About StrengthDB

Motivation for StrengthDB

StrengthDB allows you to find actually good instructions for many lifts and exercises. Doesn't really sound groundbreaking, does it? I'm sure you've come across tons of websites or video channels with instructions if you've ever searched for how to execute a particular lift.

The first question that arise is if they actually provide good instructions or just instructions. In many cases it's the latter. I train primarily competitive athletes who are either champions or strive to be and I'm not comfortable pointing them to these sources. There might be some good information out there but to be sure I'd have to check every thing they publish and that's not going to happen.

There's another thing you might notice when you come to this website. It's really sparse looking. It also loads really fast. It doesn't take an extra five seconds because it's so important to show you "hot moms in your area", or "free chances to win" when all you're looking for is how to do a french press. Also there's no cookie banner to decline, nor a "SIGN UP TO MY NEWSLETTER!!" thrown up over the content when you've read half the instructions. That's because we don't use ads, don't collect and sell your data to others, or think it's worth pissing everyone off just because one out of a thousand might sign up to a newsletter that you'll probably block anyway because it ends up spamming your inbox every day.

So actually good instructions viable for beginners as well as top athletes, delivered fast and without spamming your face with pop-ups and ads. That's motivation enough for me.

Reading the instructions

First of all, if you're not familiar with the concept of power breathing I strongly encourage you to read about it here. Unless you've trained at a proper lifting club it's likely you've never learned it, and everyone lifting weights should!

The instructions for each lift is laid out as clear and to the point as possible. I've taken care to not flood them with unneccessary words because most are likely not here to read a book (if you want books, there are free ones at everlifting.com). Each lift is divided into "Setup", "Step 1", and "Step 2".

Setup is what happens before the lift even begins. There's more to it for some lifts than you might think. Step 1 and 2 refer to either the concentric or eccentric portions of the lift. Some call them "positive" and "negative". Step 1 and 2 were chosen because anyone should be able to grok the instructions, regardless if they're caught up on terminology or not. Some lifts start with a lowering phase (for example squat or bench press), others with the lifting phase (for instance deadlifts and pullups). They're placed in the order of execution of the first rep.

StrengthDB for developers

If you're a developer looking to add actually good instructions to your training app you'll be happy to know that StrengthDB can be included for a license fee. Contact Everlifting and provide some background, such as: the app you want to include it in, if it's proprietary or open source, and some basic information about your company.

FAQ

Why isn't x included among the exercises?

StrengthDB is a work in progress. Several hundreds of exercises are on the list to be added.

Will you include videos?

Not without financial backing. Recording video efficiently is a two person job (at least) and would take a significant amount of time for so many exercises. Then there's the whole process of editing, uploading and stuff.

What about pictures?

Maybe. It's not a priority. Again, the time investment is huge.

Why doesn't the instructions tell what muscles are trained?

The obsession with specific muscle is overrated. You can't isolate muscle and calling something like the bench press, for instance, a "chest exercise" completely misses the point of the lift. If you're concerned about strength you should think more about movement than muscle anyway. With that said, I have thought about it but decided against it for the time being.