When I was first starting any kind of fitness in my life, I went through several of the programs on darebee and read many of their guides. I found the content to be exactly right for me at the time. Digestible, detailed, 30 day plans for beginners. They also warm my heart with their hard stance on keeping the content free, having zero ads, and being accessible to anyone with internet access of any speed.
I hesitate to speak for them, but I don't think their mission is to provide content for people who already know what they want out of exercise, have been exercising for years, and understand what is and isn't good for their body. If you're experienced in fitness, the site likely isn't for you. And that's fine, isn't it?
Some folks have called out perhaps not understanding the funding issues with hosting a site so minimal. You're right, that part is cheap. It's the content creators, who are fitness professionals spending their time not working for money that need to be supported by the funding. They also do various outreach programs that of course require money to make happen.
Not a Darebee user myself, but I'm very sympathetic to this perspective— I'm mid-thirties, and a few months ago got interested in losing 10-20 pounds and building up a bit of mass, but without significant time or money commitment. It couldn't be a "crash" thing that would require many hours per week in the gym; it had to be stuff that would integrate naturally into a long-term daily routine.
I ended up settling on lane swimming combined with a ~20min routine cobbled together from YouTube videos and other sources, mostly arm workouts built around a pair of 10lb dumbbells and then ab stuff like the dead bug exercise. I try to do the routine most days, sometimes twice a day.
Something like Darebee would have been valuable when I was just getting off the ground.
> And that's fine, isn't it?
Misleading begginers with bad routines that are possibly injury-prone wrapped in social media branding so it gets reposted everywhere isn't exactly fine IMHO
Misleading, bad, injury prone... not sure where your confidence for these claims comes from, but glad you're so certain, I guess. I can't understand what's wrong about trying to find users in the largest corners of the internet either.
Darebee was good for me. I've said why it was. It is strange to me that you might consider my experience to be wrong? invalid? and that nobody else might find this resource useful?
Such a pleasure to see Darebee mentioned here. I honestly didn't even remember its name till now. But, I started my weights with Darebee charts (the full body workout ones ... kinda sound good).
Simply following that chart easily takes 45 mins and does a great job for physical and mental health. With pretty limited free time, I found the exercises to be very useful and as effective on average as going to the gym. I don't quite understand the value add of a fitness trainer for the average fitness Joe (like me)
I am by no measure a fitness expert ... please feel free to critique them in terms of utility to physical and mental health.
This. Especially for compound lifts (eg: back squat, bench press, deadlift, cleans, etc). Building good technique and form is essential to avoiding serious injury and making sustainable progress. Having a trainer, even 1-2 times a month, is a good investment if lifting is a part of your routine.
Also probably has something to do with using the sunk cost fallacy to inspire some people to exercise. If you've paid for a trainer you won't find it as easy to just stop.
Form and transitions. Those are hard to illustrate in pictures. Case in point: it's pretty much impossible to illustrate correct rowing machine technique with pictures alone. I also recommend a mirror for yoga, or other "pose" exercises.
Side note, how much can it possibly cost to host something like this? Chuck it behind Cloudflare Pages, or Github pages. As far as I can tell it's a static site
How do they draw all the figures in the routines? How long would it take a graphic designer to do one? Is there an automate way? I'm just wondering because the figures look so consistent.
I loved Darebee a few years ago when I was a teenager and didn't have any equipment to exercise. Their programs are quite easy to follow and the most important thing is that they instill a habit of exercising everyday.
Feedback on form/routines/diet was also quite good in the forums.
For those asking about why they need funding, if I remember correctly they test all their programs before release, as well as film the exercises with the correct form, so it's not only hosting that they need to pay for. The videos are high quality, for example: https://darebee.com/exercises/push-ups.html
If you're looking for more of a strict database of "movements" and tutorials - check out https://impossiblefitness.com/movements - free videos and tutorial descriptions of how to do many of these movements (we're launching more and more new videos and updates here soon).
