Juggernaut AI Is Pretty Cool, so far

 

So like a jabroni, I signed up for the Juggernaut AI app, a reactive training program created by Garrett Blevins utilizing the knowledge of Chad Wesley Smith, one of the most accomplished athletes and coaches in the strength world. Smith's accolades are impressive: he's has posted a top ten all time powerlifting total, as well as won two national championships in the shotput and earned his strongman pro card. Top powerlifters such as Marisa Inda and Andy Huang are Juggernaut athletes. Really, it's hard to think of someone more qualified to teach you how to get strong than Chad Wesley Smith. Maybe that's why the Juggernaut AI app is a rather expensive thirty-five bucks a month. Initially, I balked at the price, then I realized that I've been training for over eight years and haven't made a considerable amount of progress in a while, so what do I have to lose? Thirty-five bucks a month isn't much. After using the app for a week, I'm pretty impressed so far. Before starting a program, you select whether you want to do powerbuilding (bodybuilding with a powerlifting focus) or powerlifting. I selected powerlifting, and the app asked what bodyparts I wanted to work on. I selected biceps and quads, and then entered my maxes on the powerlifts. The app then generated a 188 day program for me, with the first couple months focused on hypertrophy (gaining muscle), then strength, and then peaking for new maxes. It tracks variables such as sleep and desire to train, and then adjusts your program accordingly. It definitely starts out pretty light: I was doing bench presses with 155 lbs and yates rows with 135. However, the volume is high, and my lats were sorer than they'd been in years. You can swap out exercises during your workouts if you wish, and Juggernaut features an extensive library complete with descriptions and videos on how to do each exercise and what it works. The exercise library is really impressive, and a great feature. The main way the Juggernaut AI app tracks your progress is by RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) and RiR (Reps in Reserve). I'd never worked out using these metrics before, but the RPE scale is easily explained. For example, if you're supposed to perform 10 reps with 155 lbs at an RPE of 6, that means you could have easily done another four reps. A 6.5 would mean you maybe could've done 4 reps, while a 7 is 3 easy reps, and so on. Reps in reserve is self-explanatory: a 4 RiR means you need to leave 4 in the tank. I'm a little apprehensive on basing a whole program on how a lifter feels, since I've had good workouts while feeling like shit, and vice versa. Nevertheless, I'm excited to see how I progress, and I'll definitely defer to Chad's judgment, since the program has a growing user base. I'll have a review up months from now.