Features
Train around people, not an audience
MuscleBuddy's social layer is built around the training, not the performance of it. A feed of workouts, PRs, and rank-ups from lifters you follow. Discovery that surfaces people who train where you train. Challenges you can race together. It's the community behind the ranks and leaderboards.
Follow who you want. Nothing to approve, nothing to chase.
Following someone takes one tap: no request, no waiting for them to accept. They don't have to follow you back for you to see their training, and you don't owe anyone a follow because they gave you one.
Who you follow decides what's in your feed, and it decides who you're ranked against when you narrow a leaderboard from global down to people you follow. That's a peer group you assembled on purpose, which is worth more than a global board you'll never crack.
Blocking is mutual and immediate. It hides the relationship in both directions, pulls existing posts and comments out of view, and stops any new follows, likes, or comments between the two accounts.
A feed for the training you're actually doing
Your feed carries posts from people you follow, plus your own: finished workouts, new PRs, meals, check-ins, progress photos, rank-ups, achievements, challenge milestones. The celebration posts MuscleBuddy writes for you (a rank-up, a PR) are deduplicated on the server, so a win posts exactly once no matter how many times a flaky connection retries.
Posts take likes, comments (one level of replies, where a reply to a reply lands in the same thread rather than disappearing into a nest), and reposts. Every post is public or followers-only, and you choose which as you write it.
Report and block controls sit on every post and comment. A single report doesn't disappear anything; once three separate people report the same thing it's hidden automatically, and it goes to an admin queue for review. Something hidden that shouldn't be can be put back.
Discovery: lifters you might actually recognize
Search finds people by display name. Suggestions do more work than that: they rank on the gyms you've both saved, on how many people you already follow who follow them, and on the challenges you're both running right now. The result is people you'd plausibly nod to on a Tuesday, not a wall of strangers with big numbers.
Anyone you've blocked, or who has blocked you, never appears.
Community challenges you can race together
Challenges give the community something to chase together: opt in, hit the target inside your window, and track where you stand against everyone else running it. A typical one asks you to log a qualifying day (a check-in and at least one logged meal, same calendar day) across most of a 30-day window, with a workout floor so it rewards real training, not just check-ins.
From time to time MuscleBuddy runs a limited promotional challenge with its own reward; when one is live, you'll see it in the app with its exact terms and deadline.
Frequently asked
- Is the social feed free, or behind the Pro tier?
- The feed, following, discovery, challenges, and leaderboards are all free. None of the community layer is Pro-gated.
- Can I control who sees my posts?
- Yes. Each post is public or followers-only, decided as you write it. You can hide a post afterward, or delete it outright, at any time.
- Does someone have to follow me back?
- No. Following is one-way and takes effect immediately; there's no request to approve. Follow whoever you want to see; nobody is obliged to follow you back.
- What happens if I block someone?
- Blocking cuts both directions at once: neither account can see, follow, like, or comment on the other, and existing posts and comments between you drop out of view.
- What happens when I report a post?
- It goes to an admin review queue. One report never hides anything on its own: a post or comment is hidden automatically once three separate people report it, and an admin can restore it.
- How do the community challenges work?
- Opt in to a challenge, then hit its target inside your window, typically logging a qualifying day (a check-in plus at least one meal on the same calendar day) across most of a 30-day run, with a workout floor so it rewards real training. Your window runs from your own opt-in date. When a limited promotional challenge is live, you'll see its exact terms, reward, and deadline in the app.
Find your training community
The feed, follows, discovery, and challenges are free. The whole community layer is. Ranks, streaks, and leaderboards live on the gamification page.