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How it works
Every number Levator shows comes from a rule you can read. These are the main ones. The full list — 157 numbers and rules with 184 citations — is on the Sources & references page.
It starts from your records: the best set in them for a lift gives an estimated one-rep max (the Brzycki formula). The plan sets the reps and the effort — RPE, how hard the set should feel, where 10 means nothing left and 8 means about two reps left.
So 5 reps at RPE 8 is read as roughly your 7-rep max. The weight for that comes from the same formula, rounded to a load you can put on the bar. Every suggestion carries this line, and How? shows the working.
Suggested 210 lbs · 5 reps at RPE 8 ≈ your 7-rep max (2 in reserve)
| Set | Last time | lbs | Reps |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 205 × 5 | 210 | 5 |
| 2 | 205 × 5 | 210 | 5 |
| 3 | 205 × 5 | 210 | 5 |
With Log how hard each set felt switched on, each finished set asks how hard it was. Next time, that lift’s suggestion starts from what you actually did — 135 × 5 at RPE 8 reads as a 7-rep max. Your records are never changed by it.
A set counts once for the lift’s main muscle group and half for each helper group. Warm-up sets don’t count, and a drop set counts half.
Each week’s total is placed against a range: the usual minimum for muscle growth and the most that people usually recover from (often called volume landmarks). The chest range is Renaissance Periodization’s published one; the other groups’ ranges are Levator’s own, and the sources page says so.
In range (6–22)
In range (10–25)
In range (8–22)
In range (10–25)
Below the usual minimum for growth (6)
In range (up to 25)
Programs are built for your goal, your training days, your session length and the equipment you have. They run in blocks: a base week, weeks that add volume, and every fourth week a lighter one, so fatigue clears before the next block.
Each workout says what its week is for, and how it differs from the block’s first week.
Before a session you can log how you feel. A log from the last two days of high stress or low energy lightens that day’s workout — fewer sets, a lower effort target — and only that day’s. A whole program is never rebuilt lighter because of one bad day.
The menstrual cycle is shown for awareness and never changes a workout by itself; symptoms do. In peri- and post-menopause the main lifts lean heavier, not lighter.
Your resting energy comes from the Mifflin-St Jeor equation, or from your lean mass (Katch-McArdle) when you’ve entered a body-fat percentage. An activity multiplier — a rule of thumb, and labelled as one — turns it into a day’s calories, and your goal moves that up or down.
Protein is set per kilogram of bodyweight, higher when cutting. As your weight trend comes in over the weeks, the targets are corrected towards what your body actually does.
Heart-rate zones are percentages of a maximum heart rate estimated from your age (the Tanaka formula). The 4 × 4 intervals run at 90–95 % of it, following the study that made them known; easy zone-2 sessions build the base.
Sessions are placed around your strength workouts, because hard cardio close to lifting can blunt strength gains.
Pro · free during early access
It is educational and never diagnoses. You say what’s bothering you; it explains what commonly contributes and gives a plan of mobility, stretching and strengthening, with the muscles shown on the 3D model.
Before anything else it asks about warning signs — numbness, pain after an injury, pain at night, swelling, pain that spreads, feeling unwell, severe pain. Any of them, and it sends you to a professional instead.
Each item on the sources page says what it rests on, so you can weigh it yourself.