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Every program in Kilo can be customised before you activate it. If a program suggests Barbell Bench Press but you only have dumbbells, or you’d rather do Pull-Ups than Lat Pulldown, you can swap any exercise on the program review screen and choose whether your swap applies to a single training day or every day that exercise appears.

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What swaps carry through to

  • The active program schedule
  • Pre-filled weights and rep targets on phone workouts
  • Sessions sent to your Garmin watch
  • Progression tracking (your swapped exercise builds its own progression history)

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Before you start

Swaps must be made before tapping Start Program. After activation, the program’s exercise list is locked — to change an exercise once active, end the program and start a new one with the swap.
You must be on a program review screen: either Your Program (after Build My Program) or a Popular Methods detail screen.

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Swap an exercise

1

Open a program review screen

  1. Open Kilo and go to the Home tab.
  2. On the Start a Training Program card, tap Start Program.
  3. Pick Build My Program and answer the questions, or tap Browse Popular Methods and select a method.
  4. You should now see the program’s WORKOUT DAYS list with each exercise on its own row.
5x5 Linear Progression review screen with a swap icon on each exercise row
2

Tap the swap icon

  1. Find the exercise you want to replace.
  2. Tap the swap icon (the left-right arrows) on the right side of the row.
  3. The exercise picker opens.
3

Pick the replacement exercise

  1. The picker opens pre-filtered to the same muscle group as the original.
  2. Tap the exercise you want.
  3. Tap Select Exercise.
Select Exercise picker filtered to Chest with Dumbbell Bench Press selected
4

Choose the swap scope (multi-day exercises)

If the exercise appears on more than one workout day, Kilo asks Replace [Exercise] in how many days? and lists the days it appears on. If it appears on one day only, the swap applies right away and you skip this step.
Pick All days when you’re swapping for an equipment reason (e.g. you don’t have a barbell). Pick Just this day when one specific session needs a different stimulus.
Dialog asking Replace Barbell Squat in how many days, with Just this day and All days
5

Check the swapped rows

Each swapped row now shows the new exercise name at the top and a was: [Original Exercise] caption underneath, in muted text.
Day A and Day B both showing Box Squat with was: Barbell Squat underneath
The exercise is swapped. The undo arrow has replaced the swap icon on that row.
6

Activate with your swaps

  1. When you’re happy with all your swaps, tap Start Program at the bottom of the screen.
  2. Your swaps are saved with the program. Every scheduled session (on phone or watch) will use your replacement exercises.

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Undo a swap

If you change your mind:
  1. Find the swapped row (it shows was: … under the exercise name).
  2. Tap the undo icon on the right side.
  3. The original exercise is restored on that row immediately. No confirmation needed.
If you used All days, undo works one row at a time. Tap the undo icon on each row you want back. You can swap and revert as many times as you like before activating the program.

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Quick fixes

You’re already on an active program. Swaps must be made before tapping Start Program. End the program and start a new one if you need to change an exercise.
The picker filters to the original exercise’s primary muscle group. To pick from a different group, tap All or another muscle group at the top of the picker.
You picked All days when you only meant one. Tap the undo icon on each row that should keep the original exercise.
This is fixed in recent versions. Make sure you’re on the latest Kilo and your watch app is updated. The swapped name should appear on the watch.
Swapped exercises start their own progression history. The chart fills in as you complete sessions with the new exercise.