Questions, answered plainly.

Apply or get invited. To apply, create an account on the signup page. If a trainer sent you their link, it fills their code in for you; if they gave you a code, type it into the invite or referral code field. The code is optional.

Chris then approves every member by hand, usually within a day, and we email you once you're approved.

Joined without a code but a trainer sent you? Tell us who at info@thechrisworkout.com before you're approved.

Yes. Apply directly on the signup page and leave the code field blank. Every member is approved by hand the same way, with or without a code.

If you train with someone who might like to recommend it, send them our page for trainers. For anything else about access, contact us.

Adults who lift and want to build muscle, get lean, or both. At intake you pick a goal: build muscle, build muscle and lose fat, lose fat while keeping muscle, get stronger, or general fitness and health. You also set your experience, from beginner (under a year) to advanced.

You must be 18 or older.

Your account waits for approval. Chris reviews every application by hand, usually within a day, and may decline one.

Once you're approved, a short intake asks for your goals, the days you train, your equipment, anything your body can't do, and a health check.

Then you choose monthly or annual and start your 7-day free trial. While you do, your first session is written for your first lifting day, today or later, so it's normally waiting on your dashboard when you're done. After that, tap a day to get each session.

They may be paid. Trainer partners can earn a share of what the members they refer pay, and we ask every partner to tell you that when they recommend us.

They can't see your data. Your training logs, food, weigh-ins and photos are never shared with trainers or partners. A trainer who referred people gets a monthly count of how many signed up and how many are paying, with no names.

It describes what the AI works from, not a person. Every session is written by AI using an evidence reference distilled from published muscle-building research: hard sets per muscle each week, how close to failure to train, rep ranges, rest, and exercise choice by angle and muscle length.

Some rules aren't left to the AI. Code checks every lifting session against them, such as each muscle's weekly set minimum, and the method page lists those rules and the research behind them.

No researcher, coach or other person writes or reviews your program. The AI writes it, a second AI pass reviews it by default, and code checks the result.

The Programmer, an AI agent, writes it from your logged sets, goals, schedule, equipment, injuries, the areas you want to bring up and, if you've added them, your progress photos. By default the Auditor, a second AI pass, reviews the draft and corrects what it finds.

Then code checks every lifting session against your exercise counts and each muscle's share of an evidence-based weekly minimum. A session that falls short gets a repair pass when time allows, and the workout page shows whether it met your requirements.

Building a session usually takes two to four minutes with the review on, or one to three without it.

From your log. Hit the top of your rep range on every set and the load goes up next time. Stall on a lift for two sessions and it forces a jump in load or swaps the movement.

Training runs in four-week blocks, and the fourth week is lighter so you recover before the next block.

No. At intake you choose your equipment: a full commercial gym, a well-equipped home gym, or limited home equipment such as dumbbells and bands. Sessions are written for what you have, and you can change it any time from your profile.

You choose. Set a length in minutes, or tick No time limit. You also set a minimum number of main lifts and ab exercises per session.

If a session runs past your length, only extra sets are trimmed, never below those minimums or today's share of each muscle's weekly minimum.

Yes. At intake, mark the days you do a class or sport and say what it is. On a class day you get guidance for the class rather than a lifting session.

The day before a conditioning class, your session skips hamstring and calf work and hip hinges, and keeps the rest of your leg work light. If you lift four or five days a week, a lower-body day that lands before a class becomes light legs plus upper body.

Where your week allows, the heavy hamstring day is also moved so it doesn't land the day before a class.

Swap it. The Swapper, another AI agent, replaces one exercise with another that trains the same muscles and isn't already in today's session. Keep logging the rest while it works. You can also replace the whole session.

If you've logged the new movement before, its load comes from your numbers. If you haven't, it doesn't guess: it asks you to find a weight you could lift for three more reps.

Yes. Export them as a text or CSV file and upload them on your History & Photos page. Your most recent uploaded logs are read when your sessions are built.

Your dashboard shows the muscles still under their weekly minimum, lifts that have stalled, how often you've hit your protein this week, your weekly calorie average and your bodyweight trend.

The trends page shows four weeks of work per muscle and an estimated one-rep max for each lift. Lighter weeks are left out of the direction, so a planned easy week never reads as a decline.

Not yet. The app writes each session from your own logs and targets, and there's no way to load another program into it. Your trainer can't see your account either.

No. Your coaching is generated by AI from your own logs, and it can be wrong. Nothing in the app is medical advice. Talk to a physician before you start a new training or nutrition program, and stop if anything hurts.

A health check is part of intake. A yes doesn't stop you training; it changes how your plan is built. Depending on your answers, sessions stay conservative (nothing to failure, lighter loads, supported positions), or no calorie deficit is set.

List your injuries and the movements you must avoid at intake. They're hard rules for the AI: it's told never to prescribe them in any variation or under another name, in every session, review and swap, and the audit checks for them. You can update them from your profile at any time.

Code can't read injuries written in your own words, so if a session ever includes something you ruled out, skip it and tell us.

The app doesn't diagnose or treat injuries. For pain or an injury, see a physician or physiotherapist.

