Updated 3/28/16: After 3-4 weeks of doing the Master’s Hammer and Chisel – Insanity Max:30 Hybrid I decided to revise it. The original schedule focused primarily on the Chisel workouts in Weeks 1-4 and then Hammer in Weeks 6-9. I prefer to alternate between Chisel and Hammer more frequently so Revision 1 incorporates that change.
Susan and I are finishing up our first round of the Master’s Hammer and Chisel program and can’t wait to do it again. We miss Shaun T, however, so I decided to come up with this Hammer & Chisel / Max:30 Hybrid.
Master’s Hammer and Chisel Review
The Master’s Hammer and Chisel (H&C) is a collaboration between Sagi Kalev (Body Beast) and Autumn Calabrese (21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix Extreme). Here is what you get:
H&C Base Kit
- 7 workouts designed and led by Sagi (the “Hammer”) that cover the range from Plyometrics to Strength to Power; also includes Sagi’s 10 minute Ab Hammer routine.
- 8 workouts designed and led by Autumn (the “Chisel”) that cover Agility, Balance, Endurance, Cardio, Power as well as Strength; also includes Autumn’s 10 minute ab routine.
- The Beast Total Body workout from Sagi’s popular Body Beast program.
- The Dirty 30 Extreme workout from Autumn’s popular 21 Day Fix Extreme program.
- The Master’s Cardio bonus disk which is a workout where Sagi and Autumn appear together (available only if you ordered through your Team Beachbody Coach, not included if purchased directly from Beachbody or Amazon).
- Autumn’s revolutionary color coded container portion control eating plan.
Deluxe Workouts
- 2 additional workouts led by Sagi, “Hammer Build Up” and “15 Minute Leg Hammer”.
- 2 additional workouts led by Autumn, “Power Chisel” and “15 Minute Glute Chisel”.
Other than the special Leg Hammer, Glute Chisel and ab routines all of the workouts are total body workouts which work most if not all of your muscles–there are no specific body part routines like the Arms or Shoulders routines in Body Beast.
The H&C workout schedule is unique among Beachbody programs in that there doesn’t appear to be any structure to it. You will do total body workouts on successive days, you may work abs three days in a row, and the endurance, strength and power workouts are interleaved seemingly at random. For us that took a while to adjust to since we are used to the repeating 7-day cycles of most programs. The program started off with fairly easy workouts but by the 5th day became a lot more challenging.
Insanity Max:30
There’s not much to say about Max:30 other than it offers the most difficult cardio routines available in the Beachbody universe. To read my comparison between Max:30, Focus T25 and the original Insanity, see my P90X3/Max:30 Hybrid post.
Hammer & Chisel / Max:30 Hybrid Schedule
The whole point of putting hybrid schedules together is to be able to assemble a schedule of favorite workouts in a logical fashion while eliminating workouts that I feel just “don’t cut it”. It’s also a way to incorporate more traditional high intensity cardio with our favorite resistance workouts, and that’s what I did with this schedule. Here are some highlights on the schedule:
- The schedule uses a predictable, repeating 7-day cycle similar to P90X and P90X3.
- This is a 10-week schedule with two 5-week phases.
The first phase is the “Chisel Phase” where the resistance workouts all belong to Autumn on Days 1, 3 and 5. The second phase is the “Hammer Phase” featuring Sagi’s best resistance routines on the same days of the week.Revised 3/28/16: Both phases alternate between “Chisel Weeks” and “Hammer Weeks” which employ the best Chisel and Hammer workouts on Days 1, 3, and 5. - Insanity Max:30 is primarily used for the high intensity cardio 2 or 3 days per week. The Month 1 Max:30 workouts are used in the Phase 1, and the Month 2 workouts are used in Phase 2.
- Week 5 is a Recovery Week between the two phases, and Week 10 is a Victory Week where you taper to the finish.
- 3 of the 4 Deluxe workouts are good enough to be included in the hybrid; where they appear on the schedule there is always an alternate workout from the Base Kit.
- Ab Hammer, Ab Chisel, and Ab Attack 10 are sprinkled into the schedule either 2 or 3 days per week. Since my personal preference has always been to do the ab workouts before the primary workout, I listed them first on their schedule days–feel free to do the ab workouts after the primary workout if that’s what you prefer.
You may be more interested in which workouts I omitted and why. These workouts did not make the cut:
- Iso Speed Hammer: IMO this workout is just too short (22 minutes) and I had a hard time finding the right weight for 10 slow reps immediately followed by 10 fast reps while getting something out of both sets.
