Exercise Library

Lyftr ships with an 800+ exercise library that seeds itself automatically. No API key, no manual import, no setup.

Automatic seeding

On first startup, Lyftr fetches the catalog from free-exercise-db in the background:

[startup] exercises table empty — fetching from free-exercise-db...
[startup] seed: synced 868 exercises

The seed runs async, so the server is available immediately — exercises appear in the UI within a few seconds. Each exercise includes its muscle groups, equipment, category, and instructions.

Re-syncing

To pull the latest exercises, go to Settings → Exercise Library. It shows the current exercise count and a progress indicator while seeding. Hit Re-sync to update.

Your data is safe

Re-sync is a safe upsert — it updates the catalog without touching your logged workouts, sets, or history.

Empty list?

If no exercises appear, check the logs and re-sync:

docker compose logs backend | grep -i seed

See Troubleshooting if the seed can’t reach GitHub (it needs outbound HTTPS on first run).