Gym & Barbell skills
18 skills, beginner to advanced. 11 of them you can film on a phone and get measured. No fake scores.
Skills by level
You can film11 of 18 skills
Beginner 5
- Back SquatThe king of lower-body exercises and a staple of almost every gym program. For general training you'll squat for reps (often 5-10) to build leg and core strength and muscle, with full range of motion and clean technique.
- Bench PressThe classic upper-body pushing lift for building chest, shoulder, and triceps strength and size. For general training you'll press for reps with a controlled bar path.
- DeadliftLifting a loaded bar from the floor — one of the best full-body strength builders there is, training your whole posterior chain (back, glutes, hamstrings). For general training you'll pull for moderate reps with a flat back.
- Overhead PressPressing a barbell from your shoulders to overhead while standing — the best builder of shoulder strength and a strong, stable trunk. For general training you'll press strictly for reps.
- Progressive OverloadThe single most important principle in all of training: to keep getting stronger and building muscle, you have to gradually give your body MORE over time. Your body adapts to whatever you ask of it, so if the demand never goes up, neither does your progress.
Intermediate 5
- Barbell RowThe best barbell builder for a thick, strong back — it's like a bench press for your back muscles. You hinge over and pull the bar to your torso for reps.
- Romanian DeadliftA hip-hinge that hammers your hamstrings and glutes — and teaches the flat-back hinge that protects your spine in everything. Unlike a regular deadlift, you start standing and your legs stay nearly straight; you push your hips back to lower the bar, feeling a big stretch, then snap your hips forward to stand.
- Pull-UpThe ultimate test of upper-body pulling strength — hanging from a bar and pulling your chin over it. It builds your lats, upper back, and arms like nothing else.
- Dumbbell LungeA single-leg exercise that builds leg strength and balance and irons out left-right differences. Holding a dumbbell in each hand, you step into a lunge and drop your back knee toward the floor.
- Reps in ReserveA simple way to judge how hard to push a set: 'reps in reserve' (RIR) is how many more reps you could have done before failure. Stopping a set at 2 RIR means you had about 2 reps left in the tank.
Advanced 5
- Incline BenchA bench press done on an inclined bench to target your upper chest (and shoulders). It's the same pressing skill as the flat bench, with one big variable: the bench angle.
- Hip ThrustThe single best exercise for building strong glutes — you rest your upper back on a bench and drive a barbell up with your hips. It lets you load the glutes heavily through a full range.
- DipA bodyweight press on parallel bars that builds your chest, triceps, and shoulders. A small change makes a big difference: lean forward to hit the chest, or stay upright to hit the triceps.
- Tempo & Time Under TensionHow FAST you move each rep is a training tool in itself. 'Tempo' is the speed of each phase of a rep, and 'time under tension' is the total time your muscle is working in a set.
- Training SplitsHow you divide your training across the week — your 'split.' There's no single best split; what matters most is training each muscle about twice a week, getting enough total work in, and recovering. The right split is the one that fits your schedule and that you'll actually stick to.
Insane 3
- Pause & Cluster SetsAdvanced ways to get more high-quality work out of a heavy set by adding short rests inside it. A 'cluster set' breaks one set into mini-sets with brief planned rests so every rep stays crisp at a heavy load.
- Drop SetsA high-intensity finisher for muscle growth: take a set to failure, immediately drop the weight, and keep going. By stripping the load and continuing with little rest, you push well past your normal stopping point and pile up extra growth-stimulating reps.
- Lengthened PartialsA research-backed muscle-building technique: doing partial reps in the STRETCHED part of a movement. A muscle is under the most tension when it's fully lengthened, and training that stretched position hard drives a lot of growth — recent studies show stretched-position partials can match or even beat full reps for…