The short answer
The row leads, and it is not close. In September 2026, more than half of clients (57.7%) were assigned a row of some kind, followed by the Romanian deadlift at 37.5%, the lat pulldown at 36.8% and the bench press at 32.2%. The top of the list is foundational strength work, with no fads and nothing a coach would have to oversell.
Most coaching data you can find online is opinion dressed up as fact. This page is the opposite. We do not survey coaches about what they think they program, we read what they actually assigned, then group every spelling of the same movement into one exercise and count it. It is part of how QuickCoach reports on the coaching market: real programming, aggregated and anonymised, refreshed every month so you can watch what changes and what does not.
QuickCoach is used by more than 40,000 coaches and fitness businesses worldwide. For the September 2026 read we looked across 229,713 verified assigned exercises on active coaching plans and grouped them into 4,144 distinct movements. The result is a clean picture of what coaches choose in practice, and where clients actually spend their training time.
Start here
What should I program for a new online client?
Build most general-population programs around the six basic movement patterns: pull, hinge, push, squat, lunge and core. Pick one main exercise for each, add mobility work to warm up, then layer in the accessories a client enjoys. The picks below are the ones coaches on QuickCoach reach for most.
- Pull: Row, programmed for 57.7% of clients
- Hinge: Romanian deadlift, 37.5%
- Push: Bench press (32.2%) or push-up (20.9%)
- Squat: Goblet squat, 20.6%
- Lunge: Bulgarian split squat, 18.8%
- Core: Dead bug (18.2%) or plank (16.3%)
Mobility and warm-up work rounds it out, at 14% of everything coaches assign. Keep that pattern skeleton steady from client to client, then change the exercise, load and volume to fit the person. The full ranking below shows how often coaches program each movement.
The ranking
What exercises do coaches program most?
The ranking is led by movements nobody would call exotic. A row of some kind tops the list by a wide margin, then a run of hinges, pulls and presses that reads like the contents page of a sensible strength program. Here is the share of clients each movement reached in September 2026.
The 15 most-programmed movements
Share of clients assigned each movement at least once, September 2026, every spelling grouped together
Figures are the share of clients assigned the movement at least once in September 2026. The full top 50 sits below.
Two things stand out. The first is how far ahead the row sits. No single movement reaches every client, and it would be strange if one did, but a horizontal pull touches well over half of them, more than any squat, press or hinge. The second is the company it keeps. The hip thrust, lateral raise and leg extension all crack the top seven, which is a physique and glute-focused accent you would not have seen in a strength list a decade ago. Coaches are building around the staples, then layering the isolation work clients enjoy and ask for.
The full list
The top 50 movements coaches program
The chart shows the leaders, but the value for a coach is in the full shape of the list. Here are the 50 most-programmed movements in September 2026, ranked by the share of clients each one reached. Read it as a sanity check against your own programming: the staples you would expect, and a few accessories that punch above their reputation.
