Strength training for lifters over 40Your training should know you're not 25.
✦ Founding price until Dec 31: Pro for $24.99 a year. See prices → ✦ Founding Lifter: $99.99 once for lifetime access. First 150 only, any device. Claim yours →
Snap your program
Take a picture of your program. Liftspan builds it.
New block, new program, and another hour typing it into an app, exercise by exercise. Or take a photo. A coach's sheet, a page from a book, the whiteboard at your gym, a screenshot. Liftspan reads every line, matches every move, keeps your sets and reps, works out what the program is for, sets your starting weights and swaps anything that loads a joint you told it about. Then it coaches you through it, moving the weight when you've earned it.
Snap your program, free → How it works, in detail
Watch it work: a gym whiteboard, read and coached in 40 seconds.
Check it. Every line matched, anything unsure is marked.
Train it. Starting weights set, progression from day one.
Your first import is free. The photo is read to build your program and is not kept.
The problem
Every serious lifting app is built for someone else.
They're excellent at the science and hostile to the audience. Barbell squats on day one. Aggressive volume ramps. No acknowledgement that connective tissue adapts slower than muscle, or that half of us are managing a back. Strength training after 40, 50 or 60 works. It just needs a plan that knows who it's for.
#### Apps built for 25-year-olds
- Exercise library graded for nothing
- Same load jumps whatever your history
- The same long blocks whatever your joints say
- Change gyms and start a new program
- You type in every exercise, set and rep, block after block
- You supply the plan, it counts the reps
- Every movement graded for joints and lower back, with a named safer swap
- Load increments halved when recovery is the constraint
- Shorter blocks when your joints need them
- Built around the gear you've got: full gym, home, hotel, or just bodyweight
- Snap a photo of your program and it builds itself
- It tells you what to lift and moves the weight when you've earned it
- Train in any of the six environments, switch anytime
- Swap any move for another from the full 267-move library
- Reroll any session you're not feeling
- Build and save up to three programs of your own, still coached around your jointsNew
- Add your own custom exercisesNew
- Daily check-ins that reshape the session around how you're recovering
- Progress proof: 1RM, PRs and your full history
- Background rest-timer alerts on your iPhoneNew
- Apple Health sync: your workouts land in Apple Health and count toward your ringsNew
- Your rest timer in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock ScreenNew
- Double the streak freezes, and unlimited streak partnersNew
- Apple Watch companion: start a session and log sets from your wrist
- A friendly nudge to get back on track when you're about to miss your week
- A Home Screen and Lock Screen streak widget, plus your rest timer in the Apple Watch Smart Stack
#### Liftspan
What it does
The part nobody else builds.
🛡️
Graded for your body
Every exercise carries a joint-risk and lower-back rating. Tell it your knees are bad and the programming changes, not a warning you dismiss, an actual different plan.
📈
Progression on rails
Reps climb inside the range, then the weight goes up. You never decide what to lift again. Rate a set "easy" and next week's jump gets bigger; rate it a grind and it holds. The science behind it.
🧭
Six environments
Full gym, home gym, hotel, bodyweight, dumbbells only, bands only. Switch on a Tuesday and your week, streak and every weight you've worked up to carry across.
🔥
A streak for showing up
You shouldn't lift every day, but you can show up every day. A walk, yoga, a bike ride or "something else" keeps the flame lit, lifting days count on their own, and a full training week earns a freeze for the day life gets in the way.
🏆
Progress you can see
Estimated 1RM per lift, weekly hard sets per muscle against the 10–20 band, and every all-time best recorded the moment you hit it.
🍽️
Fuel that matches the goal
Calorie and protein targets from your real numbers, and a weight tracker that turns green when you're moving the way you asked for, up or down.
🗣️
Tell it how you feel
"Shoulder's cranky and I slept badly", type it how you'd say it. Overhead work swaps out, loads ease, a set comes off. Just for today; tomorrow your program is back, untouched.
📥
Your history comes with you
Already on Strong or Hevy? Import the CSV and your sessions and working weights carry across, and it exports right back to their format. Your training is never hostage here.
👥
Keep it with a friend
Invite a streak partner and keep a shared streak together. They see whether you logged today and your flame, never your weights or your history. A promise to someone else is a lot harder to skip.
The daily streak
Log anything. Keep the flame lit.
Training stays weekly, because recovery is the point. Showing up goes daily: one tap on whatever you did today keeps your streak alive, and the calendar tells the honest story, lifts, movement, freezes and the days you missed. New to building the habit? Here's how to make one stick.
One tap on whatever you did today. A walk counts.
Six weeks at a glance: lifts, movement, freezes, and the honest misses
Keep a streak with a friend. They see that you showed up, nothing else.
Inside the app
Built and being used right now.
Not mockups. This is the real app.
Tell it how you feel in plain words, and the session bends around it before you lift
Estimated 1RM per lift, and where your volume actually sits
Green means moving your way, gaining counts when that's the goal
Every set of every session, kept, go back to week one whenever you like
Every session ends with your stats and a card you can share in a tap
Free forever, Pro when you want more
Everything Pro unlocks.
The web version is genuinely free: logging, a safe starting plan that works around your joints and moves the weight for you, planned deloads, three starter programs, the daily streak with a streak partner, your training synced across every device, and full export, with no ads. Pro makes the whole thing yours:
Coming soon to Pro we ship constantly. Want one bumped up the list? Find us @liftspan
It's here
Liftspan is on the App Store.
