How to Create a Custom Exercise in Fitness Karma

An exercise library is useful until the movement you actually do is not in it. Maybe it is a variation with a particular grip, a machine at your gym, or a bodyweight movement performed at a specific angle. Forcing it into the closest-looking exercise can make the log harder to read later.

The practical answer is to add a custom exercise. In Fitness Karma, a custom exercise is your own library entry: you give it a name and decide what the app should record for it. You can then select it in a workout like the rest of the library.

This guide uses Reverse-Grip Inverted Row (Feet Elevated) as an example. The point is not that everyone should do that movement, or use the same settings. It is simply a clear example of how to describe the movement you want to record.

Fitness Karma Exercise library screen with a plus button in the top toolbar. — Start from the Exercise library and tap the plus button to create a custom entry.

System exercises and custom exercises are different on purpose

Fitness Karma starts with a system library of 118 exercises. Those entries have protected identity and core setup, including their localized names, media and details seed data, metrics, and muscle setup. You can hide a system exercise if you do not want it in normal selection lists, but hiding it is not the same thing as rewriting it.

A custom exercise is for the cases where the system entry does not describe what you do. Its name, muscles, equipment, metric type, bodyweight settings, details, and visibility can be edited later. It can also be deleted. That separation keeps the original library consistent while leaving room for a home setup, an unusual machine, or a personal variation.

Create the entry from top to bottom

Tap the plus button in the Exercise library. The creation screen is laid out in the same order you should normally make the recording decisions: name, metric type, bodyweight mode, equipment, muscles, and details.

1. Name the movement so future you will recognise it

Start with a name that distinguishes the variation you actually perform. Reverse-Grip Inverted Row (Feet Elevated) is more useful in a future workout history than a vague duplicate such as Row.

The name does not need to be clever or standardized. It only needs to make sense when you see it beside your other exercises months from now.

2. Choose what a set should record

Metric type tells the app what belongs in each set. In the current creation screen, the choices are:

Reps + weight
Reps only
Time
Time + distance
Reps + time

For the example row, choose Reps only. That means the useful unit for a set is how many repetitions you completed; it does not make the exercise a weighted barbell entry.

Create exercise screen for Reverse-Grip Inverted Row with the Metric type picker open and Reps only selected among five available metric types. — Give the custom exercise a clear name, then choose the kind of set data you want to record.

3. Decide how bodyweight applies

The bodyweight setting is a recording choice, not a judgment about form or an instruction about what you should train. Custom exercises can use these four modes:

None — no bodyweight-based load calculation.
Full — the movement uses full bodyweight.
Partial — the movement uses a percentage of bodyweight.
Assisted — assistance is subtracted from the relevant bodyweight contribution.

Partial and Assisted are alternatives, not settings to combine on one exercise. If you choose Partial, Fitness Karma gives you a percentage field. For a custom exercise, you can enter an integer from 1% to 100%.

For this example, the field is set to 70%. That is a user-entered example, not a claim that every inverted row is exactly 70% of bodyweight. If a different percentage better describes the way you want to record your own variation, enter that number instead.

For the broader explanation of how full, partial, and assisted bodyweight affect recorded load, see How Fitness Karma Tracks Bodyweight, Assisted, and Partial-Bodyweight Exercises.

Bodyweight mode picker for a Reps only custom exercise showing None, Full, Partial, and Assisted, with Partial selected. — Bodyweight mode offers None, Full, Partial, and Assisted as separate choices.

Create exercise screen with Partial bodyweight mode selected and 70 being entered into the bodyweight percentage field with the numeric keyboard visible. — In Partial mode, type the bodyweight percentage you want the custom exercise to use.

4. Select the equipment actually involved

Next, choose the equipment that best describes the movement. The available options cover no equipment, barbell, dumbbells, kettlebell, resistance band, machine, cable machine, pull-up bar, parallel bars, TRX / suspension trainer, jump rope, battle ropes, plyo box, cardio machine, and other.

For this row, select Pull-up bar. This is useful context for the exercise entry; it does not force a particular way of logging every set. If you are logging external load as well, use the load-mode guide for the separate question of how that load is entered.

Equipment picker on the custom exercise screen with Pull-up bar selected; nearby choices include resistance band, machine, cable machine, parallel bars, and TRX or suspension trainer. — Choose the equipment that describes the custom movement.

5. Add primary and secondary muscles

At least one primary muscle is required. Both primary and secondary muscle fields support more than one selection, so you can describe a movement with more than one target in each role.

