Features
Phases you set the rules for, not ones MuscleBuddy assumes
Bulk, cut, maintenance, recomposition, and peak week are common frameworks, but the specifics are genuinely debated. MuscleBuddy gives you the structure, the auto-transitions, and the tools; you and your coach set the parameters to match your own philosophy.
Phases that transition themselves
Define a phase with a start date, an end date, and calorie and macro targets. When a phase ends, MuscleBuddy updates your targets to the next one automatically, no manual switch to remember. Rate-of-change targets are configurable per phase rather than hardcoded, so a cut you're running slow and a cut you're running aggressive are both just settings.
Every phase you've run stays in a full history: the timeline, the dates, and what happened while you were in it. Looking back at how a bulk or a cut actually went is built in, not something you have to reconstruct from memory.
Carb cycling, refeeds, and reverse dieting, off by default
These three are actively debated approaches, so MuscleBuddy ships them as configurable tools it doesn't push on you. All three default off; you or your coach turn them on if you use them.
Carb cycling assigns high, medium, and low carb targets across the week, mapped to days of the week or to training versus rest days, with fully configurable ratios and no prescribed formula. The meal plan generator respects whatever mapping you set. Refeed days, one-off or recurring, bring in elevated calorie and carb targets for a day, with the frequency, duration, and size entirely yours to configure, and they show up on your phase timeline like any other phase event. Reverse dieting walks calories back up in a configurable weekly increment (50 kcal a week is a common starting point) toward a maintenance endpoint you set, with progress tracked and charted against that target as you go.
Contest prep, timed backward from your show date
Enter a show date and MuscleBuddy works backward to build the phase timeline automatically: off-season, early prep, peak week, and show day. A stage weight estimate comes from your current weight and body fat, and the show date countdown sits on your dashboard the whole way through.
Peak week itself is a protocol, water, sodium, and carbohydrate manipulation scheduled day by day, and MuscleBuddy provides the planner, not the protocol. Your coach defines the numbers; the app builds the schedule and shows it to you. Posing practice reminders can run on whatever frequency you set, and a contest prep update, your show countdown or a phase change, is shareable to the social feed if you want it there.
Phases in a system, not on their own
A phase transition doesn't just move a target in isolation. Rate of change compares against the same weigh-in trend that drives Nutrition's day-to-day adjustments, and reverse dieting and carb cycling both hand their day-by-day targets straight to the meal planner, so a phase change reshapes your week without you rebuilding it.
An aggressive cut or a contest prep peak week is exactly the stretch where the other two modules earn their keep. Training's reactive deload logic reads the same stall signal a hard cut can produce, so a phase pushing harder than your body is recovering from shows up there too, not just on the scale. Health's recovery context, from vitals and HRV if you're logging them, explains what a phase is actually costing you. And when a week's numbers don't add up, a missed dose, a flare, an appointment that ate your training time, Upkeep's medication and appointment cadence is often the reason, logged right alongside the phase instead of living in a separate notes app.
Frequently asked
- Are carb cycling and refeeds on by default?
- No. Both default off, along with reverse dieting. MuscleBuddy provides the tool without pushing an opinion on whether you should use it; you or your coach turn each one on.
- Does MuscleBuddy tell me what my macros should be during a cut?
- No, it gives you the structure to set your own rate of change and targets per phase, and the tools to run carb cycling, refeeds, or reverse dieting if you choose to. The specifics of what a phase should target are between you and your coach.
- How does contest prep build the timeline?
- From your show date backward: off-season, early prep, peak week, and show day. The peak week protocol itself, the water, sodium, and carb schedule, is something your coach defines; the app builds and displays the schedule.
- What happens when a phase ends?
- Your targets update to the next phase automatically on the end date you set. Nothing carries over by accident, and the phase you just finished stays in your history.
- Can I run reverse dieting after a cut?
- Yes. Set a weekly calorie increment and a maintenance endpoint, and MuscleBuddy tracks and charts your progress toward it as calories climb back up.
Phases that run on your rules, on schedule
Configurable bulk, cut, maintenance, recomp, and contest prep, with the auto-transitions handled for you.