Workout apps that import the routine you already have
People stay in a gym app they have outgrown for one reason: the thought of retyping four training days, thirty exercises and every set-and-rep scheme by hand. This page covers which apps can take a plan you already own and build it for you, and how far each one actually goes.
Updated September 2026
The short answer
- SayLift: paste any plain text and its AI splits it into training days and matches every movement. Works with a coach's email, a spreadsheet column, or a plan you typed off a photo.
- Hevy, via HevyGPT: a custom GPT that *generates* a program in ChatGPT and pushes it into your Hevy profile. Excellent, but it writes a new plan rather than reading yours; free accounts cannot import more than four routines.
- Boostcamp: has a large library of well-known published programs built in, so if your plan is a famous one you may not need to import anything.
- Strong, JEFIT, Fitbod, Liftoff, Alpha Progression: no text import. You build routines by hand, exercise by exercise.
Three different problems people call "import"
"My coach sent me a plan." It exists as a message, a PDF or a photo of a whiteboard. It is unstructured, it uses your coach's shorthand, and no app has a native importer for it. This is the hardest case and the most common.
"My plan is in a spreadsheet." Structured, but in your own format, with your own column names. Some apps take CSV in a specific schema; almost none take yours.
"I'm switching from another app." You want the routines, and ideally the history. Routines are usually recoverable by exporting to text. History almost never transfers between competitors, and anyone promising otherwise is usually talking about their own backup format.
How the options compare
| SayLift | Hevy (HevyGPT) | Boostcamp | Strong / JEFIT / Fitbod | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paste arbitrary plan text | Yes | No, generates instead | No | No |
| Reads a coach's shorthand | Yes, usually | No | No | No |
| Generates a new plan for you | Starter programs per style | Yes, via ChatGPT | Yes, published programs | Fitbod: yes |
| Review before it saves | Yes | Yes, in ChatGPT | n/a | n/a |
| Limit on imported routines | None | 4 on the free tier | n/a | n/a |
| Transfers logged history | No | No | No | No |
| Price | 3-day trial, then $4.17/mo billed yearly ($49.99/yr) | Free; Pro $2.99/mo | Pro $11.99–$14.99/mo | $4.99–$15.99/mo |
#1 SayLift: paste the text, keep the plan
SayLift's import is deliberately unfussy: there is a box, you paste text into it, and an AI model works out what your program is. It handles the messy cases. "Day A: bench 4x6-8, incline DB press 3x10, cable fly 3x12-15" parses the same as a tidy list, and so does a paragraph your coach wrote in an email.
What happens next is the part that matters. Each exercise name is matched against the bundled 873-exercise database, so your movements arrive with instructions and photos attached rather than as orphaned text. Then a review screen shows every day and every exercise it found, and you fix anything wrong before it saves. Nothing is written until you approve it.
The saved plan becomes your routine on the Profile tab. You can rename it, add, drop or reorder days and exercises, and set sets and reps. The coach and the Today page follow that routine straight away. Import does not write fake past workouts into your history, so your history holds only the sessions you actually logged.
Import also knows the routine you already have, so changes can be plain words. "Same as my push day, plus face pulls" works. You can paste the text or dictate it.
The honest limits. Import needs an internet connection, because the text goes to a model. It reads text, so a PDF or a photo has to be typed or copied out first; there is no OCR. And it brings across the plan rather than your logged history, so your old sets stay in your old app.
#2 Hevy and HevyGPT
Hevy's ChatGPT integration is the most polished thing in this category. You enable it in Hevy's settings, describe what you want in ChatGPT, and the resulting program is saved into your Hevy profile in seconds. It works with a free ChatGPT account and does not require Hevy Pro.
It is solving a different problem though. HevyGPT is a plan *generator*: you describe goals and constraints and it writes something new. If your plan already exists and you simply want it in the app, you are back to describing it to a chatbot and hoping the result matches. Free Hevy accounts also cannot import a plan containing more than four routines, which is the same cap that applies to routines generally.
#3 Boostcamp, if your program is famous
Boostcamp's angle is a library of well-known published programs, the ones with names, written by coaches you have heard of. If you are running one of those, you do not have an import problem at all, you have a "pick it from a list" situation, which is better.
It does not help if your plan is your own, which most people's are once they have been training a while.
How to pick
- Your coach writes your program in prose: SayLift. It is the only one that reads it as-is.
- You want an AI to write you a plan from scratch: Hevy's HevyGPT, or Fitbod, which generates every session.
- You follow a well-known published program: Boostcamp has it in the library already.
- You need your logged history to come with you: nothing does this well. Export what you can, and accept a clean break.
- You are on Android: SayLift is iPhone-only; HevyGPT is the practical option.
Frequently asked questions
Which workout app can import a routine from text?
SayLift. You paste your plan in as plain text, from a coach's message, a spreadsheet, or another app, and its AI splits it into training days, matches each movement to the built-in exercise database, and shows you a review screen before saving anything.
Can I import my routine from Hevy or Strong into another app?
Your routines, yes, if you can get them out as text. Copy them into SayLift and it rebuilds them as training days. Your logged workout history is a different matter: it does not transfer between competing gym apps, so most people leave the old history where it is and start the new log clean.
Does importing a routine cost anything?
Not separately. Routine import is uncapped and comes with the subscription, along with manual logging, voice logging, the AI coach, the progress dashboard and the full 873-exercise library. SayLift costs $4.17 a month (billed $49.99 a year), $7.99 a month or $3.99 a week in the US after a 3-day free trial, and there is no free tier under it.
Will it understand my coach's shorthand?
Usually. SayLift's import is an AI model reading natural text, so "bench 4x6-8" and "4 sets of 6 to 8 reps on bench press" both parse. Where it is unsure it still shows you the result on a review screen, so you correct anything odd before it saves.
Can I import a PDF or a photo of my program?
Not directly. SayLift reads pasted text, so a PDF needs its text copied out and a photo needs typing up first. Once it is text, the format does not matter, and a paragraph works as well as a tidy list.
What happens to my plan after it imports?
In SayLift it becomes your routine on the Profile tab, and the Today page and the coach follow it straight away. You can edit it there afterwards: rename it, add, drop or reorder days and exercises, and change sets and reps. Nothing is added to your workout history, which only holds sessions you actually log.
Stop typing between sets
Say what you lifted. SayLift writes down every set, rep and weight, then tells you what to lift next time. Say what you ate and it counts the calories too. iPhone only, 3 days free then $4.17 a month, billed $49.99 a year.
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