Frequently asked questions

None. Workout Samurai asks only for you, a bit of floor, and a phone you can stand upright, no weights, no bands, no gym. If a full push-up isn't within reach yet, that's fine; start from an easier variation such as an incline push-up and work down toward the floor. The beginner progression guide on this site lays out the steps.

It is out now. Workout Samurai: Push-Ups is on the App Store for iOS and on Google Play for Android, free to download and free to play. Search the store name or use the download page on this site. There is no waiting list and nothing to sign up for before you install it.

You can do your push-ups anywhere, and the camera counts with no connection at all because the pose model runs on your phone. A ranked session does need a live connection, because the server issues and verifies it, and that is what keeps the leaderboards honest. Reconnect, and the game picks up where you left off.

Stand your phone up, point the camera at yourself, and on-device computer-vision pose detection watches your body move through each rep, counting automatically with a haptic pulse. You keep your eyes on the floor; the app keeps count. No equipment and no spotter required. If you would rather not use the camera, you can claim your reps manually instead.

No. Every camera frame is processed entirely on your device, no video, image, or frame is ever transmitted, uploaded, or saved, to our servers or anyone else's. The only thing that leaves your phone is the resulting number: your rep count, plus the session metadata the server needs to validate it. The frames are gone the moment they are read.

That's your right, and the app still works. If you decline the camera permission, you can log your reps with a manual claim instead of automatic counting, you lose the hands-free convenience, not the game. You can change your mind anytime in your device settings.

We store what the game needs: your display name and cosmetics, coins and gems, level and season reps, current stage, clan, push-up records, and an optional self-entered age, sex, and bodyweight. We collect no raw biometric or health data beyond push-up counts. Product analytics help us improve the app and can be limited or opted out where the law provides that right. Our Privacy Policy is the authoritative account of what is collected, who processes it, and how to exercise your rights.

Both, which is the point. It is a workout game: the exercise is real push-ups counted by your phone camera, and the game around them is a dojo campaign of levels and bosses, a samurai title ladder, clans and a ranked season. Nothing is simulated. You cannot tap your way through a level, because the only input the game accepts is push-ups you actually did.

The Dojo is a campaign map of levels grouped into chapters, each chapter its own biome with yokai to clear and a boss at the end. Verified reps carry you through it. Your lifetime progress is marked by a samurai title earned by level, from Ashigaru up through Ronin, Bushi, Samurai, Hatamoto and Champion to Daimyo. Seasonal leaderboards rank you separately, by verified season reps, across divisions from Bronze to Master.

Campaign starts are paced by an energy meter that refills on its own, so the dojo is something you come back to rather than something you clear in one sitting. It has nothing to do with standing: titles, divisions and the leaderboards are earned on verified reps and are free for everyone. Dojo Premium removes the wait.

A clan is an asynchronous group with a shared vault, a town hall you upgrade together, and a weekly clan boss raid the whole clan attacks. There is nothing to schedule and no session to show up for; you contribute when you train. A clan never disbands. If the leader leaves, leadership passes to the longest-tenured member still in it.

No, and this is a promise, not a policy we'll quietly change. Gems and money can never buy rank; coins and gems only buy cosmetic armor, helmets, and weapons that flavor your look. Every session is validated on the server, physically impossible input is rejected, and suspicious sessions are flagged for human review. Rank is earned on the floor, or not at all.

The game is free to download and free to play, and it is fully playable that way: the camera rep counter, the Dojo campaign, coins and boss chests, solo and clan leaderboards, samurai titles, season divisions, and creating or joining a clan. Nothing about ranking sits behind a purchase. The game's own comparison table lists leaderboard rank as earned in both the free and the premium column, on purpose.

Three things, and only three: unlimited energy so the campaign never makes you wait, rest insurance every week so a week off doesn't break your streak, and back-to-back clan boss raids instead of waiting on the meter. It does not unlock leaderboard rank, titles, divisions or verified reps. Those come from your own push-ups or not at all.

Dojo Premium is sold through the App Store or Google Play, so your store handles payment and the app never sees your full card details. It renews until you cancel, and you cancel in your store account settings rather than by writing to us. The current terms are shown on the store listing and in the app before you confirm anything. When a subscription ends you return to the free game with your progress intact.

Refunds are handled by Apple or Google under their own policies, since they process the payment, request one through the App Store or Google Play rather than through us. If you reinstall or switch phones, use 'Restore Purchases' in the app to bring your subscription back. If you get stuck, write to support@workoutsamurai.com and we'll point you the right way.

