Understanding your Lift Rating

Why your Lift Rating moves up or down — in plain language.

What is the Lift Rating (R)?

Your Lift Rating, or R, is a single score from 0 to 100 that sums up your training as a whole — not just how heavy you lift. Think of it a little like a golf handicap: a living number that moves as you train and is best compared with your own past rather than anyone else’s. It blends five things:

Strength: How much you can lift, compared with general benchmarks.
Volume: How much total work you do — your sets, reps and weight added up over recent weeks.
Consistency: How regularly you train, week to week.
Balance: Whether you train all your muscle groups, not just a few.
Physiology: Your age, body composition and general fitness.

What does my score actually mean?

There’s no universal pass mark. R is relative — partly to your own history and partly to the wider community of lifters — so a “good” score is mostly about your own direction of travel. A steady climb over weeks and months means your training is working.

Because it blends five different things, R won’t move in a straight line. Day to day it can wobble; what matters is the trend across several weeks.

Why did my R go down even though I lifted more than my routine suggested?

This is the most common surprise. The short version: lifting heavy is only one part of the score, and some of the other parts fade with time rather than effort. Any of these can outweigh a single strong lift:

Strength is only one piece: Going heavier mainly boosts the Strength part. If the other parts slipped, they can outweigh one strong lift.
One big workout can be less total work: Volume looks at your total work over the last few weeks, not just today. A heavy, low-rep workout can add up to less than your recent average.
Time off quietly lowers things: Consistency and Volume both fade when you train less often. A gap before this workout means they were already drifting down.
The score is deliberately smoothed: R changes gradually so it doesn’t swing wildly. If it had been trending down, one strong workout nudges it back up only a little at first.
The heavy work may not count toward Strength: Strength is driven by your big compound lifts, like squats, bench, deadlifts, presses and rows. Extra effort on isolation or accessory moves builds Volume but doesn’t move Strength much.
You’re also measured against others: Part of your Strength score compares you with the wider community, so your position can shift slightly even when your own lifts haven’t changed.
Other lifestyle factors changed: Updating your profile — a higher body weight or body-fat number, or your age — can nudge the Physiology part.

Why did my R change when I didn’t even train?

R can move on days you don’t open the app at all, for two main reasons:

Time away: If you stop training for a while, R gently eases down on its own — Consistency and Volume reward recent, regular work, and your strength is assumed to drift a little during long layoffs. It’s gradual, and it reverses as soon as you train again.
The community moves too: Part of your score reflects how you compare with other lifters. As the wider community trains and changes, your relative standing can shift slightly even when your own numbers haven’t.

Why did my score change when I updated my weight or body stats?

Updating your profile recalculates R, because some parts of the score depend on your body.

Strength and Volume are relative to your body weight: They’re measured in proportion to your body weight, so if your body weight changes but your lifts don’t, those scores shift. Gaining body weight can dip them; losing it can lift them.
Physiology uses your body stats: Your age, body composition and cardiovascular fitness feed the Physiology part. Keeping your body stats current makes R reflect you more accurately — but expect a small change when you update them.

Is my score compared with other people?

Partly, yes. Some of your score is measured against benchmarks and the wider community of lifters, so the number means something beyond your own logbook. The rest reflects your own training and body.

This is also why your score can move a little as others train — and why R is best read as your personal trend rather than a leaderboard position.

I’m new — why do I already have a score, and why did it wobble at first?

When you’re just starting out and there isn’t much training history yet, R begins from a sensible estimate based on the profile details you provide. As you log real workouts, that estimate gradually gives way to your actual training data.

That hand-over is why a brand-new account can see its score move around in the first few workouts before it settles. It’s normal, and it steadies as your history builds.

Why does a break or rest week lower it?

Rest is healthy, but a longer break gently lowers Consistency first, then Volume, because both reward recent, regular training. A short, planned deload won’t tank your score — but several missed weeks will ease it down. It recovers as soon as you get going again.

Why didn’t my R change after a workout?

A few possibilities:

Still updating: It can take a moment to recalculate right after you finish.
In line with your average: Your workout was roughly in line with recent weeks, so nothing moved much.
Parts cancelled out: A gain in one area was balanced by a small dip in another, and the smoothing kept the overall number steady.

Why did my R fall after my hardest week in months?

This is the one that surprises people most, and it is deliberate. Training harder than you can recover from does not build fitness — it builds fatigue. If your rating simply counted work done, the quickest way to raise it would be to train yourself into the ground, so R deliberately does not pay out for that.

Alongside the five main parts, we look at how much your training load has run ahead of your recovery, from three things:

A jump in workload: How much you’ve done in the last 7 days compared with your average week over the last month. A big step up is the strongest warning sign there is.
Every session the same: Weeks where every workout is a similar hard effort, with nothing lighter in between, are harder to recover from than weeks that mix heavy and easy days.
Too little rest: Rest days in the last week, and how long you’ve gone without one.

How much can that hold my score back, and for how long?

There are two stages, on purpose. At the first stage you get a heads-up on the home screen and your rating is not touched at all — hard, well-managed training is never penalised. Only if the load keeps climbing does your rating start being held back, by at most a tenth, and only at the very extreme of the scale.

None of it is permanent. Nothing is deducted from your history — your rating is simply held back while the load is too high, and it lifts by itself within a few sessions of your training settling down. A rest day or a lighter week is usually all it takes.

We can only see your training log, not your sleep, stress, appetite or resting heart rate — so treat this as a prompt to check in with yourself rather than a diagnosis. If you feel run down, that matters more than the number does.

What’s a deload, and why does it lower my score?

A deload is a deliberately lighter workout to help you recover. The app suggests one either when your rating slips for several workouts in a row while you’re still training hard, or when your recent workload has clearly run ahead of your recovery — which it can spot before your rating starts to slide. Because a deload means doing less work on purpose, it can nudge your score down for a short while.

That dip is intended. Backing off when you’re run down is how you come back stronger, and the score climbs again as you do.

Why did deleting a workout change my R?

Your rating is built from your training history, so removing a workout recalculates it from what’s left. Deleting a workout usually lowers R a little, since there’s less recent work — and possibly a personal best — to count.

How can I reliably raise my R over time?

Focus on the whole picture, not just one heavy day:

Train consistently: A regular schedule is the biggest, steadiest lever.
Progress your big lifts: Gradually add weight or reps on the compound movements.
Build total volume: More quality sets across the week.
Train everything: Cover all major muscle groups, including legs and pulling work.
Keep your profile current: Accurate body stats help the Physiology part reflect you properly.

What R is — and isn’t

R is a motivational guide to your training, not a medical or clinical assessment of your health or fitness. It’s designed to reward sensible, balanced, consistent training over the long term.

Use it to spot trends and stay accountable — not as a verdict on any single day. For anything health-related, see the guidance in our Terms & Conditions and talk to a qualified professional.