Individuals: weekly check-ins and how your plan adapts

This article explains how a personal plan changes over time for people using Straton without a coach. For clients of a coach, the coach decides every change.

The short version

Your plan is built once, when you finish setup.
After that it moves a little each week, based on what you logged and what you said in your weekly check-in.
Straton changes one thing at a time, so you can tell what the change did.
Most weeks the change is small. Some weeks nothing changes, and that is normal.

The weekly check-in

When it arrives

On the morning of your last scheduled training day of the week, from 07:00 your local time.
Only if you logged at least two workouts in the previous seven days. With fewer than two, no check-in is sent that week.
It is due 48 hours after it arrives. A missed check-in lapses and the next one arrives the following week.

You get a notification titled “Your weekly check-in is ready”, and a check-in card appears on Home. You can also open it from Profile > Check-ins.

What it asks

The same core questions every week:

energy, sleep, stress outside the gym and hunger between meals, each on a scale of 1 to 5;
how closely you ate to your plan (Most days, About half the days, Hardly at all);
how training felt overall (Too easy, About right, Hard but manageable, Too much);
whether anything hurt beyond normal soreness;
an optional free-text note.

It may add up to two extra questions about something specific that happened in your week. If the week was unremarkable there are none.

It also asks for:

Body metrics. Weight and body fat, plus optional waist, hips, chest, arms and thighs.
Progress photos. Requested on the first check-in and on every second one after that. Photos are optional and need photo consent. You can send the check-in without them.

The check-in is where Straton gets your weight. There is no separate “log weight” screen, and weight from Apple Health is not used to adjust the plan.

When your week turns over, Straton reviews the week and writes next week’s training. You get a notification titled “Your week, reviewed”. Opening it shows a short note explaining what changes next week and why.

The note appears in a card headed “From your coach”. For individuals this note is written by Straton, not a person.

A check-in that has been reviewed can no longer be edited.

How training adapts

Between sessions

Working weights move based on how each lift went:

A lift you finished at the top of its rep range with something left goes up.
A lift where you missed your reps twice comes down.
Lighter exercises add reps first, then weight.

After the last set of a main lift the app may ask “How was that?” with the answers “Had more in me”, “About right” and “Barely finished”. Answering helps these adjustments. It can be skipped.

Each week

The weekly review looks at the sessions you completed against the plan, your answers after main lifts, your check-in, and sleep from Apple Health if connected. It then does one of the following:

What the week looked like	What happens
Not enough information	No change
Low energy and poor sleep, especially two weeks running	A lighter week (deload)
Fewer than about 60% of sessions done	No change. After two such weeks, accessory exercises lose a set each
A lift has stalled, or training felt like too much	A set comes off the stalled lifts, or a lighter week if several lifts stalled
A solid week	An extra set on one or two lifts that are ready for it

Other rules:

If you report pain, weights do not go up until a week passes without it.
If your calories changed that week, training holds steady.
If you swap to the same alternative exercise three sessions in a row, it becomes your main exercise for that slot.

Lighter weeks and blocks

Training runs in six-week blocks. The final week of each block is a lighter week.
A lighter week keeps the same exercises with fewer sets and less effort.
At the end of a block, accessory exercises rotate to an alternative. A main lift is only replaced if it stalled or you wrote about it in a check-in.

How nutrition adapts

Your starting calorie target is an estimate from your setup answers. Once there is enough data, Straton replaces the estimate with a measurement: what you actually ate against how your weight actually moved.

To adjust, Straton needs all of the following:

at least 14 days of data;
food logged on at least 70% of days;
at least six weigh-ins, taken from your weekly check-ins.

The target is reviewed weekly and only changes when the difference is meaningful. Most weeks it stays the same. There is currently no notification when the calorie target changes. The new numbers simply appear on the Nutrition tab.

Calorie and macro targets cannot be edited by hand.

Common questions

I did not get a check-in this week. Check that you logged at least two workouts in the last seven days, and that the day in question is your last training day of the week. Also check that notifications are on. The check-in card on Home appears even if the notification was missed.

My plan did not change after my check-in. That is expected in many weeks. No change usually means the week was on track but nothing was ready to progress, or there was not enough information.

My weights went down. That happens after missed reps on a lift, or during a lighter week. A lighter week is planned at the end of every six-week block and can also be triggered by low energy and poor sleep.

My calories have not changed in weeks. Either the estimate is already close to reality, or there is not enough data. Log food on most days and keep sending check-ins with your weight.

Can I change my goal, training days or equipment? You can update them in Profile > Edit profile. The current plan is not rebuilt immediately. There is no regenerate button today. If the plan no longer fits at all, escalate to the support team.

Can I undo a change the review made? No. You can still swap an exercise during a workout, and you can enter any weight you like when logging a set.