You can start immediately with no sign-up, a new account begins anonymous and tied to your device. To make sure your progress survives a reinstall or a new phone, link it to Apple, Google, or email; then sign in on the new device and your dojo follows you. Without linking, progress lives only on the original device.

You're in control. You can request deletion of your account and associated data from within the app or by emailing support@workoutsamurai.com, and we honor access, correction, portability, and deletion rights in line with GDPR and CCPA/CPRA. Deletion is permanent, your progress, records, and rank can't be recovered afterward.

Stand the phone upright roughly two to three feet in front of you, facing you, at about floor level, so the camera can see your head, both shoulders and your hands. Leaning it against a wall, a water bottle or a book all work. Lying it flat on the floor does not, because the camera sees a foreshortened blur.

Almost always framing or light. If your head, a shoulder or your hands leave the frame, or the room is dim enough that joint detection degrades, the counter loses the signals it needs. Reposition so your whole upper body and both hands are visible, add light, and avoid clothing that blends into the floor.

No. Workout Samurai counts using the camera, which means the phone has to be standing up and pointed at you. Pocket or armband counting relies on motion sensors, which cannot tell a push-up from any other rhythmic movement and cannot see your depth at all.

Usually, but baggy clothing makes joint detection harder because the model has less clear limb geometry to find. If reps are being missed and your framing is good, a more fitted top and better contrast against the floor is the next thing to try.

Yes, and a small tripod is the easiest way to get consistent framing session to session. Anything that holds the phone upright and steady facing you at roughly floor level does the job. The app has no requirement beyond a stable view of you.

The counter is tuned for standard push-ups from the floor, and knee push-ups may or may not register cleanly depending on your setup. They also should not be used for a max test, which assumes full push-ups. If knee push-ups are where you are, the beginner progression guide is the right starting point and the floor will still be there in a few weeks.

Energy paces how often you start campaign levels, and it refills on its own. It has nothing to do with rank: titles and divisions come from verified reps and are free for everyone. Dojo Premium removes the wait.

It lets you train without waiting, so nothing stops you attempting the next campaign level. Nothing is awarded for subscribing. Every level is still cleared with real push-ups counted by the camera and validated on the server, and no title, division or rep total is granted by a purchase.

Your samurai title and lifetime reps stay exactly where they are, because they record work you actually did and a quiet week does not undo it. Season divisions measure recent work, so a long gap shows up there. A training streak is the thing a gap can end, and Dojo Premium includes weekly rest insurance for that reason.

A beginner is usually better served by three sessions a week than by daily work. A reasonable starting structure is four sets at around half your max plus one all-out set, with at least 48 hours between sessions. Daily maximal push-ups is the most common way beginners stall or accumulate joint complaints.

Push-ups build real pressing strength and endurance in the chest, front deltoids and triceps, and train the core as a stabiliser. They do nothing for your back, legs or cardiovascular base. Workout Samurai does one movement completely rather than pretending to be a full programme, and pairing it with pulling work is a good idea.

Rep count usually improves within two to three weeks, largely through neural adaptation rather than new muscle. Visible changes take considerably longer and depend heavily on body composition and diet. If you want a measurable answer rather than a mirror, re-test your max every two weeks.

Whichever one you will actually do consistently. Performance is usually marginally better later in the day when body temperature is higher, but the difference is small compared to the difference between training three times a week and training sporadically.

Yes, especially before a max test. A couple of minutes of arm circles, wrist preparation and two light sets at low effort is enough. Going straight into a maximal set cold gives you a lower number and a higher chance of an elbow or shoulder complaint.

Yes. Workout Samurai: Push-Ups is on Google Play for Android and on the App Store for iOS, and the camera counter, the dojo campaign, clans and ranked seasons are the same on both. Progress follows a linked account rather than the handset, so linking to Apple, Google or email is what carries it across a reinstall.

It is released and playable in full. The dojo campaign, the camera counter, samurai titles, season divisions and clans are all live in the version on the stores today. Anything on this site that is not in the app is not described here as if it were, and if you find an exception, tell us at support and we will fix the page.

On-device pose detection uses the operating system's own vision framework, which is broadly supported on modern iOS and Android devices. Older hardware may run the model at a lower frame rate, which usually shows up as slightly less responsive counting rather than as failure to count.

Running a camera and a pose model costs more battery than a stopwatch, which is why the counter only runs while a set is active rather than in the background. A training session is a few minutes of camera time, not an hour.

The app supports English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian Portuguese. This website is currently English only, so some pages here will be in English even where the app is not.