The Protocol exercise library

Basic  Every Protocol account comes with a base exercise library: over five thousand movements (more than seven thousand demo videos once male, female and numbered versions are counted), every one of them carrying a demonstration video and written instructions. You do not build it, you do not maintain it, and you cannot break it. It is there so you can program from day one.

Where it is

Vault → Training → Protocol Exercises, the last tab in the row.

Finding one

Search by name if you know what you want. Search puts the exercise you most likely meant at the top:

1. Your favorites first,
2. then your own exercises,
3. then the standard version of the movement, followed by its common variations. bench press leads with Barbell Bench Press, then dumbbell, incline, decline and close grip; pull up leads with Pull-up, then chin-up and the wide and close grip versions.

You can type the way you talk in the gym. pull up, pullup and pull-up all find the same exercises, abbreviations like rdl and ohp work, and so do Serbian gym names such as cucanj, zgib, sklek and mrtvo dizanje.

Otherwise narrow the list:

• Muscle group. Fifteen of them, from Hips and Waist through Back, Chest and Shoulders down to Neck and Face. Plyometrics and Cardio sit here too, because that is how the library groups them.
• Type. Strength or Stretching. Strength is roughly three quarters of the library.
• Level. Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Elite. Over half the library is Beginner, and Elite is a deliberately small set.
• Favorites. Only the exercises you have starred (see below).
• Status. Leave this alone on the Protocol tab. It is the same control your own library uses to hide drafts and deleted movements.

One entry per exercise

Many movements are filmed more than once: a male and a female demo, or a numbered “version”. The list shows each exercise once, so a search is not three near-identical rows. When you want a specific copy, add female, male or version to your search and those copies appear again.

Sort by Recently updated, Recently created or Name, and switch between the list and a card grid with the toggle on the right.

Equipment is not a filter, but it is on every row. If you coach clients training at home, that column is what you scan: a large share of the library needs no equipment at all, and most of the rest needs nothing more than minimal kit.

Favorites

Every exercise has a star: at the start of its row in the list, on its card in the grid view, and at the top of the exercise’s own page. One click stars it, another click takes the star off. This works on Protocol exercises, your own and your team’s.

To see only your favorites:

• New design: click the Favorites pill in the toolbar and pick Favorites only.
• Classic design: open Filters and choose Favorites only.

Your favorites are yours alone. Teammates keep their own list, so starring something never changes what they see. The same stars show up in the workout builder, where your favorites are the first thing the search box offers. See Building a workout.

What one exercise carries

Open any row and you get the whole record, not a summary.

• The demo video plays in place, and the Media sets tab beside Instructions holds the other angles and versions where the movement has them.
• Instructions are written per exercise: a How to Perform list, then Tips.
• Classification is what the filters read: exercise type, primary muscle groups, required equipment, difficulty, whether the movement is Compound or Isolation (the library is an almost even split), and a risk level from one to five that flags movements needing closer supervision.
• Variations are related movements, so a swap is one click rather than a fresh search.

It is read-only, and what to do about that

Nothing on a Protocol exercise can be edited. The header says Read only and the fields do not accept input. That is deliberate: the library is the same for every coach, so it cannot drift.

When you want one different, take a copy. The row menu offers Import to my library, which:

1. creates a new exercise you own, named <original name> (Copy),
2. makes it private to you, not part of the Protocol library,
3. copies everything across except the folder, since that belonged to whoever it came from,
4. opens it in the editor, where you can change anything and it saves as you type.

From that moment it is an ordinary exercise of yours. See Creating custom exercises for the editor in full.

The same Import to my library action exists on Protocol Plans and Protocol Workouts, and on the Team tabs. Copy first, edit second, every time.

Using it in a workout

You do not have to come here at all. When you build a workout, the exercise picker searches this library alongside your own, with an All / Public / Mine / Team switch, so a Protocol movement drops into a session without a detour. Mine is your own work, Team what your team has shared, and All everything you can reach at once. A star beside that switch narrows the picker to your favorites. See Building a workout.

Next: the rest of the training library → Training templates & the exercise library →