Unstoppable Gains is a science-based system to help you gain muscle while losing fat, and set new personal records while avoiding plateaus. Plus, it's just plain fun!
Stop getting 'stuck' in your workouts doing the same things over and over, and start making progress again!
When you improve your efficiency, you save time - Time that you can spend doing other things.
Hit new size and strength personal records, and know the exact day that you will reach them.
Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. You can do both at once if you change the way that you workout.
Your body responds best to a variety of rep ranges, and Unstoppable Gains has variety built right in!
Personal development expert Tony Robbins claims that the
secret to life is that
"Progress Equals Happiness".
I don't know how strong you are, how long you've been lifting, or whether you're a man or a woman, so I'm just going to make up some numbers here to make a point. Imagine for a moment that you are about to do a set of Bench Presses. You load the bar with 200 pounds, and when you do the lift, you are able to complete 6 reps before reaching failure.
Which of the following options would be the most effective, reliable & safe way for you to continue to make strength and muscle gains at your next workout:
Do another Bench Press set with 200 pounds for 6 reps.
Add 5 pounds, and do a Bench Press set with 205 pounds for 6 reps
Perform a Bench Press set with 200 pounds for 7 reps
Lower the weight and add one rep: 195 pounds for 7 reps.
Unstoppable Gains was designed specifically to keep the size and strength gains coming, so let's answer this question with some screen shots from the app.
Nope. In a progressive resistance program, you want to keep the focus on "progressing". Keeping everything exactly the same results in a progress improvement of "0".
The number in the middle of the circle in this screen shot from the app tells you how much harder this set is compared to the previous set (spoiler alert: it's not).
No, again. Five pounds may not seem like much, but if you reached failure at 6 reps of 200 pounds, you are not going to be able to complete 6 reps of 205 pounds.
In fact, take a look at that small number in gray next to the "6" at the bottom. Unstoppable Gains has calculated that you would get just 5.2 reps at this new weight... and that rounds down to 5.
No way. If you thought that adding five pounds was hard, then adding one rep is ridiculously hard! It's more than 30% harder than adding 5 pounds (and not gonna happen).
If you reached failure at 6 reps with 200 pounds previously, there's no way that you would be getting 7 reps this time, and a failure at an attempt is a failure to progress.
So, how do you make any progress?
The surprising answer to keep making gains is to drop the weight by five pounds AND add a rep. Yes, you would decrease the weight to keep making size and strength gains.
Unstoppable Gains has calculated that you would be able to do 6.8 reps with 195 pounds. You can round that up to 7 reps with a little effort. The difference between the two IS your progress. It's that easy.
The app will even show you exactly how much your strength will improve from that one set. Then, this set becomes your new set to beat, and you go up again.
Options A, B and C are unlikely to lead to any gains AT ALL... and yet, these are the exact things that most people are doing! No wonder they hit plateaus and stay stuck.
"I Love that the app just tells me what to do in order to make progress. I have been looking for something exactly like this for years."
L. Robinson, Beta Tester
Getting smarter about making progress means that you won't be getting stuck for weeks at a time. Plus, not only do those continuous gains really add up, they also make it less likely that you will get injured, and more likely to love your training days!
As you saw in the workout Quiz above, the steady gains come from a sometimes surprising combination of weight and rep changes. At times, the weight will go up, and at times, it will go down. You are given a choice as to which of the recommended sets you would like to perform. This built-in variety, combined with the relentless progress in strength and size, means that Unstoppable Gains will take the boredom out of your workouts and bring back the fun!
That's how you break through a plateau.
That's how you never deal with one again.
"The difference between try and triumph is a little ‘umph’."
"Success isn't about 'greatness'. It's about consistency."
"Getting in shape is not a sprint. It's a journey."
"Push yourself. No one else is going to do it for you."
The most important part of Unstoppable Gains is Set selection. Choosing the right Set can mean the difference between hitting a new personal record or hitting a frustrating plateau.
