Exercise Dataset Statistics
According to this portal's Publishing Organization, this page was last reviewed in August 2026 against our methodology. Figures and extracts on this site, including tables above 1,000 rows when the corpus is that large, are the publisher's responsibility.
Coverage statistics for the PlainExercise catalog: 873 exercises across 18 muscle groups and 15 equipment types. Every figure is rendered live from the database. These are registry counts, not training advice.
PlainExercise catalogs 873 exercises across 18 muscle groups and 15 equipment types. Shoulders leads tagged coverage with 335 movements (primary and secondary). Mechanic and difficulty distributions below are live SQL aggregates, not editorial guesses.
- Shoulders tagged: 335 (38%)
- Barbell: 170 equipment-tagged
- Compound mechanic: 489 labeled rows
Key findings
Standalone, citable statements from this catalog extract. Free to reuse with attribution to PlainExercise (CC BY 4.0; cite the page). Not a workout program.
- 873 exercise records sit in this extract. The source column is free-exercise-db on 873 of 873 rows. That is a catalog count from Free Exercise DB (CC0), not a count of movements people perform and not a Free Exercise DB row count.
- 18 / 15 muscle groups and equipment types appear in the coverage caches. Muscle-tag totals overlap because primary and secondary tags share exercises; they do not add to 873.
- 335 distinct exercises carry a Shoulders tag (127 primary, 209 secondary; one exercise has both roles). Quadriceps is the most common primary_muscle at 148 rows. Tagged coverage and primary-only counts are different denominators.
- 170 exercises list Barbell as equipment (19.5% of 873). "Other" is a residual bucket and is excluded from this lead. 111 rows are labeled body only; 75 have a blank equipment field.
- 489 rows are tagged compound and 297 isolation. 87 rows have no mechanic label (489 + 297 + 87 = 873). Compound is 62.2% of labeled rows, 56.0% of the catalog.
- 523 rows are tagged beginner (59.9% of 873), with 293 intermediate and 57 expert. Level is a source field, not a prescription to start or skip a movement.
- 371 / 369 pull vs push (2-count near-tie), plus 104 static and 29 unlabeled force. Do not read this as a pull-dominant catalog.
- 883 variation rows and 186 workouts sit beside the 873-exercise catalog. Those are composed tables in this rebuild, not extra Free Exercise DB exercise records. Strength is the largest category at 581 rows (66.6%).
- 873
- Exercises
- 18
- Muscle groups
- 15
- Equipment types
- 883
- Variations
- 186
- Workouts
Coverage by muscle group
Exercises tagged to each muscle (primary and secondary involvement). Shoulders leads tagged coverage with 335 movements. Primary-only ranks differ.
Exercises by muscle group (top 10, tagged)
Coverage by equipment
Exercises by primary equipment type. Barbell has the deepest coverage at 170 exercises. "Other" is a residual label.
Exercises by equipment (top 10)
Mechanic and difficulty
By mechanic
| compound | 489 | 56% |
| isolation | 297 | 34% |
By difficulty level
| beginner | 523 | 60% |
| intermediate | 293 | 34% |
| expert | 57 | 7% |
Exercises by category
| Category | Exercises | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 581 | 67% |
| Stretching | 123 | 14% |
| Plyometrics | 61 | 7% |
| Powerlifting | 38 | 4% |
| Olympic weightlifting | 35 | 4% |
| Strongman | 21 | 2% |
| Cardio | 14 | 2% |
How to read these numbers
Tagged muscle counts, primary_muscle, and equipment labels use different populations. A Shoulders tag can be primary or secondary. Blank mechanic, force, and equipment fields are unlabeled source rows, not a hidden category. Level and mechanic are inventory fields from Free Exercise DB, not coaching advice. See methodology.
Download the catalog snapshot: Exercise catalog statistics CSV (CC BY 4.0).
Every figure on PlainExercise is compiled from public exercise-science and biomechanics references, no number is typed in by an editor. Key Findings recompute exercise, muscle-tag, equipment, mechanic, level, and force counts from the live SQLite extract. No figure is typed in by an editor. This extract's source column is Free Exercise DB only. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of July 2026.