Skulpt Chisel, Stacked Workout Tracker App Reviewed

So after reading the book Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle by Tom Venuto, I got re-inspired to really try weight lifting. I HATE WEIGHT LIFTING due to the soreness that always follows. So what changed my mind?

I shut up and did. I got up at six AM and went to the gym. The next day, as expected my muscles were sore, but I only notice when I move. So going from standing to sitting, sitting to standing, etc. Most of the time, I might notice a little plumpness, but in reality, on a scale from one to ten, it's about a three. Most of the day I don't notice it. I need to buckle up, suck it up and just do it.

Physically inactive people can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30. Even if you are active, you’ll still have some muscle loss. I'm now 52, which means I may have lost ou tp 10% of my muscle. This loss of muscle even has a name, “Sarcopenia.” Sarcopenia typically happens faster around age 75. But it may also speed up as early as 65 or as late as 80

In the same way that almost every book I read says to eat a good healthy breakfast, they all say changing your body requires weight lifting (either via weights or body weight exercises).

How I'm Able To Tolerate Exercises I Hate.

1. I Made it a Game

I've got an app, and I'm going to use it to make weight lifting a game to see how I can compete against old workouts to see if I can make it better. When I go to the gym I've adopted an attitude mentioned in the book and that is “I don't want to go to maintain; I go to the gym to improve. And if I want to improve, then today I must aim to beat my previous workouts and do something I've never done before.”

Now do be silly and over do it, but realizing there should be progress in the future it the mindset I have.

2. Made it Easy

I found an app to track and customize my downloads. While you don't need this, I wanted the documentation to track my progress (more on this in a minute)

3. Ensured Success

The first time I attempted to get up at Six AM I failed. I reached out an turned the alarm clock next to my bed off and went back to bed. On Wednesday in addition to the alarm clock, I set my phone as an alarm and put it in a place where I would hear it, but have to get out of bed to turn it