Dredfit — Adaptive home workouts. Zero setup.

How it works

A thermostat, not a questionnaire

Other apps ask you twenty questions and hope. Dredfit asks one — after the workout — and knows.

Start easy — or calibrate

Day one is deliberately easy: every movement starts at three sets of four, at the bottom of its own ladder. Already training? Enter the number you actually did — a number above the plan becomes the next plan as it is, so getting back to your own load takes about two sessions per variation rather than a slow ramp-up. Harder variations are not skipped this way: you reach them by trying them.

Two facts per movement

Your progress is two facts per movement rather than one number: which variation you are on, and the dose — reps in a set, or seconds in a hold. One step is +1 rep (or +5 seconds) in ONE set, so growth costs one set and not the whole workout. Nothing is ever assigned that you have not already done. When the dose reaches the top of its range, the last set of that exercise becomes a probe: one set of the next variation, four reps or fifteen seconds. Manage it and the next workout starts there, at three sets of four reps or fifteen seconds; don't, and nothing moves — the working sets stand as they were, and the probe is offered again while the movement stays at the top of its range and the last answer was not “tough”. On the top variation growth continues in sets, from three to five.

3×4 → 5-4-4 → 5-5-4 → 3×5 → … → probe

Answer one question

Tough, on plan, or easy — one tap and the next workout adjusts. Want to be exact? Enter the number you actually did: for that movement, a fact outweighs the rating. “Easy” is the one answer that claims more than the plan, so it is offered only for a plan done in full — honesty downward is never gated. When a single movement falls short three times running, it alone rolls back — reps (or seconds) off every set, then a set, then an easier variation — and starts again. Progress without burnout.

During the workout

The phone can stay where you put it

A hold exercise is bought with a single tap, and nothing has to be picked up again until its working sets are over.

One tap buys every working set

Three sets of a plank used to cost four touches, and three of them were taken between sets, by somebody lying on the floor. “Start exercise” buys the movement instead: the rest ends by itself, the next set counts itself in, and sound counts you in and out of every set. Before the tap the screen says what is being bought — how many sets, and how long the rest between them. A probe is not part of the run: you start it yourself, and “Done” ends it.

The time is agreed before the effort

“Set the time” says how long every set of that exercise runs: a target asked for before the work, not a report demanded after it. “Stop” ends a set early and names the number it is about to write — “Stop · 60 s” records 60, the clock less the moment it takes to reach the phone, marked as an estimate, and the sets after it follow what you showed.

Put the phone down, but don't lock the screen: a suspended app runs no timers and plays no tones, and the app will not promise what it cannot keep.

What's inside

Everything you need. Nothing you don't.

The workout

59 exercises, household propsClassic calisthenics progressions — knee push-ups to archer push-ups, squats to shrimp squats. Neighbouring steps stand close together: no step up is more than half again as hard as the one before it — bar the single boundary where a hold turns into reps, which you cross only by probing it. A chair, a table, a wall, a towel and a step cover 52 of them; the seven pull-up variations are the only ones that need a bar, and they stay off until you switch them on.

Balanced by designA pull in every session for shoulder health; the other patterns rotate so each comes round five times in eight workouts.

Got a pull-up bar?Turn it on and every other session swaps the floor pull for a vertical one — bar hang through full pull-ups, tracked separately.

Warm-up, cool-down, holds and rest, timedA guided warm-up and cool-down, a hold timer for planks, and a rest ring with a 3-2-1 countdown — stretch the rest as well as skip it. Every start tap buys a four-second count-in, so no clock starts moving while your hand is still leaving the glass. Both blocks ask before they start, and tell you how many positions and roughly how many minutes. Eight seconds to get ready before every position — twelve when the position means walking to a wall or getting down to the floor — and both blocks pause for the doorbell, resuming from the second they stopped. Side positions get a counted switch pause. Every timer runs on the wall clock, so an interruption never loses the seconds already spent.

Plain-language techniqueThree steps and two common mistakes for every exercise, plus an “In life” line: what the movement gives you outside the app. Every warm-up and cool-down position gets its own short sheet with the steps. The same card carries the version one step below the one you are on — the movement, the dose it comes with, and what changes — so a gentler day is chosen where the movement is explained. No jargon.

It adapts to you

Adjust in the momentDid fewer reps? Dial the real number right at the exercise, without leaving it. A hold movement closes on a screen that shows every set it ran: the last one can be corrected, in five-second steps, and the earlier ones stand as they ran — the clock was their ceiling. Above Done, “Next time” adds seconds to the next plan, and the app calls that addition yours wherever it shows it. Skipping a set takes one set off the next plan until you earn it back; skipping an exercise moves nothing. Either way the app asks first: a workout has no undo, so neither escape fires on a brushed thumb.