I like the initiative, but I wouldn't recommend these tutorials to my friends. A couple points I'd change in the back squat tutorial (which was the first one I checked):
- "Position your feet with an outwards 45-degree angle": the angle depends on the hip anatomy, and 45 degrees is very extreme. Rather, make sure that your hip, knee and foot is in the same plane at all times.
- "Pause for a moment at the bottom" is okay but unnecessary.
- No mention of proper tension in the upper body (and especially avoiding rounding in the lower back). This can become extremely dangerous, and preventing injury should be the number 1 priority. (FYI, an amazing guide to bracing [1].)
- Also for safety: instead of "until your thighs just break parallel with the ground", one shall not go deeper than their mobility allows (which might be above parallel).
- It's hard to follow the movement with the camera moving up-and-down and zoomed in so much. A fixed camera that shows the entire body (and is possibly circling around the person) would be much better. The knees and ankles are very important, yet we get a single glance at her feet.
- The video shows the squatter in the opposite direction than in the description. This way she needs to walk backwards to put the weight back, which undesirable.
Darebee is absolutely fantastic, and has been for years. They used to publish these one-sheet-workouts under the name of their founder Neila Rey and they have always been concise, ad free and low barrier of entry. They have been free the entire time, so I only recommend donating to them. They also published two Android apps which are absolutely worth checking out:
"Workouts by Darebee", which presents you a random workout sheet (multiple workouts with repetitions and a timer) and
"FitTap by Darebee", on which you are shown a random single workout. Tap anywhere on the screen for the next random workout.
I really cannot recommend them enough, they set the barrier of entry so incredibly low it's fantastic. I used to tediously plan my workouts, order, number of sets, read up on them in the web etc to exhaustion that I almost forgot to actually start the workout. That of course also has it's merits, but for a very quick 15 minute workout in your lunch break, these apps are so much better.
My opinion on this as a parkour and fitness coach is that those routines are quite bad. Without explanations on how to do the moves well, it's much likely that the moves will be done wrong and lead to injuries, and even without that concern in mind, they're barely acceptable. Number of repetitions is generally too high (ideal set is 3x5 rep to 3x8 rep with 3 minute rest), exercises aren't grouped in any logical way (some pages feature both legs and arms, some don't, etc.). Practice this kind of workout regularly would most likely lead to muscle balance issues, pain or even injuries.
If you are interested in bodyweight fitness, /r/bodyweightfitness wiki is a great start to find recommendation and routines.
Where did you get your info though? Like how do you know your way is correct?
There are multiple studies[1] showing that lifting to exhaustion yields the same results regardless of the weight and number of reps, so it already seems like you're repeating conventional wisdom rather than verifiable science.
There seems to be so little science in the fitness world, I have trouble trusting anything. My friend is a physical therapist and shocked me by saying almost nothing they do has been verified by double-blind trials. I had always thought they were evidence-based practitioners, but they don't seem to be that much better than chiropractors.
Beware when retread football coaches think they are "exercise scientists".
For a good example of how inbred the exercise field is, consider what happened when a serious researcher actually read the "references" in exercise textbooks and found they had nothing to do with the received dogma on the strength-endurance curve.[0] So what happened? The major journals refused to publish the article! This podcast episode has its Kafkaesque moments.[1]
> Beware when retread football coaches think they are "exercise scientists".
Honestly, that's a step above what I encounter most of the time. I feel like most people who think they're exercise experts are just reading message boards and watching YouTube videos.
Aye. There are SO many confident coaches, practitioners, athletes, nerds; but they'll just as confidently tell you to never skip breakfast to kick-start your metabolism, use cup-suction to massage your muscles, and all sorta of firm advice on exercises grouping intervals posture etc; and yet, it all just seems to trickle down to "common wisdom" and "accepted truths", or most of all "This is what I've personally observed works" for some given value of "observed" and "works".
