The best strength
training tracker

A real strength log stores every exercise, set, rep and weight, shows you last session’s numbers while you train, and tracks working weights over time so it can flag a stalled lift. Anything that summarizes your session as a calorie figure is a diary, not a training tool — and heart-rate-derived calorie estimates under-read resistance training badly.

Two things called “workout tracking”

	Calorie estimate	Strength log
What it stores	“45 minutes weight training, 300 kcal”	Every exercise, set, rep and weight
Question it answers	How much did I burn?	Is my squat going up?
When you use it	Afterwards, from memory	Between sets, with last week in front of you
Progression	None	Flags a stall, prompts a progression

The calorie figure is also the least trustworthy number in the category. Heart rate barely rises during heavy low-rep work, so estimates systematically under-read exactly the sessions that cost you the most recovery.

What a good one does

• Last session in front of you. You should never have to remember what you lifted last Tuesday.
• Working weight over time, per lift. The single most useful chart in training, and the reason to log at all.
• Stall detection. Same sets, same reps, same weight for three or four weeks is a signal that needs acting on.
• Fast entry. If logging a set takes more than a couple of taps you will stop doing it by week three.
• An exercise catalogue so you are not typing movement names.
• Warm-up and rest timing that does not get in the way.

The thing a pure strength log cannot tell you

Here is where dedicated lifting apps stop. Your bench press has not moved in a month. A strength log can show you that clearly — and it cannot tell you why, because the two most common causes are invisible to it.

• You are under-fuelled. A steep or long deficit stalls progression before it shows up anywhere else. The log sees a flat line and blames your programme.
• You are under-recovered. Sleep short enough for long enough and performance goes, regardless of how well the sets are arranged.

Both need data the training app does not hold. This is the argument for keeping food, training and recovery together rather than running a specialist lifting app beside a specialist food app that never speak.

Where Nutri Macro sits

Nutri Macro logs every set, rep and weight with last session in view, tracks working weights over time and flags a lift that has stalled — and holds your food and your sleep, HRV and recovery in the same history. So when a lift flattens out you can see straight away whether it is the programme, the fuelling or the recovery. It reads Apple Health, Google Fit, Health Connect and Samsung Health.

Common questions

What is the best app for tracking strength training?

The bar is a genuine set-and-rep log with working weights tracked over time, not a workout calorie estimate. Hevy and Strong are the specialist benchmarks and do this well with no nutrition attached. Nutri Macro does the same logging and adds food and recovery in the same history, which is what tells you whether a stalled lift is programming or fuelling.

Why do calorie estimates for weight training look so low?

Because they are derived from heart rate, and heart rate barely rises during heavy low-rep work. The estimate under-reads resistance training specifically — the sessions that cost the most recovery often register as the least work, which is exactly backwards.

How do I know when to increase the weight?

When you complete all prescribed sets and reps with good form and the last set still has a rep or two in reserve. An app helps by showing last session’s numbers while you train and by flagging when a lift has not moved in three or four weeks, which is the point at which something needs to change.

What counts as a stalled lift?

The same working weight for the same sets and reps over roughly three to four weeks of consistent training. At that point the useful question is not which programme to switch to but whether calories and sleep are adequate, because both stall progression long before the programme is the problem.

Do I need to log every set?

Log the working sets; warm-ups matter less. The value of the log is the trend in your working weights, so consistency on those is what makes it useful. Skipping sessions entirely is what breaks it.

Can a strength app tell me if I am overtrained?

Only partly. It can show stalled or declining performance, which is one component. Genuine under-recovery also involves a suppressed HRV, a rising resting heart rate, poor sleep and often under-eating — none of which a training-only app can see.

Read next: Best all-in-one fitness app Fitness tracking without a smartwatch What is a recovery score?