Build your own program

Starting a new program

Open the Programs tab and choose Create a program. If you've saved any routines, Durata first asks which way you want to build: Start From Scratch, or From My Routines — turning the sessions you already have into a weekly plan. With no saved routines it skips the question and goes straight to the from-scratch setup.

Start From Scratch opens a short setup sheet that defines the shape of the program before you add any exercises. Nothing here is permanent; you can change all of it later, so don't overthink the first pass. The two required fields are a program name and at least one training day — everything else has a sensible default. Give it a name you'll recognise (for example 'My Push / Pull / Legs'), and the builder does the rest of the scaffolding for you.

From My Routines: a program from sessions you already have

If your training already lives in a handful of saved routines, you don't need to rebuild them day by day. Choose From My Routines and one sheet does the whole job: name the program, tap the routines to include, and pick each one's training day — or several days, if a session should repeat across the week (a cardio session on Wednesday and Friday, say). Durata defaults to the day the routine usually runs where it can, and the next free day otherwise. Set the cycle length in weeks and whether it repeats, then hit Create Program.

The program is built from copies of your sessions — the originals stay untouched in My Routines, so editing the program later never rewrites the routine you started from. Cycles longer than a week start as copies of week 1. You land straight in the builder afterwards, where you can tweak individual weeks, add progression or move days around like any other custom program.

The same picker works on a program you already have: open the program's builder and tap From My Routines to bulk-add saved routines into the week you're viewing, each with its own training day or days. Or start from the routine instead — Copy to Program on a routine's menu copies it into any program you pick, with the days chosen as part of the flow (your routine's preferred days come pre-selected).

Setting it up

The setup sheet has five things to set. Program name is how it appears in your library. Experience level — Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced — is a label that helps you and others place the program later. Goal picks the training bias: Strength, Powerbuilding, Hypertrophy, Aesthetic, Athletic, Powerlifting or Fat Loss. Training days are the days of the week you'll train in week one — pick as many as your split needs, and the builder creates one session for each. Length in weeks sets how long a cycle runs before it repeats or ends.

There's also a Recurring toggle. Leave it on for an ongoing program that loops week after week (most strength and hypertrophy plans), or turn it off for a fixed-length block that finishes after its final week — useful for a set peaking or fat-loss phase. Tap Create program and the builder opens with an empty session for each training day you chose.

Adding exercises to each day

Each training day starts as an empty session. Open a day and add exercises from the full library — search by name, and every exercise brings its how-to video and form notes with it. For each exercise you set the number of sets and the target reps, just as you would in the logger. Order them how you'll actually perform them: compounds first, accessories after.

As you build, Durata shows live balance charts of how much work each muscle group is getting across the program, so you can spot an over- or under-trained area before you ever run it — a push-heavy week with no pulling shows up immediately. Add, remove and reorder freely until each day looks right; nothing is logged yet, so this is a safe space to experiment.

Turning on automatic progression

This is what separates a program from a plain list of exercises. For each exercise you can attach a progression rule, and Durata then works out the next target for you every session. Linear progression adds a set amount each session — the classic beginner driver. Double progression has you add reps within a range first, then increase the weight and drop the reps back down — ideal for accessory and hypertrophy work. Training-max percentage runs the exercise off a percentage of a training max, the model behind percentage-based strength programs. Or leave an exercise on no progression if you'd rather drive it by feel.

Once progression is set, running your program feels exactly like running a built-in one: you open the session, the weights are already filled in based on last time and the rule, you lift, and next session's targets update automatically. You built the plan; the app handles the arithmetic of getting stronger at it.

Running and editing it

When the program is ready, start it — it becomes your active program, schedules its sessions and shows up on your dashboard like any catalog plan. From there you just train: open each day's session, log your sets, and Durata advances the weights for the next time according to the rules you set. Your logged history is kept whatever you change.

Nothing is locked in. You can edit any day, swap exercises, adjust sets, reps or progression, add or remove training days, or change the length at any point — the program updates without losing your progress. Build a rough first version, run it for a few weeks, and refine it as you learn what fits. That's the advantage of building your own: it bends to you instead of the other way round.