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From the build log of an AI coach that learns what you can lift and tells you exactly what to do next.

Jun 21 2026

one thing got done: The coach now actually uses your gym machines. Tap any of these to read the whole thing.

The coach now actually uses your gym machines

We'd taught the app to capture gym machines (even custom ones), but the coach still wasn't reliably using them.

Shipped
the problem

We'd taught the app to capture gym machines (even custom ones), but the coach still wasn't reliably using them. Two gaps: several machines had no matching exercises in the coach's catalogue, so they were dead weight; and when the coach occasionally picked an exercise needing gear you don't have, the app just shrugged and let it through.

what I changed

Added proper exercises for the machines that were missing them (rear-delt / reverse fly, assisted dip and pull-up, hip-thrust machine, calf-raise machine, T-bar row), so every machine you can list now maps to at least one real exercise. And the coach now strictly sticks to your equipment: if it ever prescribes something you can't do, the app drops that exercise, with a firm safety rule that it will never hand you an empty workout (bodyweight moves always count). The retry message the coach sends itself on a slip-up now uses the same clear equipment names.

how I tested it

Built the whole app and ran the new tests, 6 of them covering the enforcement, including the "never empty a session" safety rule and a custom machine being allowed. (One note for me: the build agent stalled partway, so I finished and verified this slice by hand, including fixing a Swift concurrency error it left.)

Shipped, PR 536, the last slice of the onboarding overhaul (527). That completes the whole overhaul: new welcome flow, injuries, manual equipment + presets, the camera removed, and the coach now reliably using your machines.