Support

Vorbild is an iPhone app for planning and logging weight training. You write your own progression rules as plain sentences, and the app applies them each session.

If you are reporting a problem, it helps enormously to include your iPhone model, your iOS version, the Vorbild version from the app's settings screen, and what you were doing when it went wrong. Screenshots are welcome.

Requirements

Device

iPhone. Vorbild is built for the phone and is not available for iPad or Apple Watch.

System

iOS 17 or later.

Units

Kilograms. There is no pounds option yet.

Language

English.

Connection

Only to share a workout by link, or to open one someone sent you. Everything else works fully offline.

Common questions

Can I bring my history over from another app?

No. There is no import from Hevy, Strong or anywhere else, and no export out of Vorbild yet either. You start with an empty log.

That is a real cost and worth weighing before you switch. Most people do it at the start of a new training block, when they are rewriting their routines anyway.

What does it cost?

Vorbild is free at the moment. No subscription, no in-app purchases, nothing to cancel.

Can I change what it suggests?

Always. Every number the app proposes is a starting point with a minus and a plus either side of it. Change it, and the app logs what you actually did — it will not re-impose the suggestion or treat the difference as a failure. A rule can also be skipped for one session without switching it off.

Where is my training data stored?

In the app's private container on your iPhone, as ordinary files. There is no account, and nothing is uploaded in the background. The one exception is a workout you choose to share by link — see the next question. Your sessions never leave the phone. The privacy policy has the full picture.

What happens when I share a workout?

The app uploads that one workout — with each exercise's weight step and the weights you have used on it, but none of your sessions — and the name you set in its settings to our server, and gives you a link. Anyone with the link can open it for 24 hours; after that it is dead for everyone. We keep what was shared for two years, then delete it. The privacy policy has the details.

How do I back it up, and how do I move to a new iPhone?

Vorbild's data is included in your iPhone backup. If you use iCloud Backup, or an encrypted backup to a Mac or PC, restoring that backup onto a new phone brings your workouts, your log and your rules with it.

Because everything is stored on the device, an unbacked-up phone that is lost or wiped takes your training history with it. That is the trade for there being no account, and it is worth checking that iCloud Backup is switched on. A shared link is not a backup: it holds one workout for a day, never your log.

Does it sync between devices?

Not at the moment. One phone holds the log, and there is no account and nothing that syncs behind the app today — the link service holds a shared workout for a day, not your data. If that changes in a later version, it will be said here and in the privacy policy before it ships.

Does Vorbild tell me what to train?

No, and that is on purpose. It does not prescribe exercises, rep ranges or programmes, and it does not rank training styles. It runs the progression rules you wrote, and reports what you actually lifted. Vorbild is a planning and tracking tool, not a coach and not a medical device — if you want training or health advice, ask a qualified professional.

How do the planner rules work?

A rule is a sentence you assemble from clause boxes: a when, a then next time, and optionally an unless. The app shows the finished sentence back to you, and can run your whole rule stack forward so you can see what it would do over the coming sessions before you rely on it.

Can I switch off records and challenges?

Yes — every progress signal is configurable and every one can be turned off. Anything you have not configured simply shows you the numbers without comment.

I would like a refund.

Vorbild is free at the moment, so there is nothing to refund. Should that change, purchases are handled by Apple, so refunds go through Apple rather than us. Use reportaproblem.apple.com with the Apple Account you bought with. Tell us what went wrong too, if you would — it is the most useful feedback there is.

I have a feature request.

Send it. Vorbild is a small, deliberately narrow app and most things will be declined to keep it that way, but requests genuinely shape what gets built next — especially ones that describe the problem you hit rather than the feature you imagined.