For the example, Lats and Mid back are selected as primary muscles. Biceps and Rear delts are selected as secondary muscles. These selections describe how this particular custom entry is organised in the app; they are not a technique assessment or a universal prescription for the movement.

Fitness Karma muscle selection screen showing Lats and Mid back selected as primary muscles. — Select multiple primary and secondary muscle targets when that is useful for your custom entry.

Fitness Karma muscle selection screen showing Biceps and Rear delts selected as secondary muscles. — Select multiple primary and secondary muscle targets when that is useful for your custom entry.

6. Add a short detail, set visibility, and save

Use the description field for a note that helps distinguish the variation: Reverse grip, feet elevated on a bench is enough here. You can also set the exercise's visibility before saving. Keep the entry focused on what you need to recognise and record, rather than trying to turn it into a full coaching note.

The completed example now has a name, Reps only metric, Partial bodyweight at 70%, pull-up bar equipment, multiple primary and secondary muscles, and a short description.

Completed custom exercise form for Reverse-Grip Inverted Row with Reps only, Partial bodyweight at 70 percent, Pull-up bar equipment, Lats and Mid back as primary muscles, Biceps and Rear delts as secondary muscles, and a description. — A complete custom exercise before saving: recording type, bodyweight setting, equipment, muscle targets, and a short description all appear together.

When to use Assisted instead of Partial

Assisted is for a different situation: a machine or resistance band reduces the bodyweight contribution. It is available for eligible repetitions-based custom exercises — Reps + weight or Reps only — when the assistance is a machine or resistance band.

For example, Band-Assisted Neutral-Grip Pull-Up uses Reps only and a resistance band. Choose Assisted in Bodyweight mode, then select the assistance source. The available assistance sources are Machine and Resistance band.

This is why a band-assisted pull-up should not be represented by an arbitrary Partial percentage. Pick the mode that reflects what you want the log to capture, then let that exercise remain consistent over time.

Custom exercise screen for Band-Assisted Neutral-Grip Pull-Up showing Reps only, resistance band equipment, and Assisted selected in Bodyweight mode. — Assisted is a separate bodyweight mode; after choosing it, select whether the assistance comes from a machine or a resistance band.

Custom exercise screen for Band-Assisted Neutral-Grip Pull-Up showing the Assistance picker with Machine and Resistance band options. — Assisted is a separate bodyweight mode; after choosing it, select whether the assistance comes from a machine or a resistance band.

Find and use the custom exercise in a workout

After saving, the custom entry appears in the Exercise library alongside the system exercises. It can be selected when you build or run a workout, then logged according to the metric type you chose.

The custom-exercise setup ends there. For the active-workout flow — starting a session, recording sets, using rest timers, and making corrections — see How to Log a Workout in Fitness Karma. For the wider context of how the library supports a straightforward training record, see Fitness Karma: A Fast Workout Log for Lifters.

Fitness Karma Exercise library list showing Reverse-Grip Inverted Row (Feet Elevated) among other back exercises. — The saved custom exercise appears in the library with the rest of the available exercises.

Edit or delete it without rewriting your old workouts

Open a saved custom exercise to review its current setup. The edit control lets you change the custom entry; the delete control removes it from the current library.

Deleting a custom exercise is not presented as a recovery workflow. It removes the entry from the current library, but it does not erase the historical performed-exercise records that were already saved. Those records keep the recorded name snapshot and exercise ID, and related personal-record and projection data is recomputed as needed.

Custom exercise details screen in Fitness Karma with current metric, bodyweight mode, equipment, muscle fields, description, edit pencil, and red delete trash icon. — A saved custom exercise can be opened for review, edited with the pencil control, or deleted with the trash control.

Quick setup checklist

Before saving a custom exercise, check that it answers these simple questions:

Is the name specific enough to recognise the variation later?
Does the metric type match what you intend to enter for each set?
Does the bodyweight mode describe the recording you want: none, full, partial, or assisted?
If it is Partial, have you entered your chosen percentage from 1% to 100%?
If it is Assisted, have you selected Machine or Resistance band as the assistance source?
Do the equipment, muscle targets, description, and visibility make the exercise easy to find and understand?

That is all a custom exercise needs to do: describe the movement you actually use in a way that keeps future workouts and history readable. If an exercise is missing from your workout app, create the entry that fits your own setup rather than bending the log around an unrelated exercise.