I think it's an area that IS hard to scientifically study - the bodies, goals, and progress are all so frequently and radically different, and confounding variables are everywhere - but for a lot of coaches it's not even a goal; there's a complete lack of humility in any coach, fitness trainer, or even phys ed teacher I've ever seen. There's a LOT of anecdotal certainty ("I've seen this work well"), and little solid demonstrable repeatable evidence.
>There are multiple studies[1] showing that lifting to exhaustion yields the same results regardless of the weight and number of reps
Worth noting: for both of the studies cited the high end of reps for light weight is 25 while the low end for reps in heavy is 8, both well within "conventional wisdom". What I mean by that is not that conventional wisdom is right, but that the truth probably lies somewhere in there, frankly the state of things is one that I hate, I'd love to be able to just take an exercise plan tested and true, the most similar thing I've found is Julian's Shapiro workout plan[1] which, from a google search, doesn't even have a good reputation in different fitness communities. Would love a larger discussion about that but it isn't that popular to begin with.
>My friend is a physical therapist and shocked me by saying almost nothing they do has been verified by double-blind trials.
I'll one-up you here. A friend of mine is a physical therapist and as such most of my friends who exercise follow her word as gospel. Said gospel states that rest times above 90 seconds are way too much and that they should be preferably kept to 40 to 60 seconds. All I can argue is that about nothing points to that being optimal but it's not my field so it gets complicated.
> Where did you get your info though? Like how do you know your way is correct?
I studied biomechanics & sports in an University. What I said, I learnt it in class, from people who actually run some of the studies we're talking about.
It's not rocket science tho, as you mentioned, studies are weak, methodology is harder to implement than in most fields, so I'm not saying "those are facts and deal with it". It might change. But AFAIK, it's the consensus in universities (or at least, was 5-6 years ago when I was studying there). And it seems to be that it's far to be common knowledge amongst coaches and trainers, I rarely meet people I agree with in these communities.
I'm not sure how that's relevant as an argument. They say you can do it but it's less efficient. Good, but why promote it then ? Most people want their routine to be short and efficient. And this is one thing amongst dozen of other problems. Muscle imbalance, lack of personalisation, risk of wrongdoing and injury, etc.
How do you double-blind telling a person to do push ups versus the person that does bench presses versus the control that watches them while eating dingdongs?
That isn't the kind of medical intervention (practiced by PTs) that I was talking about.
I was referring more to the different manipulations and exercises they choose for people. You can blind those studies by using sham exercises. They do the same thing (within ethical boundaries) for certain surgical procedures[1].
"ideal set is 3x5 rep to 3x8 rep with 3 minute rest", ideal for what?
Ideal for hypertrophy? Strength? Power? Fat loss? Probably not endurance... Perhaps the exercise routines on this site aren't great (I don't know), if you have evidence to support your claims I would definitely be interested.
> Ideal for hypertrophy? Strength? Power? Fat loss? Probably not endurance...
Small (3-8) sets for strength, bit longer ones for hypertrophy (10-12), but outside of specific extreme endurance training (e.g. long runners), training strength is often better than training endurance regarding to endurance tasks. You'll eventually do more regular PU if you train harder variations than if you simply increase PU volume. Strength work is also amazing for fat loss. Amongst other benefits, training for strength is much faster, and (in my very subjective experience) more psychologically rewarding.
Sources on this matter hard indeed scarce. I'm not saying those are just common knowledge, there are studies pointing toward what I said. I had access to those mostly during my biomechanics classes at University. But it's not amazing meta-analysis with double blind methodology and 3000 subject. Far from that. I'm open to change my mind when new (and better) studies will be released, but as the time of my studies, that's what you learn in universities
HN is a tech forum, with tech needs. The word "database" conjures up a specific image in our minds. And THIS is NOT what I had in mind when I read "database".
Mind you, this is a perfectly valid use of the word "database", and I appreciate having my mind expanded.