| # | Movement | Clients |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Row | 57.7% |
| 2 | Romanian Deadlift | 37.5% |
| 3 | Lat Pulldown | 36.8% |
| 4 | Bench Press | 32.2% |
| 5 | Lateral Raise | 26.2% |
| 6 | Hip Thrust | 24.5% |
| 7 | Leg Extension | 23.6% |
| 8 | Squat | 22.6% |
| 9 | Shoulder Press | 21.0% |
| 10 | Push-Up | 20.9% |
| 11 | Goblet Squat | 20.6% |
| 12 | Leg Press | 19.5% |
| 13 | Overhead Press | 19.4% |
| 14 | Glute Bridge | 19.1% |
| 15 | Calf Raise | 19.0% |
| 16 | Bulgarian Split Squat | 18.8% |
| 17 | Leg Curl | 18.4% |
| 18 | Chest Press | 18.3% |
| 19 | Dead Bug | 18.2% |
| 20 | Face Pull | 18.0% |
| 21 | Plank | 16.3% |
| 22 | Deadlift | 15.9% |
| 23 | Bicep Curl | 15.7% |
| 24 | Incline Bench Press | 14.7% |
| 25 | Split Squat | 14.7% |
| 26 | Triceps Pushdown | 13.3% |
| 27 | Hip Abduction | 13.1% |
| 28 | Reverse Lunge | 13.1% |
| 29 | Pallof Press | 13.1% |
| 30 | Side Plank | 12.2% |
| 31 | Lunge | 11.4% |
| 32 | Pull-Up | 11.0% |
| 33 | Back Squat | 10.9% |
| 34 | Hammer Curl | 10.7% |
| 35 | Triceps Extension | 10.3% |
| 36 | Back Extension | 10.3% |
| 37 | Step Up | 10.2% |
| 38 | Chest Fly | 9.5% |
| 39 | Dip | 8.8% |
| 40 | Biceps Curl | 8.5% |
| 41 | Curl | 8.5% |
| 42 | Trap Bar Deadlift | 8.4% |
| 43 | Box Jump | 7.5% |
| 44 | Pullover | 7.4% |
| 45 | Farmer's Carry | 7.3% |
| 46 | Bird Dog | 7.2% |
| 47 | Pulldown | 7.1% |
| 48 | Hip Adduction | 6.9% |
| 49 | Push Press | 6.8% |
| 50 | Crunch | 6.5% |
Ranked by share of clients assigned the movement at least once, September 2026. Ties are broken by underlying volume. The Bulgarian split squat and its shortened label "split squat" are counted separately because coaches use them to mean different things. "Biceps curl" and "pulldown" also sit apart from "bicep curl" and "lat pulldown": each comes mostly from a handful of coaches' own library labels, and we report the grouping as it stands rather than guess at the overlap. Why exercise names split like this is covered in exercise abbreviations and name variations.
The balance
How does the work split across movement patterns?
Group every movement by pattern rather than by name and the balance becomes clearer. Pulling and pushing sit almost level at the top, with mobility and warm-up work a strong third. Core, hinge and squat fill the middle, and carries are the one clear outlier, named far less often than their training value would suggest.
Share of assigned exercises by movement pattern
How assigned exercises divide across the major patterns, September 2026
Shares are each pattern's slice of the assigned exercises that could be classified. About one in nine entries were generic or custom labels that did not map to a single named pattern, so they sit outside this chart. Mobility and warm-up work is programmed deliberately, not as an afterthought.
The mobility number is the one worth sitting with. Warm-up flows, stretches and prep drills make up 14% of everything coaches assign, more than the squat pattern on its own. That is coaches scripting the on-ramp to a session, not leaving it to chance. Carries, at under 1%, are the mirror image: loaded carries build the kind of trunk and grip strength that transfers everywhere, and they are barely programmed. If you want an easy edge, that is where it is.
Should I program more pulling than pushing?
Slightly more pulling is a sensible default, and coaches already lean that way: pulls make up 17.7% of assigned exercises against 17.0% for pushes. Most people spend the day rounded forward over a desk or a phone, so a little extra horizontal pulling and upper-back work balances out the pressing. The face pull, programmed for 18.0% of clients, is the clearest sign coaches build this in on purpose.
The kit
What equipment do coaches program for?
The equipment mix tells an accessible story. A lot of names are generic, such as squat, row or bench press, so the biggest slice does not state an implement at all. Where the kit is named, bodyweight and dumbbell movements far outnumber barbell-only work. That fits a profession coaching plenty of clients at home or in a basic gym, where a pair of dumbbells and a mat has to carry the session.
Share of assigned exercises by equipment
The implement named on each assigned exercise, September 2026
Shares are of assigned exercises where equipment could be inferred from the name. Suspension, landmine, trap-bar, sled, plate and sandbag work, plus a small group of other kit, make up the remainder. Barbells are named on about 4% of exercises, which does not mean coaches avoid them, only that most programming is written to work with whatever a client has. We put fuller numbers on this in the equipment report linked below.
What can I program for a client with no gym or minimal equipment?
