GymBud — How To Guide

First time here? You'll just need to tap through a quick disclaimer — totally standard stuff, just to say you're using the app sensibly. You only ever see it once.

Your Home Screen

Once you're in, everything starts from the home screen:

• Start Workout — ready to train? This is where you kick things off
• View History — look back at how far you've come
• Body Composition — log your weight and keep tabs on your BMI over time
• Settings / Backup — save your data or bring it across from another device

Pick Your Three Muscles

Every workout starts by choosing three muscle groups to focus on:

1. Your main muscle — the one you really want to work today
2. Two supporting muscles — they get solid work in too, just not as much

How the Session Flows

Every session is 7 exercises in this order:

• A is your main muscle — comes up 3 times so it gets the most attention
• B is your first supporting muscle — worked twice throughout the session
• C is your second supporting muscle — also worked twice

No Need to Re-Pick Your Machine

Once you choose a machine for a muscle group, GymBud locks it in for the whole workout. A ⚡ Continue with [Machine] shortcut pops up automatically — though you can always swap if you fancy a change.

Stretch It Out First

Not one for diving straight in? Pick a stretching duration — 2, 5, 10, 15, or 20 minutes — and let the timer run while you get loose. No tapping required, it just counts down on its own.

Treadmill Warm-Up

Prefer to warm up on the treadmill? GymBud takes you through two phases back to back:

• Incline walk — gets the legs and glutes firing before you touch the weights
• Light jog — raises your heart rate and gets the blood moving

Use the sliders to set the total time and decide how it's split between the two phases. GymBud will nudge you when it's time to switch.

Two Ways to Browse

Pick whichever layout works best for you:

• ⊞ Grid — everything as cards, great for a quick scroll and pick
• 📂 By Type — exercises grouped by equipment (Machine, Cable, Smith, Free Weight, Bodyweight, Cardio) — handy when you know what kit you want to use

Can't Remember the Name?

Just start typing in the search bar and GymBud filters as you go. In the By Type view, small matching groups open themselves up automatically so you don't have to tap through everything.

Quick Filter (Grid only)

Tap a filter chip at the top to narrow things down by equipment type — useful if you only want to see cable exercises, or just bodyweight stuff.

Setting Your Weight

Use the dropdown to pick your weight — it goes from 5 to 600 lbs in 5 lb steps. If you're doing a bodyweight exercise and wear a weight vest, there's an option to add that extra load in too.

Setting Your Reps

Hit one of the quick buttons — 12, 15, 18, or 21 — or type in whatever number you want. For single-side exercises like a one-arm row, just count reps for one side.

GymBud Remembers

Done this exercise before? GymBud pulls up what you used last session and makes a suggestion based on how it went:

• Felt Easy last time? — it'll suggest adding reps, or stepping the weight up once you're hitting 21
• Felt Just Right ? — it'll say stick with the same
• Felt Hard ? — it'll suggest easing the weight back slightly

Returning to Your Main Muscle

Your main muscle comes up three times in every session. From the second time onwards, GymBud pre-fills the weight and reps from your first go — no need to set it up again. Change it anytime you like.

Feeling It Mid-Session?

There's a Drop 5 lbs & Add 5 reps option if you want to back off the weight and keep the volume up instead.

Get Ready — 5 Seconds

Before every set you get a 5-second countdown so there's time to get into position. Once it hits zero, your set timer starts rolling.

Need to Pause?

Life happens — just hit Pause whenever you need a moment. Hit Resume when you're ready to go again. The timer only counts while you're actually working.

Going Too Fast?

If things are wrapping up suspiciously quickly, GymBud will give you a gentle heads-up. Worth checking your form and making sure you're doing the full movement rather than rushing through it.

Mid-Set Controls

A few extra options are available at any time during a set:

• Change Weight/Reps — adjust and it takes effect from your next set
• Skip Letter — skip the rest of this exercise section and move to the next one

Pop-Out Timer

Tap the Pop Out button in the top corner to open the timer in a small floating window. This lets you glance at your timer without keeping the GymBud tab in the foreground — handy if you like to queue music or check something mid-set.

