Rest timer on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island: how per-set rest should work

Why rest is worth prescribing

Rest length changes the outcome, which is why a program writes it and a timer should honour it. In 21 trained men over 8 weeks, 3-minute rests produced greater 1RM squat and bench press gains and greater anterior thigh thickness than 1-minute rests with all other variables matched [1]. A systematic review of 23 studies concluded that strength can be gained with short rests under 60 seconds, but rests longer than 2 minutes seem needed to maximise strength gains in trained lifters, while 60 to 120 seconds appear sufficient for untrained lifters [2]. A timer that reads the rest on each set lets the program make that call per exercise.

Rules a rest timer should follow

1. Start on completion, not on a button. The moment of completing a set is the moment rest begins. A timer you have to start by hand is always a few seconds late and often forgotten.
2. Use the rest for this set. A program writes different rest for a heavy top set and for the back-off sets. The timer should read the set, not a single session-wide number.
3. Be visible while locked. Between sets the phone is face down or in a pocket. The countdown belongs on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island.
4. Handle the next tick. Completing another set while a timer runs should restart the countdown at that set's full rest.
5. Respect zero. Inside a superset, the rest after the first movement is often zero. A zero-rest set should start nothing and stop the previous countdown.
6. Undo cleanly. Unticking a set should cancel only the rest that set started.
7. Tell you when it is over. A notification at zero, so you do not have to watch.

How Method's timer behaves

Auto-start. When a strength set is completed and auto-start is on, the timer starts. Auto-start is on by default and can be turned off in workout preferences. Cardio items do not start a rest timer.

Duration resolution. First a manual override you set during the session, then the rest prescribed on that set, then the session's default rest. Before you tick anything, the idle timer previews the rest of the first incomplete set. If the resolved rest is zero, no timer starts and any running countdown is cleared.

Restart on the next set. Ticking another set while a countdown is running restarts it at that set's full resolved rest.

Live Activity. The countdown runs as a Live Activity. On the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island it shows the workout title, the current exercise and the next one, the exercise index, and sets completed out of total, both for the workout and for the current exercise. Method updates the existing Activity rather than stacking new ones, and only runs it when Live Activities are enabled for the app.

Notification. When rest reaches zero, a local notification reads "Time's up." with "Let's do your next set." Method only asks for notification permission after you take an action that needs it; it never prompts on its own.

Undo. Each countdown records exactly which set started it. Undoing that set cancels that rest and no other, and the link survives minimising the app, reopening it, and the server assigning the set a permanent id.

Supersets and zero rest

Write zero rest on the first movement of a superset and the timer behaves as you would expect. Ticking the first movement starts nothing and clears any old countdown; ticking the second movement starts its rest. No special superset mode is needed because the rule is on the set.

Offline

The timer, the Live Activity, and the notification run on the phone. They do not need a connection. See offline workout logging.

What it does not do

The timer does not adjust rest for you based on how the set felt or how the day is going. It counts down the rest you wrote, or the rest you override in the moment. That is the intended scope. Execute the plan, make the clock invisible, and leave the decision about rest where it was made, in the program.