Does the Ladder app work with Garmin?

By the BulkForged team · Updated 14 October 2026

No, Ladder has no Garmin watch app. Its own pages name one watch, the Apple Watch, and Ladder runs on iPhone, iPad and the web.

Ladder is a coached strength app. You join a team, and a coach writes each day's workout. This page covers how a Garmin fits around Ladder today, and what a workout run on the Garmin itself looks like.

Which devices does Ladder support?

iPhone and iPad, with the Apple Watch, plus a web app. Ladder's site spells it out:

• "iOS is the full product — iPhone and iPad, with an Apple Watch companion."
• "There is no Android app."
• A web app covers workouts, team chat and the training journal.

Its App Store listing names the versions:

• The iPhone and iPad app needs iOS 18.0 or later.
• The watch app needs watchOS 10.0 or later.

Garmin is not mentioned on any page we read.

Can a Garmin workout count in Ladder?

Partly. Ladder can import a finished workout from Apple Health, and a Garmin can feed Apple Health.

Ladder's App Store notes for version 4.7.0 describe it: "Now after you complete a workout you can import an existing workout from Apple Health, share a photo of proof of how many calories you burned or just manually enter your heart rate and calories burned."

In practice that means:

1. Start Garmin's own Strength activity, and follow Ladder's workout on the phone as usual.
2. Let Garmin Connect share the activity with Apple Health.
3. After the session, import that workout in Ladder.

Ladder's note is about calories and heart rate. The reps and weights are still entered in Ladder, and nothing runs on the watch.

For apps that do log sets on a Garmin, see Best strength training apps for Garmin watches.

How are Ladder and BulkForged different?

Ladder gives you a coach's workout every day. BulkForged runs the plan you pick, and sets its next weights from your own sets.

¹ Part of Coaching, the paid plan. Every install starts with 14 days of it free, with no card.

What does a workout look like on the watch?

The watch holds the whole session, so the phone can stay in the bag. This is BulkForged, our app:

• Each set shows the exercise, the weight and the reps, with a short form cue when the exercise has one.
• On a touchscreen watch like the Venu or vívoactive, you swipe to change a number and tap to confirm it.
• A watch with buttons takes three presses a set: the weight, the reps, done.
• The rest timer starts after each set and buzzes when it is time to lift.

At the end, one save does two jobs. Your sets go to BulkForged, and an activity with heart rate and calories goes to Garmin Connect.

What lands where, field by field: BulkForged and Garmin Connect.

Does Ladder set your next weight?

Ladder's coaches write the plan. None of its pages we read says the app sets your next weight.

• Its App Store listing promises "Structured progressive overload programs created by expert coaches".
• It also describes the Ladder Journal, to "visualize your rep and weight progress".

In BulkForged, the app sets your next weight when you finish a workout:¹

• Reps climb first, within each exercise's rep range.
• When every working set reaches the top, the weight goes up a real plate or pin step.
• Every change lands in Overload History, next to the workout it came from. Any target can be edited.

¹ Part of Coaching, the paid plan. Every install starts with 14 days of it free, with no card.

The rule in full: When should you add weight?

Does BulkForged work with an iPhone?

Not yet. The phone app runs on Android today, and the iPhone app is coming soon.

• Join the iPhone waitlist to hear the day it is out.
• The Garmin watch app is the same on both phones. More in BulkForged for iPhone.

What can't BulkForged do that Ladder does?

No coach writes your workouts, and the phone app is not on iPhone yet.

• There are no teams, no team chat and no in-ear audio coaching.
• There is no food logging.
• There is no Apple Watch app, and the iPhone app has a waitlist.
• Its watch app is for Garmin only: every supported model.

Where do this page's facts come from?

Every statement about Ladder comes from Ladder's own website and its App Store listing, read on 14 October 2026.

• We read joinladder.com and Ladder's App Store listing, including its release notes.
• BulkForged is our app, so weigh this page accordingly.

Related: The workout summary on your watch, Using your Garmin watch, What coaching includes.

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