There are a few things to look for when choosing a Set, so let's examine the Set information screen for that winning Option D from the Quiz above in detail.
The top half of the screen is a quick glance summary of the proposed next Set, showing the difficulty points, the weight and the reps.
The bottom half of the screen shows a table of information that goes into detail on the proposed Set.
The weight line shows the last weight that was saved for this exercise on the left and the new, suggested weight on the right.
Target Reps shows how many full repetitions to perform in order to complete this Set.
Calculated Reps is an important number. This is the exact number of reps that Unstoppable Gains has calculated you can complete at your current level. If you can beat this number, you make instant progress! So, look for a number that ends with a .8 or a .9 for the best chance at success. With effort, you can often 'round up' those Sets to the next whole number, which will lock in your gains. On a good day, you may be able to complete a set that ends in .7. However, it gets very difficult to round up calculated reps that end in .6 or anything below that.
This is another important number. Your 'One Rep Max' is the maximum amount of weight that you would be able to lift one time. It is a very helpful indicator of your overall strength. You can see at a glance how your 1 Rep Max will increase (or decrease) based on your completion of a Set. Note: You should not actually attempt to lift this amount of weight unless you are trained to do so.
This is the difficulty rating for the Set, and is the number presented in the center of the circle at the top. It is how much harder (or easier) this Set is, compared to the previous Set and is stated in basis points. Continue reading to the F.A.Q. below for more information about basis points.
Failure Risk is an estimate of how likely it would be for you to fail to complete this Set. To ensure continuing gains, you should look for sets that give you a high probability of success.
Injury Risk is an estimate of how likely it would be for you to get injured attempting to complete this Set. Unless you are very experienced, be careful with Sets that have a high risk of injury.
Click the 'Save' button after you have chosen this Set and completed all of the reps at the stated weight with good form. After you click 'Save', the system will recalculate and present you with a new list of Set suggestions. If you do not complete the Set successfully, close the window without clicking 'Save' and select another Set.
There are several pieces of information to consider when choosing your next Set. With experience, you will be able to see at a glance if a proposed Set is going to be your next challenge, or if you would like to choose a different Set.
The core of Unstoppable Gains is based on research conducted during the 'Golden Era' of strength training and bodybuilding, which has been revived and entirely repurposed for a new generation.
The research was originally intended to help with analyzing competition performance. Back then there would have been no practical way to use the equations and formulas in 'real-time' to help guide a live workout.
However, today everyone has their smart phone with them at all times, making it super convenient to carry a powerful workout assistant right in your pocket!
Unstoppable Gains takes a brand-new, science-based approach to your training. Instead of just tracking what you do in your workouts, Unstoppable Gains actually guides you toward your goals and helps you decide what to do next... in real time!
You start by typing in the weight and reps for the last challenging set you did of an exercise. This doesn't need to be exact, as the system will quickly converge on your present level and keep your body challenged with every workout.
Based on that initial set, Unstoppable Gains will give you one or more suggestions for what to do for the next Set. From there, the system learns from your choices, and it tells you where to go, based on where you've been. You decide which Set to do, and if you successfully complete it, then that Set then becomes the new Set for comparision... and you are ready to make gains again!
The numbers in the center of the circles are the number of basis points of difficulty between the last Set and the suggested next Set. It's a measure of how much harder (or easier) a Set will be compared to the last Set you did.
A basis point is one-hundredth of 1 %. Stated differently, a '50' in the center of the circle means that this suggestion is 0.50 % harder (half a percent harder) than the previous Set. That might not seem like a lot, but don't forget that it compounds.
If you bench twice a week, and you were able to consistently go up by 'just' 50 points each time, you will add over 100 pounds to your bench press in less than a year. So, 50 isn't small at all.
It actually isn't all that important to know the exact meaning of the numbers in order to use them to compare the relative difficulty of the various sets.