Always Know Where You Are

You'll always be able to see which set you're on — Set 1, 2, or 3 — so there's no keeping count in your head.

After every set you get a 60-second breather before the next one. You're in full control though — three options are right there on screen:

• Pause / Resume — need a bit longer? Freeze the clock and tap it again when you're ready
• +15 Seconds — tack a little extra rest on if you need it
• Skip Break — feeling fresh? Just move on

When the time's up, GymBud automatically moves you on to the next set.

More Options During the Break

Use the break to make adjustments for your next set — no need to wait until afterwards:

• Change Weight/Reps — tweak your numbers before the next set starts
• Change Exercise — swap to a different machine for this muscle group while you've got a moment
• Skip Letter — skip the remaining sets for this exercise and jump to the next section

Once you finish all 3 sets of an exercise, GymBud asks you one simple thing: how did that feel? Your answer gets remembered and used next time you do the same exercise, so the suggestions actually get smarter the more you use it.

When you reach the last set of your final main muscle exercise , GymBud pauses and shows a warning screen. Your main muscle has already been worked hard — this last push is where soreness really kicks in, so GymBud gives you a heads-up before you commit.

What You Can Do

• ⬇️ Drop 5lbs & Add 4 Reps — back off the weight slightly and push out more reps for a proper burnout finish
• 🔧 Custom Change — manually set a different weight or rep count before you start
• Let's Do This! 💪 — go ahead with your current weight and reps as planned

Pick a cardio exercise — bike, treadmill, elliptical, whatever — and GymBud switches to a simple timer instead of tracking sets and reps.

1. Choose how long you want to go (5 to 60 minutes)
2. Hit start and the countdown begins
3. Pause or resume whenever you need
4. When the time's up, GymBud moves you on to the next exercise automatically

It gets logged to your history with the duration saved, just like everything else.

Need to cut things short? There's an ❌ End Workout button on every screen — you can always bail out whenever you need to.

Already Done Some Sets?

GymBud will just ask you to confirm, and once you do, everything you've already logged is saved to your history . Nothing gets lost — it just shows as a partial workout.

Haven't Done Anything Yet?

If you tap out before finishing even one set, it quietly cancels and takes you back to the home screen — no fuss, nothing saved.

Cool-Down After a Full Session

Complete all 7 exercises and GymBud offers you a cool-down on the treadmill before showing your workout summary — same incline and jog setup as the warm-up. Nice way to wind down.

Don't stress if GymBud closes unexpectedly — it saves your progress after every single set. Even if your phone dies or the browser gets closed mid-workout, nothing is gone.

Back Within 30 Minutes?

Open it back up and GymBud will ask if you want to pick up where you left off . It'll tell you how long ago it saved and what exercise you were on. Tap ✅ Restore Workout to continue, or Start Fresh if you'd rather begin again.

Been Longer Than 30 Minutes?

After half an hour GymBud assumes the session is over. It quietly saves whatever sets you completed as a partial workout in your history and starts fresh next time you open it — no prompt, no drama.

Tap View History from the home screen to dig into your past workouts. Three tabs let you look at your data in different ways — use whichever makes sense for what you're after:

By Exercise

Every machine and exercise you've ever done, with your best weight, best reps, and total sets logged. Tap any of them to open a progress chart showing how your weight and reps have changed over time — genuinely satisfying to look back on.

By Muscle

Everything grouped up by muscle. Really useful when you're wondering "when did I last work my shoulders?" — just open that group and it's all there. You can search by muscle name or exercise name to find things quickly.

By Date

Every session you've done, most recent first. Shows the total time, every exercise, and all the sets with weights and reps. Sessions you had to cut short show a Partial badge so you know.

Removing an Exercise

You can delete an exercise's full history from its card. Just bear in mind it can't be undone — so if there's any chance you'll want that data, export a backup first.

Logging Your Weight

Just type your weight, pick a date (it defaults to today), and hit Log Weight . Log as often as you like — daily, weekly, whenever. Whatever fits your routine.

