Exercises

Badger ships with around 367 exercises across 8 categories. You can use them as-is, customize them, create your own exercises, or add custom categories to organise niche movements.

Exercise library

The Exercises tab shows your full exercise library grouped by category. At the top is a Favorites row - exercises you've starred for quick access.

A Recently trained row appears below Favorites, showing up to 8 exercises you've used recently. It's hidden while you're actively searching.

Search & filtering

The search bar at the top searches across all exercise names. Typing narrows the list in real time.

Muscle filter

Tap the muscle icon to open the muscle filter. You'll see an interactive body diagram at the top with a scrollable list below it.

• Tap a region on the body diagram to filter by that muscle group.
• Tap a muscle group header in the list to select the whole group.
• Tap a specific muscle to narrow to just that muscle.
• An active filter shows as a pill below the search bar. Tap it to clear.

Equipment filter

Tap the equipment icon to filter by equipment type: barbell, dumbbell, cable, machine, bodyweight, kettlebell, band, or other. An active filter shows as a pill below the search bar.

Categories

Exercises are grouped into categories. Badger includes 8 built-in categories: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, Legs, Core, and Cardio.

You can also create your own. At the bottom of the exercise library's category list, tap New category to name it and pick a color. Custom categories work everywhere - the exercise picker, filters, and the weekly volume card on the Today screen. They don't appear in the muscle heatmap since they have no muscle-group mapping, but everything else works normally.

To rename or change the color of any category (built-in or custom), tap the pencil icon next to it. To delete a category, tap the trash icon. A category can only be deleted when it's empty - if it still contains exercises, Badger tells you how many and asks you to move or delete them first, so nothing is removed by accident.

Drag the handle on a category row to reorder the list.

Creating exercises

Tap the + button in the exercise library or via Add exercise → Create new in the workout flow.

Required fields

• Name - Exercise name.
• Category - One of the built-in categories, or a custom one you've created.
• Exercise type - Determines which fields appear when logging (see below).

Optional fields

• Weight unit - kg or lbs. Defaults to your global setting but can be overridden per exercise.
• Default increment - How much weight to add when using the progressive overload suggestion.
• Default rest (working sets) - Rest timer duration for working sets of this exercise.
• Default rest (warmup sets) - Rest timer duration after warmup sets.
• Primary & secondary muscles - Assign muscles using the body diagram. Used for muscle balance tracking and filtering.
• Plate calculator mode - Barbell (dual-loaded), Machine (symmetric), or Single lever. Sets how the plate calculator splits the weight.
• Bar weight - Override the default bar weight for the plate calculator.
• Compatible machines - Link this exercise to machines available at your gyms. Used to filter machine options in the training screen.
• Default graph - Which progress graph to show first on the Progress screen.
• Notes - Personal reminders for this exercise (form cues, machine settings, links, etc.). Shown automatically at the top of the training screen when you log this exercise.
• Instructions - Technique reference (pre-filled for all built-in exercises). Tap the card in the training screen to view or edit.

Exercise types

The exercise type determines which fields appear when you're logging a set.

Linked exercises

If two exercises are really the same movement under different names (e.g. Flat Bench Press and Barbell Bench Press, or a free-weight lift and its machine variant), you can link them so they share progress history and personal records.

To link exercises:

• Open an exercise in the library and tap Edit.
• Scroll to the Linked Exercises section (below Compatible Machines).
• Tap Link exercise and pick the exercise you want to link.

Once linked, both exercises show the same progress graphs, PRs, stats, and history. The PR check while logging also considers sets from linked exercises - a new best on one counts as a PR on both.

To unlink, tap the × on a linked-exercise chip. A confirmation dialog appears - after confirming, the two exercises no longer share history. Both remain in the library; linking never merges or deletes either exercise.

Favorites

Tap the heart icon on any exercise row to add it to Favorites. Favorites appear at the top of the exercise library for quick access. The same heart icon removes it from Favorites.

Avoided exercises

Open the ⋮ menu on any exercise row and choose Mark as avoided to flag an exercise you don't want in your program (injury, personal preference, equipment you don't have). Avoided exercises show a small "Avoided" tag and a dimmed name so they're easy to spot. This is separate from Favorites - it's a "no thanks" signal, not a positive one. Avoided exercises stay fully usable; the flag is a marker, not a block. Choose Remove from avoided from the same menu to clear it.

Exercise settings (per workout)

From the training screen, tap ⋮ → Exercise settings to open the exercise notes screen. This lets you set per-exercise overrides for the current session and beyond:

• Freeform notes
• Default weight increment
• Default rest durations (working + warmup)
• Bar weight for plate calculator
• Tempo (e.g. "3-1-2-0")
• Muscle assignments

Deleting exercises

Open an exercise in the library → tap Edit → scroll to the bottom and tap Delete. To protect your history, Badger won't delete an exercise that's still in use: if it appears in any logged workouts or routines, you'll see a note telling you how many of each, and the delete is blocked. Remove it from those routines and delete the related workouts first if you really want it gone. An exercise with no history attached deletes immediately after you confirm.