- The Master’s Cardio: This bonus workout is about 16 minutes long but just doesn’t fit when you have Shaun T cardio!
- 10 Minute Leg Hammer: Very similar to Tony Horton’s Triometrics from P90X3, with all the other leg work this one is just not necessary.
- Beast Total Body and Dirty 30 Extreme.
That’s about it. To download a printable copy of the hybrid schedule, click on the image below or the link below the image. Make sure you let me know how it goes!
OVER 4000 DOWNLOADS FROM JOHNTFITNESS: Please click the image to gain access to a high-resolution, printable version of the Hammer & Chisel / Max:30 Hybrid Schedule and join thousands of others already doing our hybrids!
Get the Master’s Hammer & Chisel / Max:30 Hybrid Schedule
I am an Independent Team Beachbody Coach who found success using Beachbody's fitness programs and nutriton guides. I'm here to see that you have the same success I have had using Beachbody programs.
Hi John,
I think Your workouts might be to hard for me to do, cause i’m just starting out again after having 3 beautiful babies, but I would still love to get some advice from you if that’s ok.
My friends do some Piyo classes, but I need something I can do at home, when I have time lol, not in other people’s time (usually when the kids are in bed or at my mother’s house).
I googled piyo online and found some positives and my friends swear by it so far, but they are also younger than me. Do you think it would be a good way to start? I can’t afford to waste money on something i wont use. I saw some bad stuff about piyo as well like what this Debbie lady has to say about it http://www.piyoreviews.com/
so i’m really not sure what to start. It’s been about 6 years since i have done proper exercise, and a proper diet for that matter so i’m out of shape (even though my girls keep me busy).
I need to get off my bottom, away from Facebook and it’s games lol!
Please help! Any advice would be great 🙂
Kind regards
Cassie
Hi Cassie! Yes you are right if you are a beginner then this workout schedule is not the right thing for you. I don’t know anything about the alterative yoga product that the owner of that website is selling, but PiYo is a great beginner program. However not everyone relates to every trainer and there are some who just don’t “click” with Chalene Johnson. But of all the customers I have that have purchased PiYo not a single one has ever returned it (and yes, you can always try it and return it for a refund). The site you mentioned makes me laugh because the owner starts off telling you not to trust a review where they are trying to sell you the program, and then continues to give you a positive review of something else that they are selling. And the two different names shouldn’t confuse you, people play that trick all the time. BTW if you decide to give PiYo a try don’t make the mistake of getting it from Amazon–it costs more and you get less DVD’s than when you purchase direct. You can get it as cheap as $30 and receive one extra disk and free disk replacement from a coach–you don’t get all that from Amazon.
But frankly I don’t know enough about you to say whether this is the right program for you or not. I will send you an email with a few questions, and then I can give you my thoughts on where I think you should start.
John
Hi Cassie–I tried to send you an email but it did not go through. If you would like my thoughts on what program would be appropriate for you please send me an email directly and then I can respond with a few questions for you 🙂
info@johntfitness.com
Thanks–John
Hi, I have completed Max 30 and am now working through the original insanity. I am planning to do Hammer and Chisel next, but I don’t want to lose my cardio endurance. Is Hammer and Chisel enough by itself? Should I complete that program on its own or try your hybrid of the two? I want to keep my endurance and add muscle slowly. Thank you!
Hi Michelle, and thanks for the question 🙂 Normally it’s best to complete a full round of both programs before launching into a hybrid, and with Hammer and Chisel that is especially important because the program as designed lays a good foundation for resistance training. My hybrid assumes you already have a base with resistance training, and if you have only been doing Max 30 and Insanity then you don’t have a good base for the hybrid (neither of those programs grows muscle, they pretty much only work on muscle endurance). Don’t worry too much about your cardio endurance because if you use the right weights H&C has plenty of hearth thumping cardio (just not the jumping up and down variety), and cardio is easy to get back after doing resistance training. Depending on your current condition and goals you probably need more resistance training in your schedule, and Hammer & Chisel is a great balanced program for it. Then you can follow up with the hybrid next once you have a foundation. Make sense?
Thank you so much for your response! I will try the full Hammer & Chisel program before doing the hybrid.
Hi John! I’m new to your page, but so far I really like all of the information and tips you have to share. I am currently about halfway through my first round of Hammer and Chisel. I really enjoy this program and I will continue even past this round since I have more weight loss and strength training goals to reach.
