How long is a training cycle?
In Repsy a cycle has a 4-week deadline and a goal measured in WORKOUTS. The goal is what closes it: hitting the planned workouts ends the cycle on its own, on any day of the week. Counting "weeks on track" used to exist and was removed — the reason is below.
The ruler is the workout, not the week
Every cycle is born with a workout goal: the frequency you declared on the day it was born, times 4 weeks. Doing that many workouts CLOSES the cycle — it makes no difference whether you packed them into three weeks or spread them across all four. Until 26 July 2026 there was a second requirement, "4 consecutive weeks on track", and it is gone: the idea of a week being on track appears on no screen today.
How many workouts your cycle asks for
The goal is the promise frozen on the day the cycle is born. Training more times a week does not make the cycle shorter — it makes the goal bigger.
| Frequency | Cycle goal |
|---|---|
| 1x per week | 4 workouts |
| 2x per week | 8 workouts |
| 3x per week | 12 workouts |
| 4x per week | 16 workouts |
| 5x per week | 20 workouts |
| 6x per week | 24 workouts |
Frequency × 4 weeks. The deadline is the same for everyone; the goal is what changes.
Someone who says they have never trained starts at a maximum of 3 strength sessions a week, even after declaring more free days: a free day is not the same as a day the body can absorb. The cycle goal respects that cap.
Why the week left the equation
A cycle is born on the day you confirm your plan — a Tuesday, a Saturday, whatever day it happens to be. Never a Monday. While the meter counted weeks, the first week of every cycle was born broken: confirming a plan on Thursday and training Thursday and Saturday still read "0 of 4 weeks on track", because the week had already started without you. Worse: you could hit the entire workout goal and watch the meter stay empty, because the number shown was the lower of the two axes. The app said "complete" and the bar sat at zero.
The case that settled it
One production cycle kept demanding 5 workouts a week from a person whose plan had 4 distinct workouts. The weekly target was arithmetically unreachable: not one of their weeks could ever count as on track. Result: 13 weeks and 29 logged workouts with the meter at zero. Today the weekly pace shown is the LOWER of the cycle's promise and your profile's frequency, and what closes the cycle is the workout count.
And why the goal does not shrink when you edit your profile
The workout goal is frozen when the cycle is created, and that is not rigidity — it is what closes a shortcut. If it followed the frequency you declare today, someone who started the cycle with a goal of 24 workouts could open their profile, lower the frequency and watch the goal become 4: 20 fewer workouts, and the medal handed over within days without the volume ever existing. Lowering your frequency changes the plan for the NEXT cycle, and eases the weekly pace shown in the current one — the current cycle's goal stands.
The deadline still exists, as a second door
There are two doors to renewal, and either one is enough. The first is the goal: hitting the planned workouts unlocks renewal that instant, even with weeks to spare. The second is the 4-week deadline counted from the day the cycle was born — once it arrives, you renew whether or not you hit the goal. No cycle traps anyone: there is no state where you can neither close it nor move on.
Frequently asked questions
If I train more than planned, does the cycle close sooner?
Yes. The goal is in workouts, so packing the volume in brings the close date forward. Hitting the planned number unlocks renewal immediately, on any day of the week — there is no minimum date to wait for.
What if I go two weeks without training?
You lose nothing you have already done. There is no streak, no daily flame and no penalty for an empty week: the workouts you logged keep counting toward the goal. What does happen is that the deadline keeps moving, and it may arrive before the goal does.
So what does the app screen show?
A workout scoreboard — "9 of 16" — with one block per planned workout, plus a "this week" line, which still exists because it is the one that answers "am I training today?". What went away was the weeks-on-track meter and its four week blocks.
Why 4 weeks and not 8 or 12?
Because the cycle is the interval in which Repsy recalibrates your prescription from what you actually lifted. Four weeks is short enough that the next cycle still reflects your current loads, and long enough to have real progression data on each exercise.
Can I change my frequency mid-cycle?
You can, and it is worth doing if your routine changed. The weekly pace shown drops with it — it is the lower of the promise and what you declare now, precisely so the app never demands an unreachable number. The current cycle’s workout goal stays put, and the new frequency sizes the next one.
Is the deadline a date or an instant?
Internally it is an instant — the day and time you confirmed the plan, plus four weeks. The screen shows the day. That is why your deadline lands on the SAME weekday you started on: it inherits it from the start.
The next cycle comes out of what you lifted in this one
Log every set across the four weeks. When it closes, the next prescription is calibrated by the load, the reps and the rest that actually happened — not by a table.