Chisel

A sculptor works stone with a chisel, one light stroke after another. “Chisel” is built the same way: high reps, sets that stop short of failure, and chest, back and legs in each of three workouts a week. Head to the gym and start with the intro week.

For those starting out in the gym who want to get in shape. 3 workouts a week, 5 exercises each: weighted exercises for 15 reps in Base and 13 in Build, bodyweight abs for 20, 90 seconds of rest. Two 4-week stages: in Base the load rises week by week, in Build it moves in a wave with a step back in week 3. The exercises stay the same in both stages. The next step after this program is “Diamond Cut”.

Chest, back and legs work in each of the three sessions, 9 sets a week per muscle group. Sets are long and end with reps still in reserve. The app calculates the weight for each set from your max, and the first week is an intro week.

Method: High reps, stopping short of failure.
Weighted exercises are done for 15 reps in Base and 13 in Build, and sets end at least 2.5 reps short of failure. Chest, back and legs are loaded in every session, with 90 seconds of rest between sets.

What studies found:

• In a calorie deficit, muscle gain slows down while strength holds (Murphy et al., 2022)
• Light and heavy weights produce the same muscle growth; heavy weights build more strength (Schoenfeld et al., 2017)
• Muscle growth does not require taking sets to failure (Refalo et al., 2023)
• Resting longer than a minute between sets gives a small edge in muscle growth (Singer et al., 2024)

The studies tested the principles; the program itself has not been tested in this form.

Body fat is set by your diet; the program sets the training load.