What is Gravl?
Gravl is a strength app that writes the session for you. Tell it your goals, experience, schedule and equipment and it lays out each exercise with sets, reps and weights, then recalculates after every workout you log. The maker calls it an AI personal trainer, "dialed by AI, backed by real coaches," and you can message those coaches inside the app.
The Strava side is narrow. Connect it under Profile, Connected Apps, and finished Gravl workouts get pushed to your Strava feed. That's the whole link as Gravl's help center documents it: lifting goes out, and your runs and rides reach Gravl some other way.
Key Features
Weights chosen for you
Starting weights come from your sex, bodyweight and experience level. After that Gravl estimates your one-rep max from what you log: reps climb set by set, and once the ladder fills, the weight steps up, snapped to the plates or stack you have. It asks whether you could have done more once all of an exercise's sets are done (you can switch that off), and you can tap any target weight to see why it was picked.
Plans built around a specific gym
Pick your gym and workouts adapt to the equipment there. Switch gyms or travel and the plan rebuilds. If a machine is taken, a swap finds a same-muscle exercise and recalculates sets, reps and weights.
Recovery that counts your cardio
This is the part that matters if you also run or ride. Gravl tracks fatigue per muscle, and its Recovery Split builds workouts from whatever is most recovered. Activities in Apple Health or Health Connect get offered for import, you rate the effort (low is about a day of recovery, hard is two to three), and on the Recovery Split, if your next workout would have hit tired muscles, Gravl regenerates it. A separate Readiness score from 0 to 100 compares last night's sleep and heart rate with your previous 30 nights. It's off until you turn it on, and it needs a watch or ring that tracks overnight.
AI form scoring
Subscribers can film a set and get a score from 1 to 100, with sub-scores for form, tempo and range and a list of what to fix. Clips are limited to 10 seconds, one exercise at a time. Gravl's privacy policy says Google Gemini processes the footage.
Routines from anywhere
Drop in a routine from Instagram or TikTok, a photo of a whiteboard or a PDF from a coach, and AI turns it into a workout you can track.
A link to your AI assistant
Gravl runs a connector for Claude, ChatGPT, Grok Bot and Muse. A connected assistant can read your workouts, records and body measurements, and it can create and change workouts, splits and settings. Developers also get a read-only API.
Who It's For
- Runners and cyclists who lift and want someone else to program the gym days around their legs
- Strava users who want strength sessions in the same feed as everything else
- Lifters tired of planning who'd rather open an app and be told the weight
- People who train in more than one gym, since plans follow the equipment at each one
What it doesn't do
Gravl's help center doesn't document reading your Strava account. The homepage lists Strava among the connections behind recovery tracking, and a July comparison post says recovery is fed by Strava too, but the help article, updated later, is more specific: Strava is for pushing workouts out, and outside activities come through Apple Health or Health Connect. Imported workouts are locked too, so a run you import can't be edited or sent to Strava from Gravl.
Don't assume your full lift log arrives on Strava, either. Gravl doesn't say what a pushed workout contains, and Strava's list of partners whose exercises, sets, reps and weight come through doesn't include Gravl.
The store listings call the watch apps standalone, but Gravl's help is plainer: the watch needs your phone within reach to start a session, and on Apple Watch the phone app still owns and saves it. On Wear OS and Garmin you start from the phone.
Free use is short. You get 3 logged workouts (5 in South America) before Gravl asks you to subscribe.
Will my Strava runs show up in Gravl?
Gravl's help center doesn't document a direct path from Strava. If a run is in Apple Health or Health Connect, Gravl offers it for import with a preview of distance, duration, pace, heart rate, elevation and the route map when there is one. Strava says its Android app writes time, distance and calories from GPS activities to Health Connect, though Gravl's help doesn't walk through that path.
What if I record a Gravl session on a Garmin watch?
It lands in Garmin Connect as a strength training activity with heart rate and calories, and Garmin's own settings decide whether it goes on to Strava. That's separate from Gravl's Strava connection. Neither Gravl page says what happens with both switched on, so check your feed after the first session.
Which watches does it work on?
Apple Watch on watchOS 10 or later, Wear OS 5 or later, and around 70 Garmin models on Connect IQ 3.4 or later. Garmin's watch app is a separate install from the Connect IQ Store, and monochrome models aren't supported.
Is there a one-time price?
Yes, on the web only. Gravl sells a Lifetime plan for workouts and a Lifetime bundle that adds Gravl Macros, and neither appears in the app stores. Gravl shows the price after you sign in. Buying one doesn't cancel an existing subscription, so turn that off yourself or you'll be charged twice.
