What “adaptive” should mean to a coach
A lot of software calls itself adaptive when what it means is that an algorithm you cannot see moves the numbers. For a trainer that is worse than a static template, because the client will ask why the weight went down and the honest answer is “the app did it”.
Adaptive, the way a coach means it, is simpler: the next session is written with last session in front of you. What did they lift, how hard was it, what did they skip. Then you apply the rules you always apply. Spotter does the reading and the first application of the rules. You do the approving.
The loop
- You assign a session. Drafted from your profile, edited by you. See how a draft is built.
- The client logs it on their phone: load, reps and RPE for each set. See RPE-based programming.
- The next draft reads the log. Every lift shows a “Last:” line with the numbers the client recorded.
- Your progression rules are applied: add a rep, add load, or hold, in the way you described in your profile.
- You read the summary, edit, and approve. Then it goes out, and the loop runs again.
Your progression rules, applied to their numbers
The profile you fill in once holds your progression logic in plain words: double progression, a fixed load jump once a rep target is hit, holding until an RPE settles, whatever you actually do. The draft applies that to the client’s history. If the client hit 5, 5, 5 at 100 kg and rated it an 8, and your rule is to add load at the top of the range, the draft proposes 102.5 kg. If they hit 5, 4, 3 and rated it a 10, the draft holds, and the summary line says so.
Where your rules do not cover a case, read the summary line: it says what the draft did and why, and the editor is where you overrule it. The decision stays visibly yours.
Solo days, missed days, and the in-person client
- Solo workouts. A client can log a workout from the library on a day you did not program. It shows up in their recent sessions, badged as solo, and it counts as history.
- Trainer-logged sessions. Coach someone in person and log it yourself from the same player. It is badged as trainer-logged and feeds the next draft exactly like a client log.
- Gaps. A missed week is not papered over. The draft builds from the last sessions that were actually logged and leaves the repeat-or-push decision to you.
Nothing adapts behind your back. Adaptation happens at drafting time, and a draft is a proposal. Spotter does not change an assigned session, send a deload, or message a client about a bad week on its own. You will always be the one who says what changed and why.
Why the visible reason matters more than the algorithm
The value of an adaptive program to a client is not that the numbers moved. It is that their coach can say “I took the load down because Tuesday was a 10 and you were short on sleep”. Spotter’s job is to make that sentence easy to say by putting the evidence and the rule on the same screen as the change. If you swap an exercise on the way, the reason for that is recorded too (see exercise substitution with a reason).