Exercises Dataset with Muscle Volume

A fitness exercise dataset of 1,324 exercises with step-by-step instructions in 10 languages, a strength/stretch/cardio/olympic category on every record, a 22-muscle vocabulary for querying, a three-level movement hierarchy, and per-muscle training-volume data (direct/indirect involvement across those 22 muscles) for 1,115 exercises — ready to drop into workout apps, training-volume calculators, and research projects.

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Table of contents

• What's inside
• Record format
• Field reference
• Muscle labels vs. volume
• The movement hierarchy
• Instructions
• Stats
• Provenance & license

What's inside

File	Description
data/exercises.json	The main dataset: 1,324 exercise records
data/exercises.schema.json	JSON Schema (draft 2020-12) the dataset validates against

Record format

{
  "id": "0025",
  "name": "barbell bench press",
  "equipment": "barbell",
  "category": "strength",
  "primary_muscle": "Chest",
  "secondary_muscle": ["Front Delts", "Triceps"],
  "body_region": "Upper body",
  "movement_group": "Chest",
  "volume_profile": "Barbell bench press",
  "volume": {
    "Chest": 1.0,
    "Front Delts": 1.0,
    "Triceps": 1.0
  },
  "instructions": { "en": "…", "es": "…", "…": "…" },
  "instruction_steps": { "en": ["…", "…"], "…": ["…"] },
  "created_at": "2026-03-18T12:31:32.870252+00:00"
}

Field reference

Every record validates against data/exercises.schema.json. Fields marked optional are simply absent when not applicable — never null, never empty.

id — string, required

Unique identifier, zero-padded to 4 digits: "0001" … "5201". IDs are unique but not contiguous.

name — string, required

Full lowercase exercise name, e.g. "barbell bench press", "3/4 sit-up".

equipment — string, required

One of 28 values:

assisted · band · barbell · body weight · bosu ball · cable · dumbbell · elliptical machine · ez barbell · hammer · kettlebell · leverage machine · medicine ball · olympic barbell · resistance band · roller · rope · skierg machine · sled machine · smith machine · stability ball · stationary bike · stepmill machine · tire · trap bar · upper body ergometer · weighted · wheel roller

category — string, required

The kind of training the exercise is. One of 4 values, mutually exclusive, present on every record:

Value	Count	What it covers
strength	1,201	Resistance training — the bulk of the dataset
stretch	69	Static and dynamic stretching, mobility work
cardio	34	Conditioning: machines, running, jump rope, locomotion drills
olympic	20	Explosive full-body lifts — cleans, snatches, jerks, swings

category is an axis of its own, not a restatement of whether volume is present: 86 strength records carry no volume_profile (a dumbbell raise or barbell rack pull is plainly strength, it just doesn't map onto one of the 37 movement patterns). Filter on category to pick the kind of work; use volume_profile to know whether set-volume math is available.

Plyometrics get no category of their own on purpose — a jump squat is a squat, and most plyo variants already sit on strength profiles, so splitting them out would drop them from strength queries.

primary_muscle — string, optional (1,295 of 1,324 records)

The single muscle the exercise mainly trains. One of 22 values — the same vocabulary used by secondary_muscle and by the keys of volume:

Upper body (15)	Lower body (7)
Chest · Lats · Upper Back · Upper Traps · Lower Back	Quads · Hamstrings · Glutes
Front Delts · Side Delts · Rear Delts	Calves · Tibialis
Biceps · Triceps · Forearms	Abductors · Adductors
Abs · Obliques · Serratus · Neck

Absent on the 29 movements that aren't muscle-targeted in a training sense (running, jump rope, burpees, …).

