Objective: Functional training exercises involve complex multi-joint movements that challenge traditional rule-based or data-driven recognition systems. This paper introduces a Movement Description Language (MDL) designed to formally represent, analyze, and evaluate such exercises using camera-based pose estimation and interpretable, composable structures. Methods: The proposed MDL models each exercise as a finite-state machine defined by pose-derived angle proxy transitions, allowing movements to be described in a modular and reusable way. Demonstrated with MediaPipe landmark extraction from monocular video, while the MDL remains compatible with any pose estimation algorithm, the framework focuses on exercise phase detection and repetition counting. Experimental validation was conducted on a dataset of 1513 videos of 12 functional exercises (squats, deadlifts, lunges, shoulder presses, planks, push-ups, pull-ups, bent-over rows, box jumps, thrusters, overhead squats, and burpees) obtained from public pose datasets, competition footage, and recordings of 9 participants in real-world environments. Results: Automated repetition counts were compared against manually annotated ground truth, showing an overall repetition-counting accuracy of 97.2%, with a mean per-exercise accuracy of 98.8% (range 95–100%). The MDL successfully handled both simple and compound exercises, maintaining reliable phase detection despite variations in execution speed, camera perspective, and environmental conditions. Conclusion: The system was implemented using real-time pose estimation to demonstrate the practical execution of the MDL framework. The proposed MDL provides a transparent, extensible, and computationally efficient framework for functional exercise analysis. By bridging human-readable movement semantics with executable motion logic, it enables interpretable automatic repetition counting and phase detection, offering an alternative to black-box recognition approaches. The results support its potential for scalable deployment in training, monitoring and movement analysis applications. The proposed system is not intended for biomechanical measurement or clinical-grade kinematic analysis, but rather for interpretable modeling of exercise structure and repetition detection using approximate pose-derived signals.
Sousa et al. (Tue,) studied this question.