126 rungs. Every skill, more room to grow.

July 2026 · Content update · ~4 min read · by Jacob Fredriksson

The Rung Expansion is live: every one of the 11 Skill Focus Splits just got denser. 126 total rungs across all skills, up from 83. 43 new milestones to earn — most of them intentionally placed where progression actually gets stuck.

Backend + web only, no app update required. The rungs you'll see next time you open a Focus Split session are new.

Why expand?

When we launched adaptive rungs, ladders averaged 7-9 steps. Fine for the middle — but two problems showed up:

1. Beginners get stuck early. Handstand ladder went straight from Pike Push-Ups (R1) to Wall Kick-Ups (R2) — a scary leap for anyone afraid of inversion. Users would train for weeks without moving off R1. That's not celebration-worthy training, that's grinding.
2. Advanced trainees hit ceilings. After Full Front Lever there was… nothing. Users who spent 18 months chasing FL had no visible next-step beyond "keep holding it longer."

The fix: more granularity where people get stuck + real elite terminals for those chasing the ceiling.

What's new — by pattern

Rather than list all 43 additions, here are the design patterns that show up across skills:

1. Beginner off-ramps

• Handstand: Wall Walk and Chest-to-Wall Handstand Hold inserted before Wall Kick-Ups. Learn what inversion feels like without the kick-up scare.
• Muscle-Up: Australian Pull-Up inserted between Scapular Pulls and Negative Pull-Up. Body row on a low bar — the missing bridge for 0-pull-up trainees.
• V-Sit / Manna: Compression Sit and Tuck L-Sit at rungs 1-2. Flexibility base + easier L-Sit entry before straight-leg L-Sit is even possible.
• Elbow Planche: Forearm Plank Hold at R1. Base forearm-support endurance for everyone starting the family.
• Front Lever: Active Hang split from Dead Hang. Scap engagement is its own milestone, not lumped with passive hang.

2. The One-Leg pattern (horizontal levers)

Four horizontal-lever families got the same insertion between Advanced Tuck and Straddle:

• Front Lever, Back Lever, Planche, Elbow Planche each got One-Leg variant
• Why: only half the mass extended, so it's mechanically easier than straddle (~50% of the moment arm). Traditional ladders had straddle before one-leg — but the physics says the opposite. Fixed.

3. Band-tier splits (assisted rungs)

Assisted work now shows real progression, not just "you're on the band":

• Muscle-Up, Hefesto, One-Arm Pull-Up, Human Flag, Press to Handstand
• Each Band-Assisted <Skill> rung split into Thick Band (max assist) and Thin Band (min assist)
• Rung-bump when you drop from Thick → Thin is a real celebration moment — you're now doing most of the work

4. Elite terminals — the ceiling

Every family now has real chase-targets after the "final" skill:

• Weighted variants — +5-10% BW vest as strength ceiling: Full BL, Full Elbow Planche, Full Planche, Full Human Flag, Full Manna, Full OAP, Full PtH
• Ring variants — grip-rotation elite for pull-side: Ring Muscle-Up, Ring Hefesto
• Dynamic variants — Ice Cream Maker for FL + BL, Handstand Walk + Freestanding HSPU for handstand, Planche Push-Up for planche, One-Arm Freestanding Handstand as terminal

5. Flexibility gates

Mobility can't be brute-forced with strength. Two skills now show that:

• Press to Handstand: Pancake Compression Depth Hold between Negative Press and Stalder Press. Without pancake mobility, no strength gets you to stalder — regardless of how strong your press is.
• V-Sit / Manna: Compression Sit at R1. Hamstring/hip compression is the first thing to train, before any L-Sit.

The full breakdown

What you'll notice

Nothing in the app changes visually — the UI already renders whatever the backend gives it. But the next time you open a Focus Split session, you'll see:

• New rung names in the workout preview. Where Wall Kick-Ups was R2, Wall Walk is now R2.
• Fresh calibration seeding. If you re-run your skill calibration, you'll land at a different rung — often more accurately reflecting where you actually are.
• Rung numbers going higher. Full Muscle-Up used to be R9. Now it's R13 — with Ring Muscle-Up as R14 for those chasing it.
• See the full path on the web. zenmotion.app/features/progressions.html shows every rung in the new ladders.

What's next

Two follow-ups worth noting:

• Movement history for new rungs — some of the newly-authored movements don't have catalog PE-rows yet, so cross-session history tracking is limited for them. Being backfilled.
• Roadmap UI refresh — with 13-14 rungs per skill, the current roadmap timeline gets crowded. Considering a collapsed/expanded state so the beginner ladders don't dominate.

For the record

This is a backend content update, not an App Store version bump. The iOS app you have already renders these new rungs — no update needed. If you're on v1.8.1 or later, you're on v1.10 content.

Bug reports and feature ideas: support@zenmotion.app.

Train well.