I used Darebee when I got started, it gave me good ideas of bodyweight exercises. As mentioned before MuscleWiki is also a great resource. I've been looking for a good source of bodyweight exercises with progression, anyone? The only one I've found so far that has plenty of instructions is this one -> startbodyweight.com - but I was hoping for something more direct to the point and less blog like.
reddit /r/bodyweightfitness has a recommended routine in the sidebar. They say it is for beginners but their progressions go to some very advanced moves. The sub is one of the ones that is sort of eternal noobish but there are some pretty knowledgeable people there if you are looking for more progressions than they have on the wiki.
I can certainly recommend this as a starting point. I dropped the gym membership several years ago and basically have only done some variant of the /r/bodyweightfitness rr since... around 2017 I think?
My key insight was to start with the RR and then supplement / mix it up once I understood what was going on. There are interesting variants and/or alternatives to the individual exercises in the RR that are worth exploring. You can target slightly different muscle groups in slightly different ways (e.g., hammer pull ups vs chin ups vs wide bar strict pull ups etc). You can rotate through them to keep things interesting.
A fun "hacker" approach (for me anyway) was to try to improvise supplemental exercises myself rather than looking them up. I independently discovered using rings for hamstring curls by messing around on my own, for example. Same with ring bicep curls.
If you have a pull-up bar and rings, the amount of variation at your disposal is really quite large.
I’ve been using Mark Lauren’s material for a few years. He has a few books with exercises and progressions - You Are Your Own Gym, Strong and Lean, Body by You.
There’s also a subscription video service which I’ve gotten a ton of value out of, Mark Lauren on Demand, which has a bunch of exercise programs from beginner to advanced. I think it’s $9/month. All bodyweight stuff, and most exercises don’t require any equipment (a few need stuff like a pull-up bar, or a bench/table). They’ve been releasing new material regularly, most recently a program based on short 10-20min workouts. I like the balance of strength and mobility/flexibility work.
Drew Baye has a book on bodyweight HIT (High Intensity strength Training), which he calls Project Kratos[0]. It uses changes in leverage and your natural strength curves to achieve a classic HIT workout (intense to momentary muscular failure, brief - 60-90 seconds time under load, and infrequent - once or twice a week) using only body weight.
Have you looked at the reccomended routine in the /r/bodyweightfitness subreddit? I'm still using the old one (pre-2018 I think) because the newer one requires some equipment.
There is a cool app called AGIT that gives you feedback on you progress and form regarding fitness.
They use the smartphone camera (and some AI I guess) to track fitness - kinda like strava for fitness. I've been doing some of their challenges and that competition is motivating me for now!
I mean if you want to do some exercise instead of p90x or watching aerobics on the TV I guess these are OK, but it is only exercise rather than training, and despite them having "strength programs" you won't get properly strong doing them.
Properly strong for what? I never understood the obsession with arbitrary strength. Oh look, that guy can lift a car over his head, that's cool. He can barely jump over a paint can, but if one day somebody's trapped under a car, and he's nearby, it'll all have been worth it.
I wish I could lift a car over my head! Like anything in life, if you push something too far, you get diminishing returns and I wouldn't advise the super-heavyweight powerlifter life.
However, I would say most people don't even realise how strong they could possibly get with a few years training without PEDs or becoming fat. Not "I can carry all my shopping in one trip" but "I could carry my own bodyweight in each hand". I think being that level of strong is just what, say, our great-grandfathers (or even great grandmothers) who grew up on a farm would think is normal.
I'm already strong enough to do everything I want to do - and that is without exercise. I'm more interested in things that promote general health than some arbitrary strength goal.
If you have a squat rack, a bench, and a bar, I recommend the 5x5 program. There’s an app called StrongLifts that does a solid job of helping guide form and track your progress. You start out with the empty bar and work up in 5lb increments on 5 different core barbell lifts (10lb increments on deadlift), 3 times per week, alternating A and B programs, always with the squat in the mix. Within about 8 weeks you will notice a big difference.
If you can afford it, I’d recommend hiring a trainer for at least 3 lessons spaced out over your first few weeks so you can tune your form on the exercises, learn to build core control, and build good habits to avoid injury.
