How to... | Always Gaining Muscle Software

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How to...

Getting Started
Once the AlwaysGaining program is installed and running, you will see some sample data displayed on the graph. This is always shown when there is no real data to use, so you need to enter your own exercise data.

Tell AlwaysGaining what exercises you do.
Add data for an exercise.
Update exercise data.
Delete an old exercise data point.
Interpret the results.

Once you have entered some exercises and some data for those exercises, select Save As from the File menu. You can then specify the filename (and location) to be used for your data.

When you next use AlwaysGaining, the first thing you need to do is to open this data file by selecting the Open option from the File menu (or click the button with a folder).

Add An Exercise
AlwaysGaining stores a list of the exercises you have told it about. You can use any name you like, but of course it is normal to use obvious names like "Bench Press".

You can add an exercise at any time, and you can add all of the exercises before any exercise data, or you can enter each exercise followed by its data - whatever suits you.

To add an exercise, select the Add Exercise option from the Actions menu, or click the Add exercise button.

Enter a name for the new exercise in the box, and click OK.

Add Exercise Data
Once AlwaysGaining has been told aboutat least one exercise that you do, you need to start telling it about your performance to date.

To enter exercise data, select the Edit Exercise Data option from the Actions menu, or click the Edit Exercise Data button (with the keyboard icon).

This will show the Enter Data window.

Enter one of the weights that use you for this exercise. It can be in pounds, kilograms or any other unit - it does not matter, as long as you use the same units through out an exercise. Just enter the number, not the units e.g. 250 or 15.5 .

Enter the number of repetitions that you have managed with this weight. This must be a whole number between 1 and 40.

Click OK to enter the data, or Cancel to close the Window without making the change.

Use the same screen to Edit or Delete existing data points.

Change Exercise Data
As your exercises improve, you will need to change the data points for an exercise.

Sometimes you will move to a new weight, so you will add a new data point just as you did when you started.

Sometimes, you will increase the number of reps with a weight you were using before.

To change exercise data, select the Edit Exercise Data option from the Actions menu, or click the Edit Exercise Data button (with the keyboard icon).

This will show the Enter Data window again.

Now, enter the old weight, but the new reps, and click OK. This will replace the old number of reps with the new.

If you have stopped using a weight, you will want to delete it, or it will keep showing on the graphs, and will probably get selected as the weight you need to improve most.

Delete An Exercise Data Point
When you outgrow a weight, you will need to delete it, or it will keep showing on the graphs, and the system will probably keep suggesting that you exercise at this weight.

To delete a weight, select the Edit Exercise Data option from the Actions menu, or click the Edit Exercise Data button (with the keyboard icon).

This will show the Enter Data window again.

Now just enter the weight, and click Delete. You can leave the Repetitions box empty - it is the weight that matters.

View The Results
AlwaysGaining will show your data in two ways.

Select By Weight from the View menu, or click the Weight button

This will show a graph organized with increasing weight from left to right.

Select By Reps from the View menu, or click the Reps button

This will show a graph organized with increasing repetitions from left to right.

For either graph, the area most in need of improvement is shown at the bottom of the screen.

If you click on any one bar, until just that bar is selected, the details of the weight, reps and target for that bar is shown in the status bar at the bottom of the AlwaysGaining application.