For now I have been adding some indoor cycling for extra cardio to boost weight loss. I have been thinking about mixing it up soon with subbing one of the Insanity cardio programs to avoid to much spin and getting in a rut. I have also been really impressed with the speedy results the Insanity cardio brings. I only see that you posted a hybrid for Insanity Max 30 along with H&C. At this time I don’t own either program. I am just wondering if I choose this hybrid, will it be too difficult to start with the Max 30 instead of the regular Insanity in the hybrid or it doesn’t really matter since both have modifiers?
Thanks for your time and input! Also, how do I access you on your Facebook and Instagram pages? Is it just located under John T. fitness?
Hi Allyson–Thanks for the questions. First, depending on what your current fitness condition is and what your goals are, adding extra cardio can sometimes backfire for weight loss. It is usually advisable to just stick to a schedule of one workout per day, eat according to the nutrition plan for the program, and trust the process. Only when you are near your target weight and totally in control of your caloric needs should one attempt to do double workouts, or add in extra. That’s because when you add extra work you are keeping your body in a continual state of stress, and stress hinders weight loss. Not to mentions if you don’t eat enough to fuel both workouts your metabolism will slow down which is exactly opposite of what you want.
I’m a little confused because you say you are doing Hammer and Chisel and then say you don’t own either program. Either way, once you finish a round of H&C you could do this hybrid (with one workout a day) using either regular Insanity or Max 30.
If you don’t mind please send me a friend request at http://www.facebook.com/john.tantillo.7 and/or Like my page at http://www.facebook.com/johntfitness. I’ll follow up with a private email as well with a few more questions. Thanks! John
I dunno if this is the right place to ask for it, but since you rave about les mills combat, why not make a les mills combat-p90x3-body beast hybrid combination? Is it the best combination for those who love both muscle-building (Body Beast), variety(p90x3) and kickass martial arts? For now, I am following your les mills-p90x3-p90x combo. Is this superior? Frankly, p90x is too long and body beast is quite shorter(with the exception of the tempo workouts). So what do you think? Do you think the hybrid is good? Or should i just replace the p90x workouts for similar body beast ones?
Hi Oik, thanks for the question. Yes Combat has always been a favorite for many of my customers, and now replaced with the new CDF program. It would be possible for you to blend the Body Beast workouts into the Combat hybrid we have if you prefer that for variety and your goals include muscle building. P90X is a better all-around functional fitness program IMO and a bigger calorie burner. Once you discount for the warmups and cooldowns the workout portions are not that different than the Build workouts. I hope this helps!
I love both Sagi and Tony…I feel like they supplement each other nicely. Tony’s antics and Sagi’s energy all the way through!Thanks for the super prompt reply. Keep up the good work.
I am finishing Asylum 2 in two weeks and your hybrid calendar interested me. Most recently, I have done 21 day fix extreme, Insanity max 30, and now am about to finish Insanity Aslyum 1 and 2. I want to do H and C but am afraid of missing Shaun T and that crazy push he gives. My body has responded so well to all of his programs. Would you recommend this hybrid or just to the H and C alone as it is? I am not looking to build muscle, just that “ripped look” 🙂
Hi Amy–it is usually advisable to have experience with both programs before launching into a hybrid, so it’s probably best for you to do a round of H&C straight up first. I assume that anyone doing this hybrid already has the foundation set and a good starting baseline from a round of H&C already. 8-10 weeks is not a long time so you won’t miss Shaun T that much, he will be waiting for you. And BTW, “ripped look” usually means “more muscle”, especially in women 😉
I apologize if it’s already been stated but I was wondering what formula I should use to calculate my container count with this hybrid? I’m halfway through H & C so should I just keep what I’ve been doing with that? Or does the Max 30 need to come into account for caloric needs?
Thanks!
Hi Meg! Good question. The best thing to do is just stick with he Hammer and Chisel plan that you are since this hybrid is structured around H & C muscle building. The max 30 nutrition guide is basically the same plan too up to Plans A and B anyway. But of course one’s nutrition needs are specific to your goals. I’ll send you a few questions in an email if you would like a few more bought son your specific situation —John
My great thanks for appreciation of your time in dictating my response.
With sincere respect will hammers and chisel as outlined by Mr. Sage and his assistant in the chisel part be emmensly accurate in building my muscles and heart rate?
My upbringing is very hard farm work and now wish to be built as I grow my cardiovascular wind as a pre diabetic who is very huge fan of your blog work and prograns.
Many thanks from Ancourage!
Hello Igor, and thanks for the question. Yes Hammer & Chisel is a very good “resistance cardio” program where much of your cardio work comes from the weight lifting workouts. In my opinion it’s one of the most balanced programs for building muscle and cardiovascular endurance. I will send you an email with a few questions on your personal condition as that will help me understand where you currently are and what you need–John.