Hemingway Performance
User manual
How everything works.
Hemingway Performance unifies training, body composition, hormone & peptide protocols, and blood work in one app — so the numbers that drive each other finally live in the same place. This is the full walkthrough of every section, how the AI fits in, and what happens to your data.
Section 1
Your strength dashboard. Every set you log feeds this tab, which turns your raw workout history into the numbers that actually tell you whether you're progressing.
- Current bests & PRs for your main lifts — squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press, and row — detected automatically from logged sets.
- Estimated 1-rep max for each lift, so a 5-rep set and a 3-rep set are comparable on the same scale.
- Strength trend charts — tap any lift to see week-by-week progression.
- Weekly frequency — how many sessions you've hit, week over week.
- Stall detection — flags a lift that hasn't moved so you know where to push.
Section 2
Where you build your training programs and run live sessions. This is the daily-driver part of the app.
- Program builder — create multi-day programs, pick exercises from a 123-movement library, reorder them, and set your rep ranges.
- Live session logging — start a day, log sets with smart weight pre-fill (it remembers what you lifted last time), and tick sets off as you go.
- Rest timer with per-exercise memory and quick −15 / +15 second adjustments.
- Muscle map — a body diagram lights up to show what each exercise trains, in two shades for primary and secondary muscles.
- Focus mode — a clean full-screen view during a session with nothing but the work in front of you.
- Session summary on finish, with PR detection and total volume.
✦ AI program generator
Describe what you want — days per week, equipment, goals — and the AI drafts a structured program you can edit and save. You stay in control: nothing is locked, and you can change any exercise, set, or rep range before using it.
Section 3
Your body composition over time. Log it by hand or let it flow in automatically, and watch the trends rather than chasing a single day's number.
- Full composition picture — weight, body fat %, muscle mass, lean mass, visceral fat, BMR, body water, bone mass and more.
- Automatic sync — pull weight and body comp from Apple Health and supported smart scales (including Withings body-comp scales) so you don't key it in.
- Segmental analysis — arm / leg / torso breakdown from compatible scales.
- Manual entry or DEXA / scale XLSX import on the web dashboard for the most complete data.
- Trend charts — tap any metric to open its history; each card shows where the reading came from and when.
✦ AI body-comp summary
On demand, the AI reads your recent composition trend and writes a plain-language summary of what's moving and what's holding steady — framed around lifestyle and training, not medical advice. It's cached so it doesn't re-run on every visit.
Section 4
A readiness read built from the signals your Apple Watch already collects. It tells you whether your body is recovered enough to push, or whether to back off.
- Readiness score (0–100) and band — a weighted blend of HRV (40%), resting heart rate (30%), sleep (20%) and blood-oxygen (10%). If a signal is missing, the others rebalance.
- Acute signals grid — your HRV and resting-HR change vs. your 7-day baseline, sleep band, and SpO₂.
- 7-day sparklines for HRV, resting HR and sleep so you can see the direction of travel.
- Chronic load — sessions this week, days since your last workout, and weekly training volume.
- Sleep quality band — shown as Good / Fair / Poor rather than a misleadingly precise number.
This is computed on your device from Apple Health data — there's no AI call and nothing leaves the app for the readiness score itself.
Recovery needs an Apple Watch (or compatible device) writing HRV, heart rate and sleep into Apple Health — without that data the readiness score can't be calculated.
Section 5
Track your hormone and peptide protocols the way they actually work — by weekly total, dosing days, and cycle position — with reminders so you don't miss a dose.
- Smart dosing setup — enter a weekly total or a per-injection dose and the app works out the schedule, split, and dosing days.
- Cycle tracking — countdowns for cycle-on / cycle-off windows and titration steps.
- Reconstitution math — work out concentration and how much to draw, so the calculator does the arithmetic instead of you.
- Vial / BAC water tracking — open-date and expiry so you know when a bottle is past its window.
- Dosing reminders — local notifications on your dosing days that re-arm automatically.
Important: Protocols is a tracking and reminder tool only. It records what you choose to enter and does the arithmetic you ask it to. It does not recommend compounds, doses, or protocols, and nothing in the app is medical advice. Decisions about what you take belong with you and your clinician.
Section 6
Turn a lab PDF into tracked, trendable markers without typing anything in by hand.
- PDF import — upload a lab report (Labcorp, Quest and similar) and the app reads the markers out of it.
- Every draw, kept — each panel is stored so you can compare draws over time.
- Colour-coded ranges — values flagged green / amber / red against the lab's reference range.
- Trend arrows — see at a glance whether a marker is moving in the right direction since your last draw.
- Organised panels — markers grouped into Metabolic, CBC, Liver, Lipids, hormones and more.
✦ AI marker extraction & synopsis
The PDF is read on your device, then the marker extraction and an optional plain-language synopsis run through the AI. The synopsis describes what your markers are doing in lifestyle and trend terms — it is explicitly not a diagnosis and won't tell you to change a dose or a medication. Always confirm anything that matters with the lab report itself and your clinician.
Section 7
The AI in Hemingway Performance is there to save you typing and to turn your own numbers into something readable — never to make decisions for you. Here's exactly where it shows up and how it's handled.
Where it's used:
- Program generation (Workouts) — drafts an editable training program from your description.
- Body-comp summary (Body) — a short read on your composition trend, on demand.
- Post-workout summary (Workouts) — an optional recap of the session you just finished.
- Blood-work extraction & synopsis (Blood) — pulls markers out of your PDF and describes the trend.
How your data is handled:
- AI features run server-side through our backend — the app sends only the specific data needed for that feature (e.g. the markers from one lab draw, or your recent body-comp readings).
- We use Anthropic's Claude models via API. Anthropic does not train its models on data sent through the API.
- AI output is generated fresh each time and isn't used to build a profile of you beyond your own stored records.
- Every AI feature is opt-in by action — it runs when you tap the button, not silently in the background.
- The Recovery readiness score uses no AI at all — it's calculated on your device.
Not medical advice. Every AI feature is constrained to lifestyle, training and trend commentary. It does not diagnose, does not interpret results clinically, and will not recommend or adjust doses, compounds or medications. Hemingway Performance is a personal tracking tool, not a medical device — always consult a qualified clinician for medical decisions.
Section 8
You're trusting the app with sensitive information — blood work, protocols, body data. Here's the short version of how that's treated.
It's yours, and it's isolated
Everything is stored against your private account. Your data is never visible to other users, and it's never sold or used for advertising.
Encrypted & access-controlled
Traffic is encrypted in transit, data is encrypted at rest, and every request is checked against your session before any of your records are touched.
Health data stays on your terms
Apple Health data is read only with your permission and only for the metrics you allow. You can revoke access in iOS Settings at any time.
Export or delete, any time
You can download all of your data as a file, or permanently delete your account and everything in it, from your Profile — no email required.