Too much today?Muscles giving out and a joint hurting are different things, and the app does not ask which. If a movement is too much today, you answer with the plan and not with a diagnosis: the same movement in an easier variation, offered inside that movement's own card under the line saying which variation you are on, or a set skipped while you are doing it. The minutes left redraw as you decide, so nothing has to be settled before you start. Nothing disappears from your week for weeks on end, and nothing is remembered against you. Sharp pain is always a reason to stop.

Breaks are normalA week away, and every movement quietly eases a notch: reps (or seconds) off every set, or a set, or an easier variation. Two weeks or more, and the plan offers to meet you lower — further down the longer the break. The plan catches up quickly, because it follows what you show.

Short on time?The line above Start is a range: the full workout, and the shortest that session can be made. Inside the workout you can skip a set, or the rest of a movement, and the minutes left drop with it. Nothing has to be decided in advance, and the app never picks for you which movements you leave out.

An interrupted session waits for youIf the phone closes the app mid-workout, the next launch offers to carry on where you stopped. Out of time? Finish early and the workout still counts — what you did is recorded, the rest is simply left undone.

Your progress

Progress you can seeA progress chart across sessions, a weekly summary, per-movement bars, and a calendar of everything you've done — and a session that ended in a probe keeps it, with the number it reached and whether it landed.

Milestones, not medalsA workout that unlocks a harder variation, adds a set, or lands on a round number ends on one calm screen you can share. Anniversaries remember where you started: then → now. No confetti, no badges, no streaks to lose.

On your lock screenA Live Activity counts the rest down on the lock screen and Dynamic Island; widgets — small to large, home screen and lock screen — show today at a glance.

Fits your weekPick your rest days, get a reminder on training days, write finished workouts to Apple Health — with an estimate of what they cost, worked out on your phone — and export or import your whole history as plain JSON.

No catch

Free. Actually freeNo subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads, no locked “pro” tier. The app you download is the whole app.

Numbers you can check“How it works” in Settings: twelve plain facts about the regulator — every number on that screen matches the engine.

Open sourceThe entire app — engine, tests and this site — is public on GitHub. Check the math, file an issue, or build it yourself.

In your languageEnglish, Russian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French and Italian — the whole app, every exercise's technique, and this site. One glossary keeps the terms consistent across all seven, and the translations are idiomatic rather than literal.

FAQ

Common questions

Is Dredfit really free?

Yes — no subscription, no in-app purchases, no ads, no locked features. The app you download is the whole app, and it's open source, so you can check.

Does it work offline?

Always. Dredfit makes no network requests — there are no servers. The plan, the timers and your whole history live on your phone.

Do I need equipment or a gym?

No. A chair, a table, a wall, a towel and a step cover 52 of the 59 exercises. The seven pull-up variations are the only ones that need a bar, and they stay off until you switch them on.

Do I need an account? What data is collected?

There's nothing to sign up for and nothing is collected: no account, no analytics, no ads. Your training history never reaches us — it leaves the app only in ways you control, and the privacy policy lists every one.

What if I skip a week or two?

Nothing to apologise for. After a week away every movement quietly eases a notch — reps (or seconds) off every set, or a set, or an easier variation; after two weeks the plan offers to meet you lower — the longer the break, the lower — and it catches up quickly, because it follows what you show.

I'm a complete beginner — will it fit?

It depends on one honest number. The workout the app starts you on is three sets of four in the gentlest variation of six movements — knee push-ups, squats, a glute bridge, that kind of thing — about 32 minutes with the warm-up and cool-down, and about 24 even if you skip sets all the way down to the floor. That is where the app starts you, not the least it can ask: answer “tough” and it comes down — an easier variation, or a set off, as far as two sets of four, which is the floor those 24 minutes are measured on. So the question is only about the first session. If three sets of four are roughly within reach today, the app meets you there and takes everything else from your answers. If they are not, this would be the wrong tool — better to start with walking and come back later.

How much time does a workout take?

The app tells you before you start, and the number is its own arithmetic rather than a promise. The first workout is about 32 minutes, warm-up and cool-down included. Later ones grow with you, and they grow one set's worth at a time, so nothing ever jumps. Before you start, Today shows a range — the full workout and the shortest that session can be made; the decisions themselves happen inside it, where you skip a set or the rest of a movement and the time left follows. About 24 minutes is the shortest workout the app can build at all. If twenty minutes is what you have, this is not the app for you, and we would rather say so here.

Open the app. Your workout is ready.