Michael DeMoya
We all had guesses about the most performed exercises. We could see the bench pressing, the curling, more men and women deadlifting in recent years, and the rising popularity of hip thrusts amongst females. Oh, and we could also see the under-used calf and ab machines. But we never really knew. Now we do, because millions of weight-trainers are logging their workouts on apps. What exactly are they doing and not doing? The free workout log StrengthLog has the stats. Below we present some of their findings.
KEY FINDINGS
◼️ On average, weight-trainers workout 3.3 times per week.
◼️ The most popular exercise for both men and women is the bench press, whether done with a barbell, dumbbells, or a machine.
◼️ Men do more training for their upper body than women, and women do more training for their lower body than men. (Guys, don’t skip leg day.)
◼️ The average bench press for men is 220 pounds (100 kg.) and for women it’s 104 pounds (47 kg.).
◼️ It’s heartening to see the three powerlifts as the most performed weight-training exercises logged via StrengthLog. That said, there is likely some self-selecting in the data. A person who logs their workouts on StrengthLog is probably more likely to be the kind of dedicated trainer who uses a power rack than non-loggers.
Top 10 Most Performed Weight-Training Exercises
Men (% of sets of all workouts)
1. Bench Press – 10.7%
2. Squat – 6.7%
3. Deadlift – 4.8%
4. Pulldown – 3.6%
5. Shoulder Press – 3.5%
6. Barbell Row – 3.2%
7. Dumbbell Side Lateral – 2.8%
8. Leg Extension – 2.4%
9. Barbell Curl – 2.4%
10. Pushdown – 2.1%
Top 10 Most Performed Weight-Training Exercises
Women (% of sets of all workouts)
1. Bench Press – 8.2%
2. Squat – 7.7%
3. Deadlift – 5.4%
4. Pulldown – 4.1%
5. Shoulder Press – 3.0%
6. Barbell Row – 2.9%
7. Leg Press – 2.7%
8. Leg Extension – 2.7%
9. Dumbbell Side Lateral – 2.6%
10. Hip Thrust – 2.0%
MEN & WOMEN COMPARISON
◼️ Men and women shared eight of the same exercises in their top 10s. The only different ones were in the bottom halves of the lists: barbell curls and pushdowns for men, and leg presses and hip thrusts for women.
◼️ Men do 64% more training for their biceps, 50% more for their chests, and 46% more for their triceps than women.
◼️ Though neither gender does much calf work, men on average work their calves almost twice as much as women.
◼️ Women do 43% more sets for their glutes than men and 28% more work for their thighs (quads, adductors, abductors, hamstrings).
◼️ Though neither gender does much oblique work, women do twice as much as men.
◼️ Men and women work their backs roughly similarly, but women emphasize their lower backs slightly more.
◼️ The barbell curl is performed 71% more by men than women, and men do 30% more bench pressing.
◼️ The hip thrust (which focuses on the glutes) is performed more than eight times as frequently by females as by males. Women also do 42% more leg pressing than men.
