Wger Exercise & Workout Scraper

Scrape the Wger open-source fitness database — 800+ professional exercises with muscle groups, equipment requirements, body categories, demonstration images, and multilingual descriptions. Completely free with no API key required.

What data do you get?

Each exercise record includes:

Field	Description
exerciseId	Wger exercise ID
uuid	Stable exercise UUID (cross-instance identifier)
variationGroup	UUID grouping exercises that are variations of one another (when applicable)
name	Exercise name (in selected language)
description	Full exercise description
category	Body category (Abs, Arms, Back, Chest, Legs, Shoulders, Cardio, Calves)
primaryMuscles	Array of primary muscles targeted
secondaryMuscles	Array of secondary/stabilizer muscles
equipment	Equipment required (e.g., Barbell, Dumbbell, Body weight)
imageUrls	Array of exercise demonstration image URLs
videoUrls	Array of exercise demonstration video URLs (when available)
aliases	Alternate names for the exercise (when curated)
notes	Coaching tips/notes attached to the exercise (when curated)
licenseName	Creative Commons license short name for the exercise content
licenseUrl	URL to the full license text
licenseAuthor	Attributed author of the exercise content
contributors	Full list of authors who have edited the exercise over time
createdAt	Date exercise was added to database
lastUpdated	Date of last update
sourceUrl	Direct link to exercise on wger.de
recordType	Always "exercise"
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of scrape

Modes

Search exercises (mode=search)

Find exercises by keyword in name or description.

Input:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "squat",
  "maxItems": 20
}

By body category (mode=byCategory)

Get all exercises for a specific body part.

Input:

{
  "mode": "byCategory",
  "category": "Chest",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Available categories: Abs, Arms, Back, Calves, Cardio, Chest, Legs, Shoulders

By muscle group (mode=byMuscle)

Target exercises for a specific muscle.

Input:

{
  "mode": "byMuscle",
  "muscle": "Biceps brachii",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Available muscles: Biceps brachii, Pectoralis major, Latissimus dorsi, Quadriceps femoris, Gluteus maximus, Triceps brachii, Rectus abdominis, and more.

By equipment (mode=byEquipment)

Find exercises by equipment type.

Input:

{
  "mode": "byEquipment",
  "equipment": "Dumbbell",
  "maxItems": 40
}

Available equipment: Barbell, Dumbbell, Kettlebell, Pull-up bar, Resistance band, Swiss Ball, Body weight, and more.

By exercise IDs (mode=byIds)

Fetch specific exercises by their Wger ID.

Input:

{
  "mode": "byIds",
  "exerciseIds": ["9", "73", "132"],
  "maxItems": 10
}

Note: Wger periodically retires/renumbers exercise IDs, so any specific ID given here could stop resolving over time. Use search, byCategory, byMuscle, or byEquipment mode to discover current valid IDs (each returned record includes its exerciseId) if a specific ID stops returning data.

Sample output record

{
  "exerciseId": 73,
  "name": "Bench Press",
  "description": "Lay down on a bench, the bar should be directly above your eyes, the knees are somewhat angled and the feet are firmly on the floor. Concentrate, breath deeply and grab the bar more than shoulder wide. Bring it slowly down till it briefly touches your chest at the height of your nipples. Push the bar up. If you train with a high weight it is advisable to have a spotter that can help you up if you can't lift the weight on your own. With the width of the grip you can also control which part of the chest is trained more: wide grip: outer chest muscles narrow grip: inner chest muscles and triceps",
  "category": "Chest",
  "primaryMuscles": ["Chest"],
  "secondaryMuscles": ["Shoulders", "Triceps"],
  "equipment": ["Barbell", "Bench"],
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://wger.de/media/exercise-images/192/Bench-press-1.png",
    "https://wger.de/media/exercise-images/192/Bench-press-2.png"
  ],
  "sourceUrl": "https://wger.de/en/exercise/73/view/bench-press",
  "createdAt": "2023-08-06T10:17:17.422900+02:00",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-06-19T18:46:21.803261+02:00",
  "recordType": "exercise",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-30T12:00:00+00:00"
}

Note: primaryMuscles/secondaryMuscles use Wger's short English muscle names (e.g. "Chest", "Triceps") when available, falling back to the anatomical Latin name (e.g. "Pectoralis major") for muscles where Wger hasn't set a short English name.

Language support

Exercise descriptions are available in: English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish. Falls back to English if the selected language has no translation.

Use cases

• Build workout apps with structured exercise data
• Create fitness content for blogs or apps
• Research exercise libraries for physical therapy
• Generate workout plans by muscle group or equipment
• Build gym equipment recommendation tools

FAQ

Is this free to use? Yes. The Wger database is open-source (LGPL) and the API is publicly available with no rate limits for reasonable usage.

How many exercises are in the database? Over 800 exercises with English descriptions, continuously updated by the community.

Can I filter by multiple criteria? Yes — combine language, mode, and maxItems. For multi-criterion filtering (e.g., Chest + Dumbbell), use the byCategory or byEquipment mode and the dataset will contain that information for post-filtering.

Are images accessible? Yes — all image URLs are hosted on wger.de and are publicly accessible without authentication.

Data source Wger Workout Manager — open-source fitness database under LGPL license.