Is volume by muscle group measured in sets or in kilos?

In sets. The muscle-group chart adds up prescribed sets, with the secondary group counted at half. Kilos live somewhere else: in the load history for each exercise, built from what your client logs.

Does the calculation use the prescribed session or the completed one?

The muscle-group chart uses the prescribed session, at the moment you build or review it. What was completed shows up in the session records and in the per-exercise load history in kilos.

How does the app know which muscle group an exercise belongs to?

From the exercise in your library: a primary muscle group and, optionally, a secondary one. The primary takes the exercise’s sets and the secondary takes half. You can edit that classification.

Do I have to enter loads by hand?

Your client records the weight during the session in the app. You can prescribe a target load if you want, then read the history — no second spreadsheet involved.

Volume and load

Training load tracking: sets per muscle group when you program, kilos when they lift

Knowing someone showed up is not load tracking. Personal Buddy gives you two separate numbers that answer two separate questions: as you build the session, it adds up the sets landing on each muscle group; after the session, your client’s logged weights build the load history for each exercise, in kilos.

What the app works out while you build the session

When you build or review a workout — including your own templates — Personal Buddy adds up the sets on every exercise and spreads that total across muscle groups. Each exercise in your library carries a primary muscle group and, if you want, a secondary one, and you are the one who sets that in the exercise itself.

The primary group takes the exercise’s sets; the secondary group takes half of them. The result appears as a donut chart with the total in sets, a filter between upper and lower body, and a breakdown showing sets and percentage per group.

The unit is prescribed sets — not tonnage, not repetitions
Primary muscle group: the exercise’s sets; secondary: half of them
Calculated for the session in front of you, at the moment you write it
Upper and lower body filter, with a percentage per muscle group

A concrete example, with the arithmetic shown

Picture a session with 4 sets of bench press (chest primary, triceps secondary), 3 sets of incline press (chest primary, delts secondary), and 3 sets of triceps pushdown (triceps primary).

The app shows chest at 7 sets (4 plus 3), triceps at 5 (half of the bench press sets, plus the 3 on the pushdown), and delts at 1.5 (half of the incline sets). Total: 13.5 sets, with each group’s share beside it. That is the whole calculation — nothing hidden behind it.

What your client logs, and what you read afterwards

During the session, your client records the weight used on each set. That feeds the load history for the exercise: on any movement in the program you can open your client’s loads and find previous sessions, the weight set by set in kilos, and a chart of the top weight per session. Their best result is flagged.

The history belongs to the exercise, not to the document. When bench press comes back in the next block, the line picks up where it left off instead of restarting with the new program.

Weight in kilos per set, logged by your client during the session
A chart of top weight per session, exercise by exercise
Personal best flagged in that movement’s history
No parallel spreadsheet just to have load data

Why volume and load stay separate

They answer different questions. Sets per muscle group answers whether this session is balanced. Kilos per exercise answers whether your client is getting stronger in that movement. Blending them into one score would hide both answers.

Worth being straight about: the muscle-group chart is calculated from the prescribed session, so it is a picture of what you planned. What actually happened lives in the session records and in the load history in kilos.

What Personal Buddy does not do here

There is no 1RM estimate, no RPE, and no tonnage (weight times reps) per muscle group. There is also no weekly or monthly volume dashboard by muscle group today: the chart belongs to the session, not to the month.

We would rather say that than promise a number the app does not calculate. If your decision hinges on one specific metric, check for it explicitly before you subscribe to anything — this tool included.

Frequently asked questions

Is volume by muscle group measured in sets or in kilos?: In sets. The muscle-group chart adds up prescribed sets, with the secondary group counted at half. Kilos live somewhere else: in the load history for each exercise, built from what your client logs.
Does the calculation use the prescribed session or the completed one?: The muscle-group chart uses the prescribed session, at the moment you build or review it. What was completed shows up in the session records and in the per-exercise load history in kilos.
How does the app know which muscle group an exercise belongs to?: From the exercise in your library: a primary muscle group and, optionally, a secondary one. The primary takes the exercise’s sets and the secondary takes half. You can edit that classification.
Do I have to enter loads by hand?: Your client records the weight during the session in the app. You can prescribe a target load if you want, then read the history — no second spreadsheet involved.