Runna for strength training: what it does, and what it doesn't

Runna's help pages (checked 4 November 2026) describe it this way:

• Two goals. Running Focus prioritises lower body and core. All-Round Strength covers legs, core and upper body.
• One to four sessions a week. Runna suggests one or two as a sustainable target.
• 30, 45 or 60 minutes, at beginner, intermediate or advanced level.
• Equipment-aware. You pick from stretch band, barbell, box, bench, dumbbell, kettlebell, pull-up bar and Swiss ball. With none, the sessions are bodyweight.
• Pre-built only. All sessions come from Runna's library. You cannot create or add custom strength workouts, though you can log your own strength sessions by hand from the Progress tab.
• Logging. In a workout you enter reps and weight on the Log tab, and the Exercise tab charts the weight you lifted. The help page describes you entering the weights, and does not describe Runna changing them for you.
• Outside the running plan. In Runna's words, "strength sessions sit outside the adaptive running plans". They do not change your runs.

For a runner who wants to stay durable, that does the job. The comparison below is for someone whose main goal is the gym.

Runna's running plans work because you give it a goal, it writes the plan, and the plan changes as you train. Coach applies that idea to the barbell.

It starts from your goal. Runna starts from a race and a date. Coach starts from what you want in the gym: build muscle, get stronger, both, or general fitness. You also tell it which days you train, how long you have, what equipment you have, and any area to go easy on, such as knees or lower back.

It starts from your lifts. Runna starts from how fast you run now. Coach starts from what you lift now. Before it writes anything, it shows you the numbers it will use, read from your log. For most lifts you have logged in Shojin, week one's weight comes from your recent sets. For a lift you have never done, or not done for 90 days, the box starts empty with a suggested starting weight, and your first session sets the number.

Coach shows the numbers it will use before it writes anything.

A lift you have logged arrives with its weight in the box.

It reads your effort. A running watch measures pace. A barbell measures nothing, so Coach reads the two things you log: your reps, and how hard each set felt as RPE (rate of perceived exertion, where 10 means you had no rep left). If you skip RPE, reps alone decide. It also reacts during the session. If a set feels much easier than the target, the rest timer offers more weight for the sets you have left. If a set feels much harder on a free-weight or bodyweight compound, it offers less. We explain RPE in RPE vs RIR.

One tap rates the set.

Too hard on a barbell lift? The rest timer offers a lighter weight for the next sets.

It knows your equipment. "Add 2.5%" means nothing at a rack whose smallest plates are 2.5 kg. When Coach adds weight, it moves one step on the grid for that kind of equipment, 2.5 kg for a barbell by default and 5 lb in pounds.

Runna's running plan adapts your runs. Coach adapts every lift on its own, because your squat and your curl do not move at the same speed. Each lift has a rep range, and after each session Coach reads every working set against it.

• Every set reached the top of the range and none was an RPE 10: the weight goes up next session.
• Every set hit today's target, but not the top, and none was an RPE 10: same weight, one more rep next time.
• A set fell below the range: the weight comes down. It also comes down when a set felt 1.5 RPE or more harder than the target and you did not do the session as written (a set missed, or done with fewer reps or less weight than planned). On machine, cable and single-joint lifts the target is RPE 9, so the weight comes down only when a set falls below the range.
• You did every set as written, but one was an RPE 10: same weight, same reps next time. After a session done in full, effort alone never brings the weight down.
• Anything else: the plan holds.

Here is a bench press prescribed at 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps with a target of RPE 8, starting at 60 kg (about 132 lb) on a barbell:

Had one set in session 3 been an RPE 10, the weight would have held at 60 kg × 8 until a session came back without a maximal set. Had a set dropped below 6 reps, the weight would have come down.

That is double progression, a long-standing way to earn weight on a lift, and our guide to double progression explains how it works. The difference is that you never have to track it. Coach does, set by set. On an 8-week program the last week is a lighter deload, and on a 12-week program weeks 6 and 12 are, so you finish each block fresh.

An 8-week block ends with a lighter week.

Shojin is one subscription with no cap on sets. Shojin Coach is part of it: it writes your program from your own lifts and adjusts it after every session you log.

New subscribers get one month free, then A$4.99 a month or A$34.99 a year, billed by the App Store in your local currency. The subscription renews until you cancel. Cancel any time in Settings. You subscribe in the iPhone app. If you stop, your history stays, and Coach stops adjusting your program.

Every number in this article traces to one of these. Where the evidence is contested or thin, the article says so rather than picking a side.