Neck and Tibialis are valid values but currently unused by any volume map — the dataset's only neck and tibialis entries are stretches, which carry no volume. They're kept so records added later have somewhere to go.

secondary_muscle — array[string], optional

Additional muscles meaningfully involved. Same 22-value vocabulary as primary_muscle; always deduplicated against it, unique, and non-empty when present. Every muscle the exercise's volume map marks direct appears here (or as primary_muscle), so filtering on these fields never misses a directly-trained muscle.

body_region — string, optional (paired with volume_profile)

Top level of the movement hierarchy. One of 2 values: Upper body · Lower body.

movement_group — string, optional (paired with volume_profile)

The movement family, grouping one or more volume profiles. One of 20 values:

Upper body	Lower body
Biceps curls	Calf raises/jumps
Chest	Hip adduction & abduction
Core	Hip hinges
Forearm exercises	Hip thrusts & kickbacks
Front raises	Leg curls
Lateral raises	Leg extensions
Overhead presses	Squat movements
Pull-overs
Pulls
Rear delt flys
Scapular work
Shrugs
Triceps extensions

volume_profile — string, optional (1,115 of 1,324 records)

The movement-pattern profile the exercise was classified into — the key that determines its volume map. All exercises sharing a volume_profile carry identical volume data. One of 37 values (see the movement hierarchy for how they nest):

Ab crunches · Back extensions · Barbell bench press · Barbell overhead press · Barbell squats · Biceps curls · Cable rows · Chest flys · Chin-ups & pulldowns · Deadlifts · Dumbbell bench press · Dumbbell overhead press · Front raises · Good mornings · Grip work · Hip abduction · Hip adduction · Hip extensions & pull-throughs · Hip thrusts & glute kickbacks · Lateral raises · Leg curls · Leg extensions · Leg presses, hack & belt squats · Lunges & step-ups · Oblique twists & side bends · Pull-overs · Pull-ups & wide pulldowns · Rear delt flys · Romanian deadlifts · Scapular depression · Scapular protraction · Seated calf raises · Shrugs · Standing calf raises · Triceps extensions · Wrist curls · Wrist extensions

Absent (together with volume, body_region, movement_group) on 209 exercises that don't fit a hypertrophy-volume model. By category: 86 strength (isometric holds, carries, one-off movements that match no pattern), 69 stretch, 34 cardio, 20 olympic.

volume — object, optional (paired with volume_profile)

Muscle involvement for the movement pattern, keyed by the same 22-muscle vocabulary as primary_muscle. Uninvolved muscles are absent, so every key carries one of exactly two values:

Value	Meaning
1.0	Direct — the muscle is a prime mover of the exercise
0.5	Indirect — a meaningful synergist, but not a prime mover

"volume": { "Chest": 1.0, "Front Delts": 1.0, "Triceps": 1.0 }

To compute weekly volume per muscle: for each set performed, add the exercise's volume map to your per-muscle totals. Three sets of barbell bench press count as 3 direct sets for chest, front delts and triceps alike.

How this differs from primary_muscle / secondary_muscle

Same vocabulary, different jobs. primary_muscle is hand-curated and forces a single winner — useful for browsing and for "which muscle is this exercise for". volume is derived from the movement pattern and freely marks several muscles direct at once: a bench press is genuinely a direct chest, front-delt and triceps movement. Use the labels to filter, use volume to count sets.

Methodology

The direct/indirect split follows the fractional-set convention described in Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Haun C, Itagaki T, Helms ER (2019), Calculating Set-Volume for the Limb Muscles with the Performance of Multi-Joint Exercises: Implications for Resistance Training Prescription, Sports 7(7):177 (CC BY 4.0). Exercises are first binned into movement-pattern profiles; each profile then carries one involvement map, so classification is auditable and consistent across the ~1,100 exercises that share only 37 underlying patterns.

instructions — object, required

Full-text instructions keyed by ISO 639-1 language code. All 10 languages present on every record: en es it tr ru zh hi pl ko fr.

instruction_steps — object, required

The same instructions split into an ordered array[string] of steps, same 10 language keys.

created_at — string, required

ISO 8601 timestamp of record creation.

Muscle labels vs. volume

All three muscle fields draw on one 22-muscle vocabulary, but they answer different questions:

• primary_muscle + secondary_muscle — hand-maintained labels for querying and grouping ("show me all Lats exercises"). One primary per exercise.
• volume — derived from the movement pattern, marks every prime mover as direct. Use it to compute training volume per muscle.

They stay consistent in one direction: anything volume calls direct is also present in primary_muscle/secondary_muscle. Beyond that they're independent — the labels are curated for browsing, the volume maps are fixed per movement pattern.

The movement hierarchy

Volumed exercises carry a 3-level hierarchy: body_region → movement_group → volume_profile.