Your BMI

If you've put your height in, GymBud shows your current BMI with a colour so you can see roughly where you're at at a glance:

• Underweight — BMI below 18.5
• Normal range — BMI 18.5 – 24.9
• Overweight — BMI 25 – 29.9
• Obese — BMI 30 and above

Seeing the Trend

Your entries appear on a chart over time — green dots when it's gone down, red when it's gone up, grey when it's the same as before. Each entry also shows the change from your last log, so trends are easy to spot.

Saving Your Data

Tap Export Data to download a file with all your workout history, weight logs, and settings. It's automatically named with today's date so you can find it easily later.

Bringing It Back

Tap Import Data , pick the file you saved, and GymBud restores everything. It only touches what's in the file — anything else you have stays exactly as it is.

Starting From Scratch

The Clear All Data option wipes the lot — history, records, weight logs, settings, everything. GymBud asks you to confirm twice before touching anything, but once it's gone, it's gone. Export a backup first if there's any chance you'll want it back.

Workout Plans let you design and save your own training routines. Instead of choosing exercises on the fly every session, you build a plan once and then run it whenever you want — GymBud walks you through it automatically.

Getting to Plans

Tap Plans from the home screen. You'll see a list of all your saved plans, plus a button to create a new one.

Creating a Plan

1. Tap New Plan and give it a name (e.g. "Push Day", "Full Body", "Monday Split")
2. Use the + Add Block buttons to build your sequence
3. Tap Save when you're happy with it

The Sequence Builder

A plan is made up of blocks arranged in order. There are five types:

• Letter Block (A, B, C…) — a full exercise section targeting a specific muscle. You can optionally pre-lock a muscle group and a specific exercise. If you leave them blank, GymBud will ask you to choose at the start of the workout.
• Break — a timed rest period between exercises. Set it to anywhere from 30 seconds to several minutes.
• Stretch / Warm-up — a guided stretch timer, same as the one at the start of a regular workout.
• Cardio — a fixed-duration cardio block (treadmill, bike, etc.) with a set time.
• Adjustable Cardio — a cardio block with multiple phases (e.g. incline walk → jog), each with their own duration.

Editing a Letter Block

Tap the ✏️ pencil icon on any Letter block to open its template editor. From there you can:

• Lock a muscle group — that letter will always target this muscle (e.g. always Chest)
• Lock a specific exercise — GymBud will auto-select it at the start of that block
• Set a custom number of sets for that block

Reordering Blocks

Press and drag the grip handle (the six dots on the left of each block) to move it up or down. Drop it wherever you want in the sequence. Works on both touch and desktop.

Running a Plan

From the Plans screen, tap a plan and then hit ▶ Start Workout . GymBud will:

1. Ask you to pick muscle groups for any Letter blocks that don't have one locked in
2. Step through your sequence in order — exercises, breaks, cardio — automatically
3. Use your pre-set exercise and set count where you've defined them

Sharing Plans

Tap Export on any plan to generate a shareable code. Send it to a friend and they can tap Import , paste it in, and have your entire plan — muscle locks, exercise choices, set counts and all.

Deleting a Plan

Swipe left on a plan card or use the delete button inside it. Only the plan template is removed — your workout history from sessions run on that plan stays in your history.

Co-op mode lets you and a partner work out together and take turns on each set of the same exercise — you do a set, they do a set, back and forth. Each of you gets your own history logged automatically.

Starting a Co-op Session

From the workout start screen, choose Co-op Workout . Then pick your role:

• 🏠 Host a Session — you're in charge. You select the muscle groups, exercises, weights, and reps for both of you. Your partner follows your lead, and their screen updates in real time.
• 🔗 Join a Session — enter the code shown on your partner's screen. The host sets everything up — you just show up and lift.

Connecting

Once you tap Host , GymBud generates a short room code and a QR code you can show your partner. They tap Join , enter the code (or scan the QR), and once connected you'll both see the Begin Workout button.

During the Workout

You and your partner alternate sets on each exercise — while one person is working, the other waits on a "Partner is up!" screen. During that wait you can see what exercise is in progress, and use the time to:

• Change Weight/Reps — adjust your numbers before your next turn

If You Get Disconnected

Connection drop? GymBud shows a reconnect prompt so you can pick back up. If that doesn't work, you can tap 🏃 Go Solo to carry on with the rest of the workout on your own.