every prescription = exercise + sets x reps + load or RIR + rest. "3 sets of bench" is not programmable; "3x8 at 70 kg, RIR 2, rest 3 min" can be checked against the log next session.

Program Design Defaults

• Frequency beats session length: three 45-min full-body sessions outperform one 2-hour session at equal weekly sets, because late-session sets degrade.
• Session order: skill/power work, then the heaviest compound, then secondary compounds, isolation, conditioning last. Hard cardio before squats taxes the lift that pays most.
• Split by available days: 2-3 days = full-body; 4 days = upper/lower; 5-6 days = push/pull/legs. Program to logged attendance plus at most one day, not to stated ambition.
• Weekly movement floor: one squat pattern, one hinge, one horizontal push, one horizontal pull, one vertical push, one vertical pull; isolation fills what is left.
• Rest: 3-5 min on compound strength sets, 1.5-2 min on isolation. Cutting rest to save time cuts next-set load; superset antagonist pairs instead.
• Protein 1.6-2.2 g/kg/day supports adaptation (Morton meta-analysis); anything deeper routes to calories or the dietitian skill.

Full templates, exercise selection, and the equipment substitution table: program-design.md.

Progression and Plateaus

Stall = no rep or load improvement on the same lift across 3 consecutive sessions. Diagnostic order, cheapest first:

1. Audit the log, not the program: were those sessions actually at prescribed RIR and rest? Under-resting mimics a plateau.
2. Check inputs: average sleep under 7h or an active calorie deficit explains most stalls; fix inputs before touching the program.
3. Inputs clean: run a deload (Rule 7), resume at 90% of the stall load, and re-run double progression. Approaching the stall from below breaks it more often than pushing at it.
4. Same load stalls again: change one constraint, smallest first: microloading (1.25 kg plates), then rep-range shift (8-12 to 4-6), then exercise variant. One change at a time or the signal of what worked is lost.

Beginners (first ~6 months) skip double progression: add 2.5 kg (upper) or 5 kg (lower) every session until the first stall. Session-to-session progress is the cheapest gains window; spending it on percentage programs wastes months.

Per-symptom plateau playbooks and periodization beyond double progression: progression.md.

Recovery and Readiness

• DOMS vs injury: DOMS is dull, symmetric, in the muscle belly, peaks 24-72h after novel work, and eases during warm-up. Sharp, one-sided, at a joint or tendon, present at rest, or worsening through warm-up = treat as injury and stop loading that pattern (see Red Flags).
• Train through plain DOMS at reduced intensity; soreness does not predict damage, and skipping every sore day halves effective frequency.
• Pre-session readiness check: resting HR within 5 bpm of baseline, sleep 6h or more, appetite normal. Two of three failed: convert the session to Zone 2 cardio or technique work instead of cancelling.
• Detraining rates: strength holds ~3 weeks untrained; VO2max drops measurably within 2-4 weeks. During travel, one heavy full-body session per week maintains strength; cardio needs two short sessions.
• Rebuilding beats building (muscle memory effect): regained strength returns far faster than it was first earned, so the Rule 6 discount costs days, while skipping it risks injury weeks.

Deload execution, the overtraining ladder, and stress-adjusted training: recovery.md.

Red Flags

Signal (observable)	Suspicion	Action
Chest pain or pressure during exertion, radiating to arm or jaw	Cardiac event	Stop immediately, emergency services
Fainting or near-fainting during or right after exercise	Arrhythmia or cardiac cause	Stop training, clinician this week, no intensity until cleared
Cola-colored urine plus severe swelling after an extreme session	Rhabdomyolysis	Emergency care the same day
Sharp joint pain with swelling, or pain that alters gait	Structural injury	Stop loading that pattern; clinician if not improving in 5-7 days
Numbness, tingling, or weakness down a limb	Nerve involvement	Stop the provoking exercise, clinician
Resting HR 5+ bpm elevated for a full week plus performance and sleep decline despite a deload	Overtraining syndrome or illness	Suspend hard training; clinician if unresolved in 2 weeks
Wheeze or chest tightness triggered by exercise	Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction	Clinician before further intensity work
Pregnancy, or a diagnosed cardiac, metabolic, or renal condition, and no clinician clearance on file	Population needing medical sign-off	Advise clearance before new vigorous programming; keep current cleared activity

Anything in this table suspends every protocol above: route to a clinician.

Output Gates

Before emitting any training prescription, verify:

• Does every exercise line carry sets x reps + load or RIR + rest (Rule 8)?
• Is weekly volume per muscle inside the 10-20 hard-set corridor (Rule 4)?
• Was the next load computed from the logged last session, not from memory or the template?
• If pain, dizziness, or unusual fatigue was mentioned anywhere, was the Red Flags table checked first?
• After a gap of 2+ weeks, was the layoff discount applied (Rule 6)?
• Does the plan fit training_days, session_minutes, and equipment from config, not an idealized gym?

Traps

Trap	Why it fails	Do instead
Programming to stated ambition	Adherence predicts results more than program choice; 6-day plans collapse to 0	Logged attendance + max 1 day
Adding volume to break a stall	Stalls are usually recovery-limited; more sets deepen the hole	Diagnostic order in Progression and Plateaus
Every cardio session moderately hard	The gray zone: too hard to recover from, too easy to drive adaptation	80/20 split (Rule 5)
Changing the program every 4 weeks	Double progression needs 6+ weeks to expose a real stall; novelty resets the signal	One variable, only at a diagnosed stall
Testing 1RM to measure progress	A max attempt costs a week of recovery and spikes injury exposure	Epley e1RM from rep sets (Rule 2)
Guilt-framing missed sessions	Shame predicts dropout; the log is data, not a verdict	Apply Rule 6 and move on
Treating wearable readiness scores as ground truth	Proprietary scores blend unvalidated inputs	Raw resting HR + sleep hours + log vs performance
Chasing soreness as proof of a good session	DOMS tracks novelty, not growth; a stable program stops hurting while still working	Judge by log trend (tracking.md), not by ache
Copying an advanced athlete's program	Their volume tolerance took years; their program is the result of adaptation, not the cause	Start at the Rule 4 floor and earn additions

Where Experts Disagree

• Training to failure vs stopping short. Failure maximizes per-set stimulus but roughly doubles fatigue (Rule 3). Default: RIR 1-3 on compounds; failure defensible only on the last set of single-joint work, where a missed rep costs nothing.
• How much periodization non-athletes need. Comparative reviews (Afonso) find little advantage for complex periodization over progressive overload plus deloads in non-competitors. Default: double progression with Rule 7 deloads; block periodization only when peaking for a dated event (progression.md).
• Cardio while building muscle. The interference camp minimizes it; the health camp keeps it. Boundary: interference is real mainly at high endurance volumes in the same muscles (Hickson). Default: keep the ACSM 150-min floor, low-impact, placed by the ordering rules in cardio.md.

Related Skills

More Clawic skills, get them at https://clawic.com/skills/fitness (install if the user confirms):

• gym for rep-by-rep workout logging and in-session routine execution
• running for run-specific pacing, race preparation, and running injury prevention
• calories for the deficit or surplus math behind fat-loss and muscle-gain goals
• sleep when readiness checks point at sleep as the limiting input

Feedback

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Part of Clawic, the verified skill library. Get this skill: https://clawic.com/skills/fitness.