Streaks and ranks that reward real progress

13-level XP system, from Newbie to Legend

XP accrues for actions the platform can measure: completing a workout session, logging a full day of meals, hitting a new PR, posting a check-in, joining and finishing a challenge. The XP-to-level curve is exponential — each level requires more total XP than the last, with the multiplier scaling roughly with the 1.8 power of the level number.

The thirteen levels run Newbie, Beginner, Rookie, Novice, Intermediate, Trained, Advanced, Expert, Elite, Master, Grandmaster, Champion, and Legend. The earliest levels come quickly — you'll cross the first two or three in a single solid training week — but climbing past Intermediate takes consistent months. Legend, the cap, requires the kind of long-term consistency you only see in people who genuinely train year-round.

Your level shows on your profile, your social feed posts, and any leaderboard you appear on. It's a portable signal of training maturity that other lifters can recognize at a glance.

Per-muscle ranks computed from your actual lift data

Beyond global XP, MuscleBuddy ranks you separately per muscle group: chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, forearms, quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, abs, and traps. Each muscle gets its own rank tier — Wood, Stone, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, or Legend — based on a weighted composite of three factors: training frequency over the last 12 weeks (30%), accumulated volume normalized for body weight (40%), and rate of consistent progression on the lifts that hit that muscle (30%).

This decomposition surfaces imbalances that a single global stat would hide. You can be Gold on chest and Iron on hamstrings, and the dashboard tells you exactly where the gap is. Coaches use the per-muscle ranks during program reviews to decide which lifts need more volume and which can be trimmed back.

Ranks are recomputed on demand from your training data — there's no opaque scoring server. The math is in `@musclebuddy/engine` and the same inputs always produce the same outputs.

Five nutrition rank types, all data-driven

Nutrition ranks work the same way training ranks do, but along five dimensions: overall nutrition, protein adherence, supplement consistency, body composition tracking, and health tracking. Each lands on the same Wood-through-Legend tier scale used elsewhere.

Overall nutrition combines three signals: how many days in the last month you logged food (adherence), how close your daily calories matched your target on the days you did log (consistency), and how close your protein hit its target (protein score). The weights are 40/35/25 respectively. Protein gets its own dedicated rank because hitting it consistently is the single biggest predictor of body-composition change.

Supplement consistency, body composition (regular weigh-ins and measurements), and health tracking (bloodwork, vitals, check-ins) round out the picture. The five ranks make it obvious which side of your nutrition + recovery stack is strong and which needs attention. Coaches see all five in their client dashboard and can target interventions at the weakest dimension.

Streaks, challenges, and leaderboards

Daily streaks reward consistency in the most basic sense — logging in, logging a workout, hitting your macros. Miss a day and your streak ends, but you get one streak freeze per month to cover an emergency. The freeze is a deliberate feature, not a hack: real training has rest days and life events, and the platform shouldn't punish you for them.

Challenges are scoped competitions other lifters can opt into — squat a target percentage of body weight in a window, train every muscle group at least twice a week for a month, hit a body-weight target. Participants progress against the same scoring rule, the leaderboard updates as data comes in, and rewards are XP-based.

Leaderboards run global by default, but you can also scope them by muscle group, gym (for GymOrg members), or your friend graph. The friend graph is real and bidirectional — there's no follower asymmetry — so leaderboards among friends actually reflect a peer group, not an audience.

Frequently asked

Is gamification free, or behind the Pro tier?

XP, levels, muscle ranks, streaks, leaderboards, and challenges are all available on the Free tier. Some advanced social features and the nutrition ranks (which require logged food) need the Pro tier because they depend on nutrition tracking.

Can I turn off gamification?

Yes. Hide your XP, ranks, and leaderboard position from your profile and feed. The engine still computes them — useful if you decide to opt back in later — but nothing displays.

How is XP earned?

XP is awarded for verifiable actions: completed workouts, full days of food logging, PRs, check-ins, joining and finishing challenges. Opening the app does not award XP.

How are muscle ranks calculated?

A weighted composite of training frequency over the last 12 weeks (30%), accumulated volume normalized for body weight (40%), and rate of consistent progression (30%). The result lands on a 9-tier scale from Wood to Legend.

Do leaderboards show my real name?

Display names are configurable. You can use your real name, a handle, or hide from leaderboards entirely. Privacy defaults to handles, not real names.