A high-performance, open-source API for managing workouts, muscle activations, equipment, and body parts. Built for developers, trainers, and fitness platforms that want to build powerful, flexible, and cost-effective exercise recommendation systems.
This API powers smart workout search, alternative exercise suggestions based on actual muscle activation data, and lets you manage detailed fitness metadata across exercises.
Website: WorkoutDB API
The API includes endpoints for:
- Workouts: with names, instructions, muscles, equipment, and YouTube demos
- Muscles: including grouped muscle codes and activation levels
- Muscle Activations: scientifically grounded values (0.0–1.0)
- Equipment and Body Parts metadata
- Smart Alternatives: Get similar workouts based on activation profiles
Muscle activation values are grounded in biomechanical and sports science literature. They're used to compare and recommend exercises based on how much a particular muscle is engaged.
WorkoutDB is optimized for performance and affordability using a modern serverless stack:
- Backend: Hono (fast, minimal web framework)
- Runtime: Cloudflare Workers (ultra-fast global edge compute via V8 isolates)
- ORM: Drizzle ORM (type-safe database access)
- Database: Supabase PostgreSQL (hosted with relational schema)
- Infrastructure: Wrangler for deploying to Cloudflare
- Environment: Built with TypeScript, ESM-first, ESLint, Prettier, and Husky for linting and formatting
This stack allows API calls to return in milliseconds, even under load, while keeping infra costs low.
To get started with WorkoutDB locally:
git clone https://github.com/your-username/workout-db-api.git
cd workout-db-apibun installCreate a .dev.vars file in the root directory and fill in the following:
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=
BETTER_AUTH_URL=
DATABASE_URL=
DIRECT_URL=
VERSION=
ENVIRONMENT=development
API_KEY=
SUPABASE_URL=
SUPABASE_KEY=
RAPID_API_SECRET=
ADMIN_KEY=bun run devThis uses Cloudflare Workers + Wrangler to run the project locally.
Use the Drizzle ORM CLI to manage your database:
bun run db:push # Apply schema
bun run db:pull # Sync with remoteGet scientifically-backed alternate workouts using real muscle activation data. Whether your users are avoiding injury, training different muscles, or need variety, our algorithm provides alternatives based on actual activation levels—not guesswork.
Search is smooth and intuitive. The API supports autocomplete for exercise names, body parts, equipment, and muscle groups, helping users find the exact workout they’re looking for—fast.
The API is optimized for high performance and low latency. Responses are paginated, cache-safe (on your end), and can handle bulk updates efficiently—ideal for mobile apps and frontend dashboards.
Built for scale without burning a hole in your budget. WorkoutDB offers developer-friendly pricing, so you can build powerful fitness applications while keeping costs low.
Access a rich and curated collection of:
- 1500+ workouts
- Detailed muscle mappings
- Equipment and body part breakdowns
- Step-by-step instructions for each exercise
Beyond names and categories, each workout entry includes:
- Primary and secondary muscle activations
- Activation scores (0.0 – 1.0) for precision
- Great for visual analytics, charts, and adaptive workout planning
- Alternate workouts using Muscle activations using vectors
- Search Workout using Postgres indexing
- Work on Autocomplete keywords
- Add Workout images
- Add feature to get bodypart on image by body part id
- Add Redis cache for fast data access
- Move search index to cache
📜 Expand to Read
All data and content served by the WorkoutDB API—including but not limited to workouts, exercises, muscle information, equipment details, and body part metadata—are the exclusive property of the WorkoutDB API team. You are not permitted to claim ownership of the underlying data, structure, or compiled datasets.
By subscribing to or accessing the WorkoutDB API, you are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, and revocable license to access and use the API content during your active subscription period. This license is subject to these Terms of Use and may be terminated at any time upon violation of any term herein.
Upon the expiration, cancellation, or non-payment of a subscription, all rights to use the WorkoutDB API are immediately revoked. Users must cease accessing the API and delete any locally stored or cached data retrieved from the API, including all JSON responses, linked content, and derivative datasets.
Caching or storing WorkoutDB API responses is strictly prohibited, unless explicitly permitted through a separate licensing agreement. Clients are expected to make live API calls for each data retrieval. You may not create a shadow database or offline copy of the API data.
The following activities are strictly forbidden:
- Redistributing, reselling, or sublicensing the data served through the API.
- Scraping the API or any of its endpoints.
- Using the API data to build a competing service or derivative dataset that mimics WorkoutDB functionality or structure.
- Using the API content in violation of any local, national, or international laws.
Some workout entries may include links to publicly available YouTube videos. These videos are:
- Not owned or controlled by WorkoutDB.
- Provided solely for convenience and demonstration purposes.
- The responsibility for ensuring proper usage of these links and any content therein rests entirely with the user.
WorkoutDB does not host or distribute any video files directly.
WorkoutDB reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time. Continued use of the API following any changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms. You are encouraged to review this page periodically.
For inquiries, license extensions, or reporting violations, please reach out to the API support team at:
Email: [email protected]