A full program. Bodyweight is the most-named implement here, on at least 1 in 5 assigned exercises, and bands are programmed more often than barbells. A client with a mat, a pair of dumbbells and a band can train every pattern. Swap the gym staples like this:
- Barbell squat becomes a goblet squat or split squat
- Bench press becomes a push-up or floor press
- Lat pulldown or cable row becomes a band row
- Hip thrust becomes a glute bridge
- Leg curl becomes a band hamstring curl or Nordic curl
Put it to work
How can you use this data in your niche?
A ranking is only useful if it changes a decision. The staples hold across every kind of coaching, but the accent shifts with who you coach. Here is where this data lands for each niche, and where to read more on delivering it.
Strength & conditioning
The top of the list is your bread and butter: rows, Romanian deadlifts, squats and presses. The gap to fill is carries at under 1% and the trap bar deadlift only reaching 8% of clients. Both scale strength and are easy to load for a whole squad.
Physique prep
The hip thrust, lateral raise and leg extension all crack the top seven, and curls and pushdowns sit mid-list. This is the isolation and hypertrophy accent your clients expect. The data backs a plan built on compounds with targeted accessory volume.
Rehab & mobility
Mobility and warm-up work is 14% of everything assigned, and planks, dead bugs, bird dogs and Pallof presses all rank. Corrective and stability work is mainstream programming, not a fringe add-on. Deliver it as prescribed drills with video cues.
Active ageing
Goblet squats, glute bridges, step ups and bodyweight movements rank high, and bodyweight is the most-named implement at 21%. That is exactly the accessible, joint-friendly menu older clients need, programmed to run at home with minimal kit.
Functional fitness
Kettlebell swings, farmer's carries and conditioning show up but sit lower than their transfer deserves. If you coach mixed-modal work, the carry gap is your differentiator: it is under-programmed everywhere else.
Endurance & hybrid
Conditioning is 4.7% of assigned exercises, and the strength menu leans on hinges and single-leg work that protect runners and cyclists. Sequence the two so they do not fight, and keep the strength dose minimal and repeatable.
Nutrition coaching
Training is only half the plan. If you coach nutrition alongside movement, the accessible bodyweight and dumbbell bias here means most clients can train from home, which keeps the barrier low while the food work does the heavy lifting.
Pilates
Bodyweight is the most-named implement and core movements rank throughout, which maps neatly onto mat repertoire. The honest limit is that class bookings sit outside the tool; mat and home programming is the fit.
Online personal training
If you coach a general roster, this list is your default library. Build a template around the top 20, keep it accessible with dumbbell and bodyweight options, and personalise from there rather than starting each plan blank.
The read
What does the picture tell us about how coaches program?
The headline is reassuring rather than surprising, and that is the point. There is no gimmick movement near the top, no trend exercise riding a moment. Rows, hinges, presses, squats and lunges fill the upper end of the list, the work that holds up across goals, ages and equipment. A list led by fads would say something worrying about the profession. This one says coaches are programming the things that work, then adding the accessories clients enjoy.
Underneath the ranked list sits a long tail of thousands of distinct entries: tempo cues, side-specific notes and client-specific labels. That tail is personalisation at work, the same proven staples shaped to the person in front of the coach, and we mapped it in detail in the uncommon exercises coaches actually program. It is also the quiet tax on programming by hand. Type a movement fresh each time and you lose the demo video, the cue, and any chance of seeing it the same way twice in your own data. Pull it from a shared exercise library instead and the row a client gets on Monday matches the one they got last block. Build a template around the staples once and most of a new client's plan is already done, which is the whole point of learning to build client workout programs faster and to reuse and repeat a program across clients.
Same staples, a fraction of the clicks
If a row, an RDL and a squat are in most of your plans anyway, there is no reason to type them out again for every client. Build the program once, reuse it, and put the saved hours back into coaching.
See how to build programs fasterThe wider dataset
Where does this fit with our other data?
This page is the living index. The point-in-time reports go deeper on a single slice. The original ranking, framed as the share of programs rather than clients, sits in the most-programmed exercises report. The kit question gets its own numbers in what equipment coaches program. The loading side, sets and reps, sits in the rep ranges coaches actually run on. And all of it rolls up into the state of online coaching in 2026, our full picture of the profession. If you are still sizing your roster, the honest bands are in how many clients an online coach can handle.
