Your First Program

A program in HyperIron is a structured training plan that tells you what to do each session and handles progression automatically. The fastest way to get started is to let AI build one for you.

The fast way: ask Claude

If you've connected Claude as your AI coach, you can have a complete program built in seconds. Just describe what you want:

"Build me a 4-day upper/lower hypertrophy program, 6 weeks, with a deload week. I train at a home gym with a barbell, dumbbells, and a cable machine."

Claude will create the full program — workout days, exercises, sets, rep ranges, progression settings — and load it straight into HyperIron. You can review it, ask for changes ("swap Romanian deadlifts for hip thrusts"), and start training immediately.

This is the recommended way to get started. You can always fine-tune the program later in the app.

The manual way: build it yourself

If you prefer to set things up by hand, here's how.

What is a program?

A program defines:

• Workout days — The sessions you rotate through (e.g., Push, Pull, Legs)
• Exercises per day — What you do in each session, with target sets and rep ranges
• Mesocycle length — How many weeks the training block runs (typically 4–8)
• Progression mode — Whether weight or reps increase week-to-week
• Deload — Whether to include an easy recovery week at the end

If these concepts are new, see Mesocycles and Progressive Overload for background.

Create a program

1. Navigate to Programs and tap New Program.
2. Give it a name (e.g., "Upper/Lower Hypertrophy" or "PPL Block 1").
3. Set the number of weeks — this is how many loading weeks you'll train before deloading. Start with 4–6 if you're unsure.
4. Choose whether to include a deload week at the end.

Add workout days

Each workout day represents one training session. Common setups:

Split	Days	Example
Push/Pull/Legs	3	Push, Pull, Legs
Upper/Lower	2–4	Upper A, Lower A, Upper B, Lower B
Full Body	2–3	Full Body A, Full Body B
Bro Split	4–5	Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms, Legs

For each day:

1. Tap Add Workout Day.
2. Name the day (e.g., "Push A").
3. Add exercises from the exercise library or create custom ones.
4. Set target sets and a rep range for each exercise (e.g., 3 sets of 8–12 reps).

Choose progression settings

For each exercise, configure how it progresses across the mesocycle:

• Progression mode — Weight progression (default) increases weight ~2% per week while reps stay fixed. Rep progression keeps weight fixed while reps increase from the bottom to the top of your rep range. See Progressive Overload for details.
• Starting weight — Enter your current working weight or an estimated 10RM. HyperIron calculates a conservative Week 1 weight (~85% of your reference) so you have room to progress.
• Minimum RIR — How close to failure the program pushes you in the final week. Default is 1 (one rep left in the tank). Set to 0 for exercises where training to failure is appropriate. See RIR & RPE.

tip

If you're not sure about starting weights, leave them blank. Enter your working weights during your first workout and HyperIron will use those as the baseline for future progression.

Start training

Once saved, your program becomes active. The mesocycle view shows a grid of all your weeks and workout days. Tap any cell to start that workout.

You don't need to get everything perfect up front — you can edit your program at any time, and volume auto-adjusts based on your fatigue ratings as you train.

What's next?

Head to Your First Workout to learn how to log sets and complete a session.