# How to log a workout as you train

_Using the app · 29 September 2026 · 4 min read · By The MapYourGym Team_

> Using the MapYourGym workout player: logging sets, adding warm-up and drop sets, the rest timer, and coming back to a session you stepped away from.

Everything so far has been about choosing a session. This is the part you use while you are actually training, one exercise at a time, with your phone in your hand between sets.

## Checking in

Tap Start workout and, if you have not already checked in, the app asks whether you want to. Checking in is what powers the people here right now count that everyone at your gym can see, and it takes one tap. It is entirely optional and Not now does exactly what it says.

![A prompt reading Check in first, explaining that checking in powers the people here right now count, with Not now and Check in buttons.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/01-check-in.png)

## One exercise at a time

The player shows you one exercise, not the whole list. At the top is your running time and total weight lifted. Under the exercise name are its numbers - sets, reps and rest - and four buttons worth knowing:

- Map - shows you where this machine is on your gym's floor plan.
- History - what you lifted on this exercise last time.
- Swap - a different exercise that works the same thing, for when the kit is busy.
- Demo - a video of the movement, filmed on the equipment in your gym.

Below that, a row per set with a box for reps and a box for weight, and a tick to complete it. Fill both boxes and the tick lights up.

![The workout player showing Arsenal Pendulum Squat, its sets, reps and rest, buttons for Map, History, Swap and Demo, and three empty sets, each with a box for reps and a box for kg.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/02-first-exercise.png)

## Warm-up sets, if you want them

Tap Add a warm-up set and one appears above your working sets. Tap again for another. Whether you need to build up to a weight is a fact about you and about the day, not about the workout, so this is your call rather than something the session dictates.

The header updates to show the split - 1 + 3 means one warm-up and three working sets - and the app suggests a lighter weight based on what you are working up to. Warm-ups are kept separate from your working sets everywhere else too, so they are never added to your total weight lifted and can never count as a personal best.

![The same exercise with a warm-up set added, showing 1 + 3 warm-up + sets in the header, an Another warm-up set button with a minus icon beside it, and a Warm-up 1 of 1 row above Set 1.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/03-warm-up-set.png)

_The minus beside the button removes the last warm-up if you add one too many._

## The rest timer

Tick a set and the rest timer starts on its own, counting down from the rest the workout asks for. You do not have to start it and you do not have to watch it.

If it is wrong for how you feel, minus 15 and plus 15 adjust it, and Skip ends it. When it reaches zero you get a straightforward question: ready, or do you want another ten seconds. Nothing disappears while you are still catching your breath.

![The rest timer counting down from 44 seconds, with minus 15 seconds, Skip and plus 15 seconds buttons.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/04-rest-timer.png)

![A Rest complete card asking Ready for the next set, with buttons reading Let's get it and I need another 10.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/05-rest-complete.png)

## Drop sets

Once a set is ticked, Add drop set appears underneath it. A drop set is the same set taken again immediately at a lighter weight, so the app treats it as part of the set above rather than a set of its own. It sits tucked underneath, and the app suggests a lighter weight for you.

There is no rest timer after a drop, because going straight back on is the whole point. When you have finished the chain, Rest now starts one.

![Set 1 completed with two drop sets indented beneath it, each with its own reps and weight and a Rest now link.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/06-drop-sets.png)

_Drops hang off the set they came from, at a suggested lighter weight._

## Wandering off, and coming back

Your session does not end because you left the screen. Go and look up an exercise, check the map, or see what is on the timetable, and a bar follows you around the app with the workout name and how long you have been going. Tap it to drop straight back in where you were.

If you do want to stop, Abandon in the top corner of the player ends the session. Everything you logged is still saved either way.

![A Go back to workout bar pinned to the bottom of the MYG Workouts screen, showing Push A and one minute elapsed.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/07-go-back-to-workout.png)

_The bar appears on every screen while a session is running._

## Finishing

Work through the exercises and the last button becomes Finish. You get your duration, any personal bests you hit, and how many sets you logged.

Three things are worth doing before you close it. Rate the workout, which feeds the score other members at your gym see. Set the exercise order you want next time using the arrows. And write a note - a sentence about how it felt or what to change is exactly what Previous notes hands back to you next week.

![The Workout complete screen showing duration, PBs and sets, a five-star rating control, a reorderable exercise list, a box for workout notes and a Save and finish button.](https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/screens/player/08-workout-complete.png)

All of it lands in your history and feeds the numbers on your home screen. That is covered in [tracking your progress](/blog/how-to-track-your-progress).

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Read online: https://www.mapyourgym.co.uk/blog/how-to-log-a-workout