Free to start: logging, a safe starting plan that works around your joints and moves the weight for you, planned deloads, three starter programs, the daily streak with a streak partner, sync across your devices, and full export, with no ads. Pro adds the daily check-in that reshapes a session, unlimited swaps and the full library, every training environment, your own program and custom exercises, and comes with a 7-day free trial. Prefer not to install? The web version at liftspan.fit/app is free to try, and you can go Pro right there, no iPhone required.
Download on the App Store Try free in your browser →
✦ Founding price, until December 31
Pro for $24.99 a year (regularly $29.99), and you keep that price for as long as you stay subscribed. It starts with 7 days free. Or pay $99.99 once for lifetime, first 150 only.
✦ Founding Lifter, launch offer
Pay $99.99 once for lifetime access. No renewals, ever. First 150 only, and it works on any device, no iPhone required.
On Android, or just want the occasional note on what's being built? Leave your email, no spam, one click unsubscribes.
Keep me posted
From the guides
Strength training after 40, explained.
Plain answers from a lifter who is still at it, backed by the research. All guides →
Hotel Gym Workout (Plus a Hotel Room Workout for When There's No Gym)
Light dumbbells and a wobbly bench, or no gym at all. A hotel gym workout, a hotel room workout, and how to make light weights do real work. Read the guide
How Liftspan Builds a Workout Program From a Photo
Snap a coach's sheet, a whiteboard or a screenshot and Liftspan turns it into a program it coaches. How the matching, goal, swaps and starting weights work, in detail. Read the guide
3 Day Full Body Workout Plan for Lifters Over 40 (Plus a 2 Day Version)
Every muscle, three times a week, with a rest day between. The simplest plan that works after 40, plus a 2 day version for the busy weeks. Read the guide
Questions
The honest answers.
Is this only for people over 40?
No. The app is built to make better decisions than you would at 6am with a coffee in your hand, and that's worth as much at 22 as at 62. Same progression engine, same plate maths, same six environments, same streaks.
There's nothing to opt into: put in your real age and the plan tunes itself to it. Every movement is graded for joint and lower-back risk, so once it knows what it's working with, the risky ones simply stop being offered, replaced by a named alternative that trains the same muscle. Load jumps get halved so tendons keep up, rest goes up, blocks deload sooner. Tell it a shoulder or a lower back is a problem and it filters overhead pressing or loaded spinal flexion specifically, and reshapes the week around it.
At 22 that's the full library and standard progression. At 60 it's a program that assumes nothing and protects connective tissue. Same app reading the number you gave it, and every decision it makes is visible in Settings and yours to overrule.
I've got a bad back / dodgy shoulder. Can I use it?
That's the case it was built for. You tell it which joints are a problem and it filters loaded spinal flexion, unsupported bent-over work, overhead pressing, whatever applies, and offers a named alternative rather than just hiding things. It is not medical advice, and the app says so before you train: if something hurts, stop, and talk to your doctor before starting. The guide on lifting with a bad shoulder walks through the swaps it makes.
What does it cost?
The web version is free, and there'll always be a free tier you can train on indefinitely. Pro is $4.99 a month, or $29.99 for a year (about $2.50/mo), a fraction of what the periodisation apps charge, and you get the whole app free for 7 days first, so you feel it working before you decide. You can subscribe on iPhone or right here on the web, and there's a launch-only Founding Lifter deal: $99.99 once for lifetime access, first 150 people only.
Until December 31, Pro annual on the web has a founding price: $24.99 a year, and you keep that price for as long as you stay subscribed.
What's in the free version?
Enough to train on for real, free and forever: log every workout, a safe starting plan that works around the joints you tell it about, your daily streak, a streak partner, badges and levels, your training synced across every device you sign in on, and full CSV/JSON export, no ads, no session limits, and nothing you log is ever deleted. The joint filtering is free and always will be; it works around what you tell it, and it's not medical advice.
Pro is the coach in full: the daily check-in that reshapes today's session when you say "shoulder's cranky and I slept badly"; progression that keeps moving the weight as you earn it; unlimited swaps and the whole 267-movement library; up to three programs of your own, built move by move and still coached around your joints; every training environment, switched mid-week with your weights carried; the progress screen that proves you're getting stronger: 1RM, PRs, your whole story across every block. $4.99/mo or $29.99/yr, free for 7 days.
Do I need equipment?
No. Bodyweight-only is a first-class option, as are bands-only and dumbbells-only. Hotel gyms are specifically handled, because that's where most plans quietly fall apart.
What happens to my data?
It lives on your phone. If you sign in, it syncs to a private database where only your own account can read your rows. Your joint and back settings are health information and never appear anywhere another person can see. A streak partner sees exactly three things: whether you logged today, your flame, and the streak you share. The app has no ad network and no third-party analytics. On the web it counts which steps people reach, like finishing setup or starting a workout, so we can see where it confuses people; those counts carry no account, email or training data, and the iPhone app sends none. (This marketing page uses ordinary Google Analytics to count visits, like nearly every website.)
I already use Strong or Hevy. Do I lose my history?
No. Export a CSV from either app and Liftspan reads it: your sessions land in your log, and your working weights seed the plan, never above what you've actually lifted. A movement it can't match with certainty is shown to you for review, not silently guessed at, and anything it doesn't carry stays in your log under its own name.
It works the other way too: your whole log exports back out in Strong's and Hevy's own formats. If you ever want to leave, the door is on the export screen, not hidden in a support ticket. The only things that don't transfer in are XP, levels and streaks, those are earned here, because a streak built on imported numbers would be fiction.
Who's building it?
One person, still lifting, tired of apps that assume otherwise. Which is also why it gets fixed fast when something's wrong. More about why I built it.