Upper body
├── Pulls ──────────────── Chin-ups & pulldowns · Pull-ups & wide pulldowns · Cable rows
├── Chest ──────────────── Barbell bench press · Dumbbell bench press · Chest flys
├── Overhead presses ───── Barbell overhead press · Dumbbell overhead press
├── Core ───────────────── Ab crunches · Oblique twists & side bends
├── Scapular work ──────── Scapular protraction · Scapular depression
├── Rear delt flys · Pull-overs
├── Lateral raises · Front raises · Shrugs
├── Biceps curls · Triceps extensions
└── Forearm exercises ──── Wrist curls · Wrist extensions · Grip work
Lower body
├── Hip hinges ─────────── Deadlifts · Romanian deadlifts · Good mornings ·
│                          Hip extensions & pull-throughs · Back extensions
├── Squat movements ────── Barbell squats · Leg presses, hack & belt squats ·
│                          Lunges & step-ups
├── Hip thrusts & kickbacks ── Hip thrusts & glute kickbacks
├── Hip adduction & abduction ── Hip adduction · Hip abduction
├── Calf raises/jumps ──── Standing calf raises · Seated calf raises
└── Leg curls · Leg extensions

Use movement_group for workout-builder menus ("pick a hip hinge"), volume_profile for exact volume lookups.

Instructions

Every exercise has full-text instructions and split instruction_steps in: English, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Polish, Korean, French (keyed by ISO 639-1 code).

Stats

By category

category	count	share
strength	1,201	91%
stretch	69	5%
cardio	34	3%
olympic	20	2%

By primary muscle

primary_muscle	count		primary_muscle	count
Chest	161		Obliques	42
Lats	153		Forearms	40
Biceps	148		Rear Delts	36
Glutes	144		Side Delts	29
Triceps	141		Hamstrings	28
Abs	115		Lower Back	22
Front Delts	80		Upper Back / Upper Traps	13 each
Calves	59		Adductors / Abductors	6 / 5
Obliques	54		Serratus / Neck	2 each
Quads	44		(none — cardio)	29

By equipment

Equipment	Count		Equipment	Count
Body weight	325		Kettlebell	41
Dumbbell	294		Weighted	36
Cable	157		Stability ball	28
Barbell	154		EZ barbell	23
Leverage machine	81		Assisted / Sled machine	15 each
Band	54		Medicine ball	13
Smith machine	48		Other (13 types)	40

~25% of exercises need no equipment at all — great for at-home workout apps.

Volume coverage

Metric	Count
Exercises with volume data	1,115 (84%)
Movement-pattern profiles (volume_profile)	37
Movement groups	20
Muscles in the vocabulary	22 (20 currently used)
Intentionally without volume (stretches, cardio, Olympic hybrids, isometrics)	209

Top movement patterns by exercise count:

volume_profile	count		volume_profile	count
Biceps curls	143		Oblique twists & side bends	54
Triceps extensions	137		Dumbbell overhead press	43
Ab crunches	113		Standing calf raises	39
Dumbbell bench press	96		Chin-ups & pulldowns	35
Cable rows	72		Rear delt flys	32
Barbell squats	56		Lunges & step-ups	30

Exercises training each muscle

involved counts any appearance in a volume map; direct counts only 1.0 entries.

Muscle	involved	direct		Muscle	involved	direct
Triceps	383	172		Calves	169	61
Abs	326	113		Hamstrings	126	43
Chest	297	135		Quads	119	99
Biceps	274	202		Upper Traps	103	30
Upper Back	238	165		Side Delts	84	73
Glutes	220	148		Obliques	42	42
Front Delts	219	219		Abductors	35	5
Lower Back	211	91		Forearms	31	31
Rear Delts	182	158		Obliques	54	54
Lats	170	150		Adductors / Serratus	4 / 2	4 / 2

Provenance & license

• Exercise names, equipment data, and multilingual instructions derive from hasaneyldrm/exercises-dataset (MIT). The media files (images/GIFs) of that project are not included here — they are separately licensed (© Gym visual) and were removed along with their reference fields.
• The muscle-volume system (movement-pattern profiles, direct/indirect involvement maps, the movement hierarchy, and the 22-muscle vocabulary) is added by this project.

Released under the MIT License.