musclesworked-mcp is an MCP server used to connect the exercise-muscle mapping API of musclesworked.com to AI clients that support MCP.
Purpose
This project mainly addresses the problem of querying the correspondence between exercises and muscle groups. It allows MCP clients such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and Cursor to obtain structured exercise data, so they can answer queries related to muscle training or analyze training plans.
Main capabilities
According to the materials, the server provides the following data and capabilities:
- 856 exercises;
- 65 muscles;
- 14 muscle groups;
- Each exercise includes activation data for primary muscles, secondary muscles, and stabilizer muscles.
Its example prompts include:
- "What muscles does the barbell bench press work?"
- "Find bodyweight exercises for my chest"
- "Analyze my push day: bench press, overhead press, tricep pushdown, lateral raise"
- "What are some alternatives to barbell squats?"
- "Search for exercises that target the hamstrings"
From these examples, it can be seen that the server supports functions such as reverse exercise-muscle lookup, searching by target muscle, analyzing muscle coverage in a training plan, and finding alternative exercises, where alternative exercises are ranked by muscle overlap.
Usage
Before use, you need to first obtain an API key at musclesworked.com/dashboard. Then, depending on the client type, add the server to the corresponding configuration file:
- Add it in claude_desktop_config.json;
- Add it in .mcp.json;
- Add it in .cursor/mcp.json.
In the materials,the specific configuration JSON content or installation commands are not provided, so they cannot be expanded here.
Applicable scenarios
- Fitness enthusiasts or coaches querying the muscle activation of a certain exercise in an AI client;
- Filtering exercises by muscle group or equipment type;
- Analyzing whether a training plan omits certain muscle groups;
- Finding alternative options with similar muscle stimulation when replacing exercises.
Limitations
The materials do not explain the API's call limits, whether it is paid, pricing, whether a subscription is required, or which MCP clients besides the above clients are supported. These facts have not been provided for now.
