To track strength progress properly you need one point per exercise per session, computed from working sets only, and more than one number per point — because "am I stronger?" is really five questions. Zyra Workouts answers them with five metrics: estimated 1RM, heaviest weight, volume, reps and sets. This page explains what each one measures, why e1RM leads, and how the app turns them into records.
The five metrics
For each exercise, each session's working sets (anything not marked warm-up) are reduced to five numbers. From the source:
| Metric | How it is computed from the session's working sets | What question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| e1RM | the highest e1rm(weight, reps) of any set | how strong was your best set? |
| Heaviest | the highest weight on any set | what was the most load you handled? |
| Volume | Σ weight × reps across the sets | how much work did the session hold? |
| Reps | Σ reps across the sets | how many total reps did you do? |
| Sets | the number of working sets | how much of the week's volume landmark did this cover? |
One point per session. If you did five working sets of bench press, the session contributes one e1RM (its best set), one heaviest, one volume total, one rep total and a count of five. Charting those over weeks is the picture of progress; the per-exercise pages such as barbell bench press are built around the same five ideas.
Why working sets only? Because a warm-up ramp of 40 × 10, 60 × 8, 80 × 5 would add 1,280 kg of "volume" and 23 reps to every bench session and tell you nothing about strength — the light sets are the same every week by design. Marking them as warm-ups removes them from every metric at once, which is the single most important logging habit in the app.
In plain terms: five numbers per session, from the sets that were actually hard.
Why e1RM beats "heaviest weight"
Heaviest weight is the number people remember, and it is the least informative of the five. It changes only when a plate goes on the bar, and it cannot tell a grinding single from a comfortable triple.
The estimated 1RM fixes both problems. It converts every set to a common scale — "what single does this set imply?" — using Brzycki up to 12 reps and Epley above. Compare two months of a bench press:
| Session | Best working set | Heaviest | e1RM (Brzycki) | Change in e1RM |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| week 1 | 100 kg × 6 | 100 kg | 116.1 kg | — |
| week 3 | 100 kg × 8 | 100 kg | 124.1 kg | +6.9% |
| week 5 | 102.5 kg × 6 | 102.5 kg | 119.0 kg | −4.1% |
| week 7 | 102.5 kg × 9 | 102.5 kg | 131.8 kg | +10.7% |
"Heaviest" reports two changes across those eight weeks: 100 → 102.5 in week 5, then nothing. The e1RM reports the full story — real gains in weeks 1–3 that heaviest could not see, a *dip* in week 5 when the plate went on but the reps fell further than the weight rose, and the actual new level in week 7. The week-5 dip is the important row: it is the e1RM telling you the heavier set was the weaker one, which is exactly what the plateau logic on the dashboard needs to know and exactly what heaviest weight hides.
The limits are the formula's. Above 12 reps the estimate is loose (see Brzycki vs Epley), a set cut short by anything other than strength — grip, a rushed rest — understates it, and no formula knows your leverages. That is why the chart is per session and the trend is what you read, not any one point. This is arithmetic on your log, not a trial result.
Records — volume, reps, 1-RM
The dashboard's records widget ranks your most-trained exercises of the last 30 days by one of three record types, switchable with a segmented control:
- Volume — the most recent session's
Σ weight × repsfor the exercise. Answers "how much work is this lift holding right now?" A volume record with the same e1RM usually means more sets or more reps at the same loads. - Reps — the highest rep count in a working set in the most recent session. Answers "what is my rep ceiling at my current weights?" — the metric that moves during the flat runs of double progression.
- 1-RM — the best e1RM of the most recent session. Answers "how strong is my best set?" — the headline.
Each row also shows a direction and a delta computed the same way the trajectory is: the most recent session's e1RM against the first session in the 30-day window, with up above +1%, down below −1%, flat in between. (The plateau and deload labels use a wider ±2% band and are explained in training plateau or time to deload.)
Reading the three together is more useful than any one of them:
| Volume | Reps | 1-RM | Likely story |
|---|---|---|---|
| up | up | flat | you added sets or reps at the same weights — capacity, not yet strength |
| flat | flat | up | fewer reps at a heavier weight — a plate went on and held |
| down | down | down | a short or light session — or the first week of a deload |
| up | flat | up | heavier and more work — a good block |
None of these rows is a verdict. They are what the arithmetic says the session contained, and the log is what lets you check it.
The short version
Track strength per exercise, one point per session, from working sets only: e1RM, heaviest, volume, reps and sets. Lead with e1RM because it moves when reps move and heaviest weight does not — 100 × 8 → 100 × 9 is a 3.6% gain that only e1RM sees. Read the three record types together to tell capacity from strength, and mark your warm-ups so the numbers stay honest. Zyra Workouts is in development and not yet on the App Store; the rules quoted here are read from its source code and may change before release. Training guidance, never medical advice. Educational overview only — not medical advice.