Our Beta Testers have identified a fantastic strategy that has been working very well. For each exercise that you do, perform these steps:
In other words, you will be INCREASING the resistance between workouts (getting stronger and setting personal records every time you train), and DECREASING the resistance within a workout as your body fatigues. In fact, it is very common for the "hardest" Set from last week's workout to show up again as a recommendation for an "easier" Set in today's workout... proof that Unstoppable Gains is working!
The recommendation algorithm needs flexibility to be able to come up with its suggestions. If you are using light weights (for example, while doing lateral raises), there may not be a lot of flexibility in what to recommend. Most gyms do not have a dumbbell between 20 and 25 pounds.
Unstoppable Gains works best with exercises where a range of weights and reps can be evaluated.
Sometimes, the ideal weight for your next Set will go up by a multiple of 2.5 pounds. Unstoppable Gains tries to keep you right on the edge of what you are capable of doing, so even small increments matter.
If your gym can not easily handle a load of that weight, you might want to bring your own 1.25 pound mini plates to put on each end of the barbell to provide that flexibility to the suggestion engine. If you do a lot of work with dumbbells, you might consider getting some 2.5 pound wrist weights or a set of Micro Gainz fractional plates, which will automatically unlock some very cool new Sets.
If you choose to not use multiples of 2.5 pounds at all, simply choose another Set. The suggestion algorithm will learn that you aren't interested in those types of suggestions and will decrease their frequency until they disappear from your list. Just keep in mind that one of those sets could be the plateau buster that you're looking for.
You should be able to see and feel the difference, but your strength is also graphed on a per-exercise basis on the first page of the app, so you can see exactly how you are progressing.
If it says the word "Increased" instead of "Decreased" under the name of the exercise, and the graph is sloping upward, you are making gains!
Your muscles have both fast-twitch fibers and slow-twitch fibers which respond optimally to different types of resistance training. Your fast-twitch muscle fibers respond best to lifting heavier weights for fewer reps and your slow-twitch muscle fibers respond best to lifting lighter weights for higher reps.
The catch is that each muscle has both types of fibers, in different proportions that depend on the muscle, on your past athletic experience, and on your genetics. In addition, muscles can grow due to something called myofibril recruitment (which comes primarily from lower reps) and something called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (which comes primarily from higher reps). To activate as much of the muscle as possible, it can help to take it through a variety of rep ranges.
Another good reason to consider a variety of rep ranges is because of the flexibility that provides in ensuring your continued progress. Instead of being 'stuck' at a certain weight and unable to add even a single rep, you can choose a set that will guarantee your progress, and will actually get you to your goals much faster.
Yes, you can use this app to map a path to a specific goal. If you don't want to wait for the actual training sessions, you can get the app to show you the path to your goal by following these steps:
For example, let's say that you had a short-term goal to increase your Bench Press by 10 pounds (from 200 for 6 reps to 210 for 6 reps). The app would show you the path through each of the eight Sets between now and reaching your goal. That path happens to go through each of the Sets from the Bench Press Workout Quiz above (colors have been added to remind you of those sets from the Quiz). Each step is sensible, safe and realistic... all the way to your your goal!
(The colored text shows each of the options from the Quiz above)
While each of the Sets on this list were determined mathematically, you can see that patterns begin to emerge naturally. The pattern here appears to be that the weight goes down by 5 pounds while the reps go up by 1 for each Set, until the Sets 'reset' and the weight goes back up while the reps go back down. However, each step of the path is between 40 and 70 points harder than the one before it, no matter if the weight or reps are going up or down.
In trying to reach this goal, many people would make the mistake of immediately jumping from the starting set to 'option B' or 'option C'... and then wonder why they are failing to get it! It's not that you can't do those Sets... it's just that you aren't at that step yet!
To burn fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit. However, being in a caloric deficit makes it much harder to gain strength and size. There are several things you need to do to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time:
