Backing Up, Exporting & Importing Your Data
Herculog keeps every set you've ever logged on your device and nowhere else. That's the whole point — but it also means the backup button is yours to press. This guide covers exporting workouts and plans to CSV, importing them safely, and carrying your entire log to a new iPhone without losing a single rep.
Why export at all
Herculog is local-only by design: no account, no cloud, no server holding a copy of your training history. Your data lives on your phone, under your control — which makes exporting the answer to three different questions at once.
- Backup. An exported CSV saved to Files or iCloud Drive is your insurance against a lost or broken phone.
- Spreadsheets. CSV opens directly in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets, so your log is never trapped in an app.
- A new phone. Export on the old device, import on the new one — your full history and all your plans come along.
Exporting workouts
Go to the Settings tab and tap Export Workouts. Herculog generates a CSV of your complete workout history and hands it to the iOS share sheet — from there you can AirDrop it, save it to Files or iCloud Drive, mail it to yourself, or send it anywhere else the share sheet reaches.
Each row in the file is one logged entry — one set-group — with these columns:
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| timestamp | Date and time the entry was logged |
| name | Exercise name |
| sets, reps, weight | The set-group numbers, decimals included |
| metric | Whether the entry was logged in kg or lb |
| warmup | The warmup flag |
| laterality | Bilateral or unilateral |
| rpe | The RPE rating, if you set one |
| muscleGroup | The muscle group |
| note | Your session note |
| planID | Set when the entry was logged by running a plan |
Importing workouts
Go to Settings and tap Import Workouts, then pick a CSV in the Files document picker. Before anything else happens, understand the one rule that matters:
Workout import replaces your data. It is a restore, not a merge — whatever is in the file becomes your workout history. Herculog puts this in front of you in a confirmation dialog before the import runs, so nothing happens by accident.
Two safeguards back you up:
- An automatic safety backup. Before every import, Herculog exports your current data to a file named herculog_backup_*.csv. If an import goes wrong, that file is your undo — import it to get back where you were.
- Skipped rows are reported. Rows the importer can't parse are skipped rather than mangled, and the import tells you how many rows were skipped so you know whether the file came through clean.
The importer accepts both the current full-column format above and Herculog's legacy 6-column exports, so old backups still restore fine.
Exporting & importing plans
Plans travel in their own CSV, separate from workouts — and the rules are friendlier. Plan import is additive: imported plans are appended to your library, your existing plans are untouched, and any plan in the file whose name already exists (compared case-insensitively) is skipped instead of duplicated.
Exporting from Settings produces a file named like herculog_plans_20260715_183042.csv (the pattern is herculog_plans_yyyyMMdd_HHmmss.csv), shared through the same share-sheet flow as workouts.
The format is simple enough to write by hand in any spreadsheet. The header row is:
plan,exercise,muscleGroup,metric,rpe,note,warmup,laterality,sets,reps,weight
- One row per set-group — an exercise with two different set schemes takes two rows.
- Rows belonging to the same plan and exercise must sit next to each other in the file.
- Booleans are lowercase true/false; metric true means kg.
- Only four columns are required: plan, exercise, sets, reps — the rest can be left empty.
You don't have to hand-write it, though. The free desktop plan builder on herculog.com builds this exact format in your browser — lay out a program with a real keyboard, export the CSV, then import it on your phone. Once it's in the app, everything in the Workout Plans guide applies: edit it, duplicate it, run it.
Moving to a new device
Switching phones is two exports, a transfer, and two imports:
- On the old phone: Settings → Export Workouts, and save the file. Then Export Plans, and save that file too.
- Transfer both files. AirDrop straight to the new phone, or drop them in Files / iCloud Drive and pick them up on the other side — any route works.
- On the new phone: install Herculog, then Settings → Import Workouts and choose the workouts file. Confirm the replace dialog — on a fresh install there's nothing to lose.
- Settings → Import Plans and choose the plans file. Your plan library appears exactly as you left it.
That's the full migration. Calendar, PRs, and metrics rebuild from the imported history automatically.
A backup habit worth keeping
Local-only means private; it also means no silent cloud copy. The fix costs about ten seconds: make a periodic export part of your routine.
Once a month — or after any session you'd hate to lose — open Settings, tap Export Workouts, and save the CSV to iCloud Drive in the Files app. That puts an off-device copy of your entire log somewhere a lost phone can't take it. Export plans too whenever you've built or tweaked one. Every legend keeps a log; the wise ones keep a copy.
Build plans at a desk, lift with them at the gym
The free plan builder writes Herculog's plan CSV format for you — design a full program in your browser, export, and import it on your phone in one tap.