Methodology and limitations
How we got these numbers
Source. The September 2026 read covers 229,713 verified assigned exercises across active coaching plans on QuickCoach, a platform used by more than 40,000 coaches and fitness businesses worldwide. No individual coach, client or plan is identifiable in anything published here.
Definitions. Exercise names are entered as free text, so every spelling, abbreviation and equipment variation of the same movement was grouped into one canonical exercise before counting, 4,144 distinct movements in all. The movement ranking is the share of clients assigned each movement at least once in the period. Pattern and equipment shares are the share of assigned exercises that could be confidently classified, so they are drawn from the subset of entries that map to a named pattern or implement. Genuine one-off custom names were left in the long tail rather than forced into a group. The ranking, pattern and equipment shares are calculated on a 90th-percentile (p90) trimmed set of 201,022 entries, so a handful of unusually high-volume accounts cannot skew them.
Scope. This is a read of what coaches program, not an endorsement of any exercise or a claim about what clients should do. Pattern and equipment groupings are directional, since many names are generic and do not state the implement. Figures are rounded.
Freshness. This page is refreshed monthly. The current read is September 2026. Earlier point-in-time reports linked above may quote a different window or a different denominator (share of programs rather than share of clients), so compare like with like.
Privacy. Everything is aggregated across the platform. No personal data, client information or individual plan is exposed.
Frequently asked questions
What exercises do online coaches program most?
The row leads. In September 2026, more than half of clients (57.7%) were assigned a row of some kind, followed by the Romanian deadlift at 37.5%, the lat pulldown at 36.8% and the bench press at 32.2%. The top of the list is foundational strength work, not fads.
What is the single most-programmed exercise in online coaching?
The row. Once every variant is grouped together (bent over row, single arm row, seated cable row and so on), a row reaches 57.7% of clients in a month, well ahead of any other movement. Coaches reach for a horizontal pull more than anything else.
How much of coaching is strength work versus mobility?
Pulling (17.7% of assigned exercises) and pushing (17.0%) lead, but mobility and warm-up work is the third largest slice at 14%. Coaches script the on-ramp to a session deliberately, not just the lifting itself.
How is this data measured and how often is it updated?
It reads 229,713 verified assigned exercises logged across active QuickCoach coaching plans in September 2026, grouped into 4,144 canonical movements. It is aggregated, anonymised and refreshed monthly. No individual coach, client or plan is identifiable in anything published here.
How many exercises should be in a client's workout?
For most general-population clients, five to eight exercises per session works well: one or two main lifts, then accessories that fit the client's goal and time. Fewer than four often leaves gaps, and more than nine gets hard to finish and recover from. This is general coaching guidance, not a QuickCoach data figure. Match the count to the client's training age, schedule and equipment.
How often should I change a client's program?
Every four to eight weeks for most clients. Keep the movement pattern skeleton stable so you can track progress, and change the exercises, loading or volume when progress stalls or a client gets bored. Beginners can run the same plan longer, because the newness itself keeps driving results. This is general coaching guidance rather than a platform data point.
What can I program for a client with no gym equipment?
A full program. Bodyweight is the most-named implement in our September 2026 data, on at least 1 in 5 assigned exercises, and bands are programmed more often than barbells. Push-ups, goblet or split squats, glute bridges, planks and band rows cover every basic pattern with a mat, some dumbbells and a band.
Are loaded carries worth programming?
Yes, and they are easy to add. Carries are under 1% of assigned exercises, so there is plenty of room for more. A farmer's carry or suitcase carry with dumbbells or kettlebells builds grip and trunk strength and needs almost no setup. Add one or two at the end of a session for any client who has the kit.
Last updated 4 October 2026 with the September 2026 read. Figures are drawn from aggregated programming activity across QuickCoach's base of 40,000+ coaches and refreshed monthly. For the point-in-time reports behind this page, see the most-programmed exercises report and the equipment report. For more on turning the repeatable parts of coaching into saved time, see how to build client workout programs faster. Questions about the data? Reach us at support@quickcoach.fit.