This program is based on the program described in the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, which has gotten a lot of attention over the years. The book does an alright job of explaining the core movements and your likely failure conditions, but it is a bit exhausting to read through.
That said, this is definitely one of the best/simplest ways to build physical strength, get comfortable with the bar, and get ready for more advanced training. After 8 weeks, I was squatting 3x what I was when I started.
Eventually, I switched to a plan put together by a trainer in my neighborhood, where we do a little more rotation just to keep things interesting. Keeping things interesting is NOT important when you're first learning though. If you're like me, just being able to throw another 10 lb on the bar when coming back after the weekend off was interesting!
I'm an amateur myself, so obviously take what I say with a grain of salt. Also I'm interpreting what you're saying is general weight/strength training but not body building (think Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Plainly put, there is isn't a super fast way. My understanding and experience is that muscle is developed over time with progressively more difficult weight. Critically, the recovery period for your muscles is required as that's when new muscle is being formed. I believe that rushing that process is what is most likely to lead to an injury, which funny enough will slow you down in the quest for strength. In other words, a heavy 6 day/week workout won't make you strong, but simply constantly exhausted.
I would advocate for the long slow road. There's no rush, and I believe you'll be stronger in the long run if you take your time. It's easier to handle mentally too in my opinion. You don't have to stress about going fast to be strong quickly. Enjoy it!
If you think weight lifting sounds cool, take up a program like Starting Strength or Strong Lifts 5x5. 3 days a week, often doing squats and throwing in bench press, dead lifts, and barbell rows. Take your time here! Look up videos on techniques and realize that people will be absolutists about form. Try and match the form, and be aware of different body types and how that will change the forms. Do this for a few cycles which would last 2-4 months. Assess your progress. It will be easy to tell because you'll be writing down your progress and adding weight each time you successfully complete a day. As it gets too difficult to maintain, look into new programs and go from there.
If you're not into weight training, I think a site like this is great. You'll want to scale back on how many reps/sets a bit, and study some techniques. You'll feel some changes over time, and in the beginning mostly a bit of confusing soreness.
Anyway, that's my recommendation! I genuinely hope you find what works for you and stick with it!
Thank you for the comprehensive reply. Ultimately, my goal would be to escape my current long distance runner physique and build muscle. I feel like I've been spinning my wheels for the last 2 months. Would you still suggest the same program?
Yeah, it's the main recommendation I see is for people who have never done weight lifting to begin with something like this.
I'd say do a 5x5 program consistently for 3 months, and track your progress over that time. If you follow the program, you'll progressively add weights each time you do that range until you complete a cycle or cannot complete the 5x5 set successfully.
Ex: You start off at 100lbs x 5 reps on the bench press, twice per week. If you do a 3 week cycle, it might look like this:
* 100 x 5
* 105 x 5
* 110 x 5
* 115 x 5
* 120 x 5
* 125 x 5
It's important to understand what you achieved here. Increasing weight this quickly is extremely good progress. Eventually you'll hit points where adding even 5lbs more feels difficult. So remember that 25lbs is a big amount. Keep that in mind as you go.
Usually these programs will have you take a slight break/do light weights on the 4th week. Then you'll repeat the 4 week cycle, but you increase your starting point from 100lbs to 110lbs (or something along those lines).
At some point, you'll get either bored of this or maybe start hitting the limits of them. Some of these programs have you squatting 5x5's three times a week, which after a while is exhausting. After that you can begin exploring other styles such as body building which emphasizes physique more than powerlifting or strongman.
