Rest timer, round four
"The beep at 90 seconds feels like it's bossing me around. Sometimes I'm still breathing hard."
— Rhys, Ironman athlete & Pro tester
Four iterations
Rest timer · Compound lift
Glanceable. For heavy work where the clock is a guide.
0:00
The default. Elapsed with an honest cap.
For intervals and HIIT, where rest is prescribed.
Clock only. No coaching, no nudges.
Demo only · nothing logged
Our first rest timer was a single countdown for every session. Rhys pointed out what we should have known — rest isn’t one thing.
A heavy triple is one sport. Intervals are another. Rest in one is feeling ready; in the other it’s the prescription. We built four versions, argued about all of them, and shipped one.
We went with 02 — count up with an honest cap. It’s the most truthful about what the app actually knows: you’re the one in your body, the clock is a guide, the cap stops it drifting forever. The other three are prototypes for now. They might come back when we have a real reason to reach for them — a prescribed interval block, a minimal mode for lifters who don’t want coaching — but today it’s one timer.
A few things we argued about:
- How much screen? As little as possible.
- Up or down? Up is honest about what we know. Down is honest about what we want.
- Rest too long? Nothing loud — colour shifts, readout goes muted. You’re an adult.
Next week: the set logger.