The WorkoutSmart Wave Engine

How WorkoutSmart builds a workout.

Dan Wirth has been writing training programs since the 1980s. These are the rules he writes them by, and what the Wave Engine does with each one when it builds yours.

One 12-week block

Build Strength · Level 2

Hypertrophy
Base Strength
Strength & Power
Transition
Max Strength & Power

Easy
Moderate
Challenging
Hard
Max

What it reads

Four inputs. One program written for you.

Your goal

Strength, size, leanness, fitness, life or sport. It sets the phases and rep ranges.

Your week

1 to 7 training days, and how long the cycle runs.

Your strength test

Sets your level per muscle group and the max every load is based on.

Your feedback

A rating on each exercise moves next session's weight.

The ten rules

Dan's rule. What the engine does. What you see.

Rule 1: The 12-week block is the base unit

“An ideal 'minimum' length for a full training cycle is 12 weeks. This is why I have written all of the programs to be 12 weeks in length.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Each week of your training cycle is assigned a phase: Endurance, Hypertrophy, Base Strength, Strength and Power, Max Strength and Power, or Transition. Early weeks carry more reps at lower percentages, later weeks fewer reps at higher ones. Longer cycles are cut into repeating blocks, so 24 weeks is two waves.

What you see

Week 7 · Base Strength

A dated calendar with a phase on each week, and rep ranges that drop as the block moves toward its end.

Rule 2: The wave: hard, very hard, then easy, always

“This 'very hard' workout is always, always, always, followed by a 'very easy' workout. You need to see the big picture.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Every week gets one of seven difficulty levels, from Very Easy to Very Hard, on a map Dan authored. One rule is fixed: after a Very Hard week, the next week can be no harder than Moderately Easy. The deload is built in, so you cannot skip it by feeling good.

What you see

Wk 5 · Easy

A difficulty label on every week. The easy week shows up on your calendar before you reach it, so you can plan around it.

Rule 3: The Leveling System: four programs written at once

“When I write a program I am actually writing 4 different versions of the program at the same time.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Your strength tests are normalized for body weight and sex with the same coefficients powerlifting and weightlifting federations use. Each muscle group lands at one of four levels, and the engine picks the version of the program written for that level: how many exercises, which sets, and which phase you are in that week.

What you see

Upper body · Level 2

A strength level per muscle group in your profile, and fewer exercises when you are starting out, more as you test higher.

Rule 4: Loads come from your own numbers

“If you are relatively new to weight training and your strength is not yet developed your individual program will reflect this.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Every working set is a percentage of your current one-rep max for that exercise, rounded to the smallest plate change it allows. Your max comes from a strength test; untested lifts are derived from tested ones. If you have never tested, you start conservatively.

What you see

3 × 5 @ 185

Weights on the bar, not percentages.

Rule 5: Complete every rep. Change the weight, never the sets

“Very simply, you should be able to get all your reps. If you do a set and you could have easily done 2 or 3 more repetitions then you should increase the weight.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

After a workout you rate each exercise from Too Hard to Too Easy. The rating moves that exercise's max for the next session, by more in a hard week than in an easy one. Sets and reps never change from feedback, because changing them would change what the program is training.

What you see

Too easy · max up

A five-point rating on each exercise after you log it, and a different weight on the same exercise next week.

Rule 6: Each muscle twice a week, one hard day and one easy

“What I have found to be the best training program is one that works each muscle group twice per week. However, one of the training days should be a little easier and one should be hard.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Each day of your week is assigned its muscle groups, each with a stress level. Compound lifts come first and isolation work last. Some exercises appear only in certain weeks or only in hard weeks, so the program rotates across the cycle.

What you see

Chest · Hard / Easy

The same muscle group twice a week at different weights and volume, with compound lifts at the top of every session.

Rule 7: Primary lifts are protected. Assistance work is the dial

“The Primary Strength exercises will follow a more complete periodization model. The Assistance Strength exercises will only go so far.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Express It trims the last set from assistance work first and never trims a primary lift. Power Up adds a set to secondary and assistance work; a primary lift gets more only if you target it yourself.

What you see

Power Up · Express It

Two buttons on every workout. Either way, your squat, bench and deadlift stay as written.

Rule 8: Difficulty is a number

“When you write a program that you want to go hard, for you the hard is a 1.4.”
Dan · Strength Coach Collective, 2023

What the engine does

Every exercise, muscle group and week gets an INOL score, warm-ups included. The scores fall into the same seven difficulty bands as the map, which is how a week labeled Hard is checked to score Hard. Tonnage, calories and time under tension are tracked beside it.

What you see

INOL 1.12 · Hard

An INOL value and difficulty band on each workout and week, so a volume week and a peaking week that both say Hard mean the same thing.

Rule 9: Pick a goal. You cannot train for everything at once

“If you want strength you need to train for strength. If you want size you must train for size.”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Programs are grouped into six goals: Build Strength, Bodybuilding, Get Lean, Optimal Fitness, Programs for Life and Sport Specific, which covers more than a dozen sports. The goal sets the phase sequence, rep ranges and rest periods.

What you see

Goal · Build Strength

You choose a goal first, then a program, then a schedule.

Rule 10: Training has to survive a season, a trip and a bad week

“As long as you are consistent over a long period of time, missing a workout now and then is not going to ruin your progress!”
Dan · Ask Dan

What the engine does

Programs run 1 to 7 days a week, including 2-day in-season versions. Move a workout, swap an exercise for one day or the rest of the cycle, and save a gym profile so swaps stick at a second gym. Completed workouts are never rewritten.

What you see

Hotel gym · DBs to 50

A calendar you can move, a swap button on each exercise, and a gym profile that remembers what each gym has.

Straight answers

What changes your program, and what doesn't yet.

The Wave Engine is rule-based and written by a coach. It adapts to the things it reads, and we only claim the things it reads.

Changes your program

Your strength tests
Your rating on each exercise after you train
Power Up, Express It and exercise swaps

Logged and charted, not used by the engine yet

Daily check-ins: body weight, sleep, resting heart rate
Session effort (RPE)

“The fundamentals of quality movement, conditioning and overall power development are still the foundation of our training philosophy. But, it's cool to now see how aspects of technology can enhance this philosophy.”
Dan Wirth, 2020

Dan directs sports performance for Tennessee's Olympic sports and still designs the programs on this site. Read how he got here.

Read Dan's story Read the INOL guide

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A periodized program written for your level, from your numbers.

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