Julian Shapiro, YCombinator alum, has a very nice guide to building muscle.[0]
The gateway drug to the HIT tradition, which began with genius Arthur Jones and Nautilus in the early 1970s, is this video presentation by Doug McGuff[1], author of Body by Science[2]. Whether you follow a HIT protocol or not, you should be familiar with the theory covered in Body by Science. Doug covers the definition of fitness and health (which is unusual right there for a fitness book!), the confounding effects of genetics, fat metabolism, and much, much more. The High Intensity Business podcast has all the leading figures in exercise research as guests, with a rich back catalog and very detailed links in the show notes.[3] And if you plan to do this for the rest of your life, give your future joints a break by not destroying them in your youth.[4][5]
6 days a week PPL for sure will get you stronger fast. If you can stick to 6 days a week, great! The quest for strength is a marathon though, not a sprint. The initial gains are fast and really enjoyable, but to get really strong requires discipline.
I personally have been doing 5/3/1 for a while and it’s been really effective. I ended up making an app [1] and a web calculator [2] for it.
My reply is based on assuming you have not trained before, thus a beginner.
When starting out, 3 times a week full-body workouts are recommended. You'll get the most bang from your buck, take advantage of newbie gains, and push yourself no more than need be to grow. Adaptations due to triggering muscle growth can take up to 36 hours, so full days rest in between workouts.
3 sets per exercise unless otherwise stated. Reps stick to 8 - 10. Once you have been training for a while, you can do reps in the 5 - 8 range, but off-the bat, doing that heavy, form can suffer, ego can kick in, and you'll look the same months down-the-line, and you'll have bad habits that will cause problems down-the-line, if not sooner.
Routine:
Monday
Squats
B Press
Lat Pulldown
Abs
Calfs
Shoulder side lateral raise
Bicep curls 2 sets
Tricep pulldown 2 sets
Wednesday
Incline Press
Deadlifts
Rows (bent over or regular)
Shoulder Press
Facepulls
Abs
Calfs
Friday
Squats
B Press
Lat Pulldown
Abs
Calfs
Shoulder side lateral raise
Bicep curls 2 sets
Tricep pulldown 2 sets
Rest in between sets: 2 minutes. If you need more, certainly with squats, then 3 minutes is fine. Do the exercises, if all 3 sets are within the rep range, you put on more weight next time. You grow when you rest, ie not when you train. Training is just to damage and trigger the growth. Progressive overload can be any number of things: increase reps, shorter rest time, increase weight. So, increase weight, increase reps with new weight, all 3 sets within rep range, increase weight, etc.
Make sure you sleep properly, 7 hours minimum. Eat properly, protein rich stuff. If problematic, protein shakes are fine. Nattys need to rest properly, and eat properly, and not do way too much volume, which you won't do with the above program.
After 8 weeks, deload week, can be where you don't train at all, or train with light weights. You can grow from any number of reps, provided percentage of muscle used is high enough. Takes longer with low weights, but once in a while a high rep program should be implemented, gives your joints a rest from the wear and tear.
That's because it's generally hard to build enough volume in the abs for them to show, given that fat tends to store in the belly, covering them. As such it's often said that you get abs in the kitchen rather than in the gym, but that's about a low calorie diet.
What the post above talks about is about taking enough calories and protein for you to be able to build muscle, normal diets very rarely include enough to build muscle optimally and it can be harder to actually eat enough than to lift enough.
https://musclewiki.com/ is a far better website than this Darebee. It contains video loops on how to do exercises properly with an associated experience recommendation (beginner, intermediate, advanced) in addition to text instructions, and you can sort based on what equipment you have available.
Darebee, on the other hand, seems to be social media shareables.
MuscleWiki is cool, but it's not very helpful during a workout. I like that Darebee builds a set of routines and includes a timer into each routine to keep you on track.
I hesitate to speak for them, but I don't think their mission is to provide content for people who already know what they want out of exercise, have been exercising for years, and understand what is and isn't good for their body. If you're experienced in fitness, the site likely isn't for you. And that's fine, isn't it?
Some folks have called out perhaps not understanding the funding issues with hosting a site so minimal. You're right, that part is cheap. It's the content creators, who are fitness professionals spending their time not working for money that need to be supported by the funding. They also do various outreach programs that of course require money to make happen.