Type a meal the way you'd say it, like “3 eggs, oatmeal with a banana, shake with milk”, or photograph the plate. The Meal Reader, an AI agent, returns calories, protein, carbs, fat and fibre for each item and shows the portion it assumed for each.

Nothing is saved until you confirm. Foods you've eaten recently log again in one tap.

They're estimates, not measurements, which is why the portions it assumed are shown before you confirm. If something looks off, discard it and describe the meal again with the amount, such as “6 oz chicken breast”.

From your bodyweight, height, age, sex (if you give it), goal and training days, and the reasoning is shown with the numbers.

Protein is set at 2.2 g per kg of bodyweight, comfortably above the roughly 1.6 g/kg where research finds muscle gains level off. Fat is set at 0.8 g/kg, and carbohydrate takes the rest because it fuels your training.

No, but calorie suggestions depend on it. Weigh in most mornings and the app compares your weight trend with the rate your goal plans for, then suggests whether to change calories, which way and by how much.

Nothing is suggested until there are at least eight weigh-ins, with enough in each of the last two weeks to compare. Single weigh-ins swing with water, so it works from weekly averages.

No. It sets your targets, logs what you eat against them and suggests calorie changes from your weigh-ins. It doesn't write meal plans, and it isn't a dietitian.

No. Photos are optional. Without them, sessions are still built from your logs, your goals and the areas you said you want to bring up.

Upload front, back or any angle whenever you like; iPhone HEIC photos are converted in your browser. The AI compares your older photos with your newest, using up to your six most recent, and leads with your weakest area. It's honest, not flattering, and says so when lighting or angle makes a comparison unreliable.

It ranks three to five areas to bring up, worst first. Each session targets the top one that fits that day's muscles, and that exercise's coach's note says so.

Your photos are private to your account. The database's security rules lock them to you, so no other member and no trainer can open them. As the privacy policy says, the only other access to account data is the operator's, as administrator.

To analyze them, the app sends them to Google's Vertex AI. Under Google Cloud's terms, that data isn't used to train Google's models. You can delete any photo from your History & Photos page, and the privacy policy has the details.

Yes. Photo analysis only runs on photos you upload, so if you don't add any, there's nothing to analyze.

The health check at intake also asks about eating disorders and worry about eating or weight. Answering yes means your body is never discussed: your photos are never sent for analysis, and you won't see calorie deficits, weight-loss prompts or photo commentary. You can change your answers from your profile at any time.

No. We don't sell your information, don't use it for advertising, and don't share it with trainers or partners. It's used to coach you, email you about your account, bill you, answer messages you send us and keep the service secure, and nothing else.

Google Gemini, through Google Cloud's Vertex AI. Your profile, logs, food descriptions and photos are sent to it to write your sessions and read your meals. Under Google Cloud's terms, that data isn't used to train Google's models.

Your data is stored in the United States (Google Cloud multi-region nam5). It's processed outside Canada, in the United States, by the companies that run parts of the service: Google Cloud and Firebase, Google Vertex AI, Resend for email and Stripe for payments.

$19.99 CAD a month, or $199 CAD a year (two months free), plus applicable tax. Either way, everything is included: training, nutrition tracking and photo analysis. There are no tiers and no add-ons.

Your first 7 days are free on either plan, for your first membership only. After that, a monthly membership is billed monthly in advance and an annual one yearly in advance, and each renews until you cancel. Tax is calculated and added at checkout. If the price ever changes, we'll email you 30 days before the new price applies.

Memberships are sold through Link, Stripe's checkout, which charges your card, collects the tax and sends your receipts. The charge appears on your card statement starting LINK.COM*. Outside Canada, checkout may offer to charge the equivalent in your own currency.

You can switch between monthly and annual any time from your account page. Monthly to annual takes effect immediately, with credit for the unused part of your month. Annual to monthly takes effect when your paid year ends. Switching during your free trial keeps the trial; the plan you switch to is charged when the trial ends.

Yes. Your first 7 days are free, on the monthly or the annual plan. The trial starts when you subscribe, which you can do once you're approved and have finished your profile.

Stripe takes your card at checkout but charges nothing during the trial. The first charge, $19.99 for monthly or $199 for annual, plus tax, comes when the 7 days end. Cancel before then from your account page and you pay nothing. The free trial is for your first membership only.

Yes, any time. On your account page, Manage billing opens Stripe, where you can cancel. You keep access to the end of the period you've paid for, whether that's a month or a year.

Partial months and years aren't refunded, except where the law requires it.

Yes. On your account page, type DELETE to confirm, and your account, training history, food logs, photos and health answers are deleted permanently. Your membership is cancelled immediately, and the current period isn't refunded. Database backups are kept for up to 14 days after that.

Want a copy first? Download everything gives you one file with your profile, health answers, every session, food log, weigh-in and upload, photos included.

The AI features, such as new sessions, exercise swaps and food lookups, have fair-use daily limits, as the terms explain. They reset at midnight UTC.

No download needed. It's a web app that runs in any phone browser, and you can add it to your home screen from your browser's menu.