The Thaw

After a frosty night, you warm the engine up at idle before you put it under load. “The Thaw” brings you back to the gym the same way: an intro first week, sets that end with reps in reserve, and mostly machines. Pick two days a week that suit you and get started.

For those coming back to the gym after a break who want to stay in overall shape. 2 workouts a week, 5 exercises each: in Base weighted exercises are done for 12 reps, in Build for 10, abs for 15, with 2 minutes of rest, 9 sets a week for legs and 6 each for chest and back. 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 is “Bodyworks”, a barbell program that starts with finding your working weights.

Each of the two workouts trains the whole body, so chest, back and legs are loaded twice a week. Most exercises are done on machines, and there is no barbell in the program. The first week is an intro week, the app calculates the weight for each set from your max, and every set ends with reps still in reserve.

Method: Gradual return to load.
After a break, load comes back gradually, so the first week is an intro week and from then on the load in Base rises week by week. Sets end with reps still in reserve, and most exercises are done on machines.

What studies found:

• With weekly volume equal, training frequency has little effect on muscle growth (Schoenfeld et al., 2019)
• Load is increased gradually, volume first, then weight (Kraemer et al., 2004)
• Muscle growth does not require taking sets to failure (Refalo et al., 2023)

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