The guided pathways

A pathway strings several pages together in an order designed to build understanding step by step. Seven pathways are published, from locating anatomy to the systems of the body, to nutrition and recovery.

Reading a single page gives you an answer. Reading several pages in a considered order gives you an understanding.

A pathway is a sequence of steps that follows a logical progression: one idea prepares the next, and the final step only makes sense if the earlier ones have been read. It is the same content as the rest of the site, put back into a teaching order.

What a pathway is

A learning goal stated at the outset: what you will be able to explain by the end.
A level and, where relevant, the ideas assumed to be known already.
An estimated reading time. It never describes a training duration or a time to results.
An ordered list of steps, each pointing to a page that already exists on the site.
A closing summary that ties the steps together.

The steps hold no exclusive content. Every page remains readable on its own, with its sources, its level of certainty and its limits.

Progress and resuming

Progress is saved locally, on your device. No account is needed to start a pathway, pause it and pick it up again.

A step is marked as finished, either automatically as you read or by hand.
The pathway resumes at the last step opened.
Progress can be reset at any time.
All local data can be exported or deleted from the settings.

Note

Nothing leaves your device

Progress through a pathway is sent to no server and tied to no identity. It lives in the local storage of the app or the browser, and disappears if you delete your data.

The detail of what is stored, and of how to erase it, sits on the privacy page.

What a pathway is not

A pathway organises a reading. It is not a training programme, not a protocol, not a plan to apply. The time given is a reading time; it says nothing about how long it takes to see a change in a body, which depends on too many individual factors to be stated here.

No step prescribes an exercise, a load or a frequency. Where a practical action follows naturally from a topic, a link to Shapier is offered, and it stays optional: you can finish a pathway without ever leaving Body Lab.

How to choose a pathway

Seven pathways are published. They fall into two entry points, depending on what you are after.

To locate and break down, starting from the body itself:

1.
[Locate and name](/en/pathways/locate-and-name) is the way in: from the whole body to a muscle, from muscle to the joint it crosses, then back to the movement.
2.
[Anatomy of a movement](/en/pathways/anatomy-of-a-movement) breaks the basic patterns down and shows what really tells them apart.
3.
[The shoulder in depth](/en/pathways/the-shoulder-in-depth) takes a single region and works it through, from the glenoid cavity to reaching overhead.
4.
[From an intention to a movement](/en/pathways/from-an-intention-to-a-movement) crosses the systems of the body, from brain to muscle and back. It is the longest, and the only one where no step has a scene.

To understand what changes, starting from what happens after effort:

1.
Understanding muscle growth starts from the signal produced by a session and runs through to the building of new proteins in the fibre.
2.
[What becomes of what you eat](/en/pathways/what-becomes-of-what-you-eat) follows protein, carbohydrate, fat and water from meal to muscle, without ever giving an amount.
3.
Energy and recovery follows energy production during effort and the return to balance afterwards.

Nothing obliges you to follow a pathway from start to finish. You can open a step that interests you directly, then come back to the full sequence later.

Put it into practice in Shapier

Browse the training pathways

Browsing the available training pathways happens in Shapier; Body Lab only explains how its own reading pathways are put together.

Browse the training pathways

Body Lab explains; Shapier lets you act and track.

The published pathways

The seven guided pathways

Locate and name
A six-step entry route for anyone unsure where to start. It begins with the whole body, works down to a muscle, then to the joint it crosses, and back up to the movement.
Described without a scene
Anatomy of a movement
Six steps to break a movement down: the pattern it follows, the joints it moves, the muscles that produce and those that restrain, and what body proportions change about it.
Described without a scene
From an intention to a movement
Nine steps following a single movement, from the decision through to recovery, crossing the systems of the body. The longest pathway in this corpus, and the only one where no step has a 3D scene.
Described without a scene
The shoulder in depth
The most mobile joint in the body is also the one that holds least by its shape. Six steps to understand what follows from that, from the glenoid cavity to reaching overhead.
Described without a scene
Understanding muscle growth
A six-step reading pathway that connects the mechanical signal produced during a set, the protein building that follows, and the volume of work accumulated over a week. A quiz at the end lets you check what you have taken in.
Described without a scene
What becomes of what you eat
Eight steps following protein, carbohydrate, fat and water from the meal to the muscle. A pathway of mechanisms, with no amounts, no recommended foods and no timing.
Described without a scene
Energy and recovery
A six-step reading pathway that follows muscle energy from the second to the night: the instant recharge of ATP, the glycogen stores and their water, then the role of sleep. A closing quiz lets you check what you have taken in.
Described without a scene

Available offline

Offline download is available in the mobile app.

Trust and method

Author

equipe-editoriale-shapier

Editorial review

Thanh Chau

Scientific review

Pending

Published on

August 2, 2026

Reviewed on August 2, 2026

Next review due August 2, 2027

Limits of this page

This entry page describes the pathway format; the scientific content, its sources and its limits sit on the pages that make up each step.

Educational content. Body Lab does not diagnose and does not replace professional advice.

How we work