Bar Loader

Plates for every barbell load. Support and contact.

Common questions

The app won't make the weight I typed

Some totals cannot be made with the plates you have switched on, because both ends of the bar have to match. Bar Loader tells you the nearest load below and above, and offers to switch on any plate size that would make your number exact. It will never draw a bar that does not add up to what you asked for.

My gym doesn't have all the plates

Tap any plate size to switch it off and the app works around it. The 1.25 kg starts switched off, because it is not part of a standard Olympic set. Switch it on if you have them.

What is "minimise large plate changes"?

Ordinarily each set is loaded with the fewest plates that make the number. Turn this on and the whole session is planned at once instead, so plates of 10 kg and up stay where they are between sets. Coming down from 140 to 120 to 100 it loads the first bar with four plates rather than three, which turns both drops into plain removals instead of a swap. Less counting, less time at the rack.

Why is one of my rep maxes orange?

Because nobody lifted it. Orange, italic, a dashed border and the word ESTIMATE all mean the same thing: the app worked that number out from what you have recorded rather than reading it off something you did. A number you actually lifted sits upright, in plain ink, with the date you set it. The app will never quietly present a guess as a measurement, because what it tells you goes on a bar.

How are estimates worked out?

Two things argue for the number and the larger one wins: the Epley formula applied to your fewest-rep record, and anything you have actually lifted for more reps than the one being estimated. The second is a floor rather than a guess — a bar that went up five times will go up three times.

Can I see the bar from across the gym?

Turn the phone on its side in the loader or in a workout. You get the bar, the weight and almost nothing else, big enough to read from the platform. The screen stays awake while that view is up, and only while it is up.

Will it work without a signal?

Always. Bar Loader has no internet connection at all. It does not sign you in, does not collect anything, and does not send anything anywhere.

How do I get my lifts back?

Everything lives on your phone and nowhere else, which is the honest trade for collecting nothing. Deleting the app deletes your records with it.

Found a bug?

Please say what weight you typed, which bar, which plate sizes you had switched off, and what it showed you. That is almost always enough to find it.