Rep Ladder

Guide

Source · upload repladder.min.js to the watch · Open in emulator · All faces

A progression coach for your wrist, for push-ups, pull-ups, planks or any exercise you count in reps or hold for time. Each session splits the work into sets, paces them with beeps at every work and rest change, and counts down to the next set (or through a hold), so if you finish a set early you can see how long you have before the next one starts.

The face holds five slots, one per exercise. In each slot you choose reps or a hold and the last level, always one set: 1 × 50 pull-ups, 1 × 100 push-ups, a single 5:00 plank. The slot works out a ladder of levels that climbs to it, and remembers your level. Level numbers only mean something within their own slot.

Each slot runs in one of two modes, picked by LEVEL:

• Ladder (LEVEL 1 and up, the default): LEVEL picks the whole session from the slot's ladder. After each session the face offers the next level, a small step: a couple more reps, a little less rest, or one fewer set. A steps up, L stays put.
• Manual (LEVEL 0, shown as oFF): no ladder and no offer. Count (the LASt field becomes Count), SEtS, PACE and LEn are the session itself.

Slots

The face ships with five identical slots, SLOt 1 to SLOt 5: reps, last level 1 × 50, 5 starting sets, PACE 3, 10:00, level 1 (5 sets of 15 reps). Name and preset your own in local.json. Some ladders, for example:

The ladder

Every ladder climbs in three stretches, then ends at one set of the top total:

1. Add reps. Starting sets stay fixed while the total grows from the easiest valid session to the top. Reps drop by one per set, so 5 sets start at 15 reps (5+4+3+2+1). The total grows by 1 rep per level, or more for big tops (Count ÷ 50, rounded up: +2 for 100). Holds start at 10 s per hold and grow 1 s per hold per level.
2. Cut rest. The total stays at the top while the session gets 15 s shorter per level, down to 30 s of rest between sets. Thirty seconds is about one refill half-time for the muscle's fast energy store (phosphocreatine), inside the ACSM's ≤90 s range for endurance training; shorter, the next set is mostly a continuation of the last.
3. Drop a set. One fewer set, the session time resets, and the rest cuts start again, down to 2 sets.

The last level is one set of the top total with no rest: Count × PACE, or the whole hold.

Key rungs of those three:

You never have to guess where to start: scroll LEVEL and the screen previews each level's sets and total, so stop at what you can do today.

Changing LASt, SEtS, PACE, LEn or TYPE on a level reshapes the ladder. LASt can't go below the ladder's easiest session, the level moves down if the ladder got shorter, and a change that would make the ladder longer than 999 levels wraps that field back to its minimum. Every level runs.

Reps split into declining sets; when the total doesn't divide evenly, the extra reps go to the first sets (100 in 4 sets → 27, 26, 24, 23). Holds are equal (5:00 in 4 holds → 75 s each). Rest is split evenly between sets, with none after the last.

Buttons

Screen

Each edit field and control shows its word for 1 s, or until the next press. The LCD can't draw a V, so LEVEL reads LEUEL; the others are LASt, Count, SEtS, PACE, LEn, PAUSE, rESEt and Error. At the last level and at level 0, the finish has no offer.

Sounds

• Short high beeps at 5-4-3-2-1 for the lead-in.
• One beep at each work ↔ rest change, including set 1 starting.
• beepbeepbeep at the end, for 10 s (5 s on another face).

Off screen

Forge only wakes a background face once a minute, so a change while you're on another face beeps at the next minute tick (one beep, however many changes were missed). The face shows the right time when you come back.

local.json

Forge has no storage yet, so on-watch edits last until the watch reboots or the face is uploaded; then the built-in slots come back. To keep your own, bake them into a personal build with a local.json (see All faces):

{"repladder": {"profile": 0, "profiles": [
  {"name": "PUSH", "sets": 5, "top": 100, "pace": 3, "base": 600, "level": 39},
  {"name": "PULL", "top": 50, "base": 360},
  {"name": "PLAnK", "hold": 1, "top": 300}
]}}

profiles replaces the whole list of slots (as many as fit the 8158-byte limit). Each needs a name (up to 6 LCD characters); the rest default to hold: 0, sets: 5, top: 50, pace: 3, base: 600, level: 1. top is the last level (seconds for a hold) and base is LEn in seconds. profile picks the slot the face boots on, counting from 0. A misspelled key, a nameless profile or a profile past the list fails the build.

Level numbers changed when the ladder became computed (the old fixed ladder had level 45 at 90 push-ups; on the push-up ladder above that's now about level 39), so set your level again after upgrading.