The Vanguard training app
Goals change once you reach them
Your training should too.
It adjusts every set and every week, and says why each time. Built by a private training studio in Vancouver, with every rule it runs cited and graded.
Sample member. Real screens.
How it works
Nothing moves without a reason
One tap a set
Log the weight, the reps and how many you had left. A set on target asks nothing more.
The next set moves
Every load says what it was, what it is and why. Too easy, it climbs. Too hard, it steps back.
The week rebalances
Hard sets are counted per muscle, every week. While your lifts hold or climb, the app adds a set where that muscle has the fewest, and it stops at the redline.
It asks only when it must
One question, and only when a set looks off: reps well short of the plan, or effort far from the target. Something's off is one tap, for pain, equipment, technique or energy.
What changed today
The finish screen lists what moved and why. A change too small to be more than the day is labelled within normal variation, never a gain or a loss.
Every change, kept
Progress keeps every change to your sets per muscle, newest first: what moved, who moved it and why.
Barbell Bench Press
- 3 sets × 8-10 reps
- 2 left
- 120s rest
80 → 82.5kg. 10 on every set last time.
Its own words
Settle, Build, Redline, Reset
Four kinds of week, three words for a muscle’s sets, and the reps you had left on every set. Each word has a “?” beside it in the app: what it is, why the number is what it is, and the source, graded. Every term and its grade.
The weeks of a block
- Settle
- The first week of a block. A touch lighter while the app learns you.
- Build
- Sets and effort go up each week.
- Redline
- The hardest week of the block, on purpose.
- Reset
- A lighter week: fewer sets, lighter loads, well short of failure.
Holding, growing, at redline
- Back6 sets, holding
- Chest14 sets, growing
- Quads20 sets, at redline
Reps left
Reps left target 2
- 0nothing left
- 1one more
- 2two more
- 3+plenty
Six goals
Start with the goal
The first run asks where you train, kilograms or pounds, how many sessions a week and what you are training for. It picks a program from the house shelf and tells you why.
Build muscle · Glutes · 4 a week · A gym
Chosen for build muscle, glutes first, 4 sessions a week, a gym.
- Build muscleTone, shape or size, with the focus where you want it.
- Get strongThe squat, bench, deadlift and press, set from your own estimated max.
- Get leanerLifting the whole way down, with a heavy week held rather than piled on.
- Move better for lifeGetting off the floor, carrying, holding a position under load.
- Build an engineConditioning set per machine, with strength alongside it.
- Train for a raceA run or a hybrid race on the calendar, worked back from race day.
Week one
Bring your numbers, or let the app find them
Every load in your first week comes from your numbers. Before your first session, the app asks how you want to start.
- I know my numbersType the last good set of your main lifts. The first target starts a little under it.
- Find my starting numbersEach lift starts light and builds to a set with two or three reps left. Everything is set from there.
Where you train
Your gym, your home, a hotel
- Up to three places
- Gym, Home and Travelling, each with the equipment it really has. Tell it what is missing and it remembers.
- The session adapts
- Anything a place cannot do is swapped, for that session only, to the closest match for the same muscle. The program itself never changes.
- Areas to protect
- Knees, shoulders or lower back. The app prefers programs that load that area less and tells you how many movements still do. It is not medical screening.
- New to this
- Say so and it starts you on a foundations program, never six days a week. Every movement is demonstrated.
The effort check
One set a block, measured
People tend to have more reps left than they think. So once a block, in Settle week, one machine or dumbbell set goes to your last clean rep. You call two left, keep going, and the app counts the reps after the call. After two checks your own count replaces the guess, and your targets can move up as well as down.
Never on a barbell, never in a Reset week, never on a movement with pain noted. The evidence for it is graded emerging, and the page says why.
Plans
On your own, or with a coach
- Engine$19.99 a month or $199 a year
- The app on its own. The full program, adjusting every set. Every movement demonstrated. Your numbers, always.
- Engine + Coach$249 a month or $2,490 a year
- Everything in Engine, plus a Vanguard coach who writes your block, reads every session, checks in weekly and meets you on video twice a month. Ask about it in the app.
- Train with usIn Vancouver
- Coached sessions at our studio, 420 West Hastings, with the app and your coach between them. The first session, Point Zero, is free.
Training with us in Vancouver? Point Zero, the free first session, or personal training at the studio.
The evidence
Every rule, graded
Of the 13 terms the app explains, three rest on strong evidence, one on moderate, two on emerging, and seven are a coach's call, labelled as one. Where the research is mixed, the grade says so.
- Strong evidence
- A meta-analysis or a position stand.
- Moderate evidence
- A controlled study consistent with one.
- Emerging evidence
- Limited evidence, or elite practice.
- Coach's call
- Practice, labelled as practice. Its sources are background, not proof.
The specifics
- Price
- Engine, the app on its own: $19.99 a month or $199 a year, in Canadian dollars, sales taxes included. The year is two months free.
- Free start
- 14 days, before any charge.
- With a coach
- Engine + Coach adds a Vanguard coach who writes your block, reads every session, checks in weekly and meets you on video twice a month: $249 a month or $2,490 a year. Ask about it in the app.
- Studio members
- The same app, included while you are an active member.
- Where it runs
- In your browser, on a phone, tablet or computer. Add it to your home screen and it opens like any other app. There is no App Store or Google Play download.
- Offline
- It keeps a copy of itself on your phone. Sets logged with no signal wait there and send when you are back.
- Who can buy it
- Plans are sold to people who live in Canada or the United States.
Last updated 29 October 2026, against the live app. Written by the coaching team at Vanguard Performance, Vancouver.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Vanguard app
Try it on your own training
Fourteen days free, then $19.99 a month or $199 a year, in Canadian dollars. In your browser, on any phone or computer. Cancel in the app in two taps.