Exercise guides

Every exercise
in the pool

Alea draws from twenty bodyweight movements. Each has a guide covering setup, execution, the mistakes people actually make, and how to scale it up or down.

By movement pattern

Sixteen of the twenty need no equipment at all. The four that want a bar or a sturdy edge are marked below.

Push

Push-ups — no equipment
Dips — parallel bars, or two sturdy chairs
Pike Push-ups — no equipment
Diamond Push-ups — no equipment
Tricep Dips — a bench, chair or step
Archer Push-ups — no equipment

Pull

Pull-ups — a pull-up bar
Inverted Rows — a bar at waist height, or a sturdy table
Muscle-ups — a pull-up bar with clearance above it

Legs

Squats — no equipment
Lunges — no equipment
Pistol Squats — no equipment
Bulgarian Split Squat — a bench, chair or sofa

Core

Mountain Climbers — no equipment
Plank Hold — timed hold, no equipment
L-Sit Hold — timed hold, parallettes, low bars, or the floor

Full Body

Burpees — no equipment

Cardio

Jumping Jacks — no equipment

Plyometric

Box Jumps — a stable box, bench or low wall

Balance

Handstand Hold — timed hold, a clear wall

The pool in draw order

Alea slices the exercise die from the top of this list, so position matters. A D4 draws only the first four; a D20 opens all of them. Effort weight is what the app uses when building sessions, so heavier movements mean fewer total reps.

#	Exercise	Pattern	Measured in	Effort
1	Push-ups	Push	reps	1.2
2	Pull-ups	Pull	reps	2.0
3	Squats	Legs	reps	1.0
4	Burpees	Full Body	reps	1.8
5	Dips	Push	reps	1.5
6	Lunges	Legs	reps	1.1
7	Mountain Climbers	Core	reps	0.9
8	Plank Hold	Core	seconds	0.8
9	Jumping Jacks	Cardio	reps	0.7
10	Box Jumps	Plyometric	reps	1.4
11	Pike Push-ups	Push	reps	1.6
12	Diamond Push-ups	Push	reps	1.5
13	Inverted Rows	Pull	reps	1.4
14	Pistol Squats	Legs	reps	2.2
15	Handstand Hold	Balance	seconds	2.4
16	L-Sit Hold	Core	seconds	2.2
17	Muscle-ups	Pull	reps	3.0
18	Bulgarian Split Squat	Legs	reps	1.3
19	Tricep Dips	Push	reps	1.3
20	Archer Push-ups	Push	reps	2.0

Before you train

These guides are general information, not medical or professional fitness advice, and are written by the developer of Alea rather than a doctor, physiotherapist or certified trainer.

Exercise carries a risk of injury. Consult a qualified professional before starting a new programme, and stop immediately if you feel pain, dizziness or shortness of breath. You are responsible for your own safety, and Alea Labs accepts no liability for injury or loss arising from this information.

Let the dice choose

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Common questions

Do I need equipment for these?

Sixteen of the twenty need nothing at all. Pull-ups, muscle-ups and inverted rows want a bar or sturdy edge, dips are easiest on parallel bars, box jumps need something stable to jump onto, and the Bulgarian split squat wants a bench.

Why only twenty exercises?

Because a die needs a bounded, ordered pool to be meaningful. A thousand-exercise library is a thousand decisions, which is the problem Alea exists to remove.

What does effort weight mean?

It is the per-rep workload the app assigns each movement when it builds 100-rep sessions and tailored workouts. Muscle-ups are 3.0, jumping jacks 0.7, so a session heavy on muscle-ups carries far fewer total reps.

Can I choose which exercises come up?

Indirectly. The pool is ordered from foundational to advanced and the die slices from the top, so a smaller exercise die keeps you in the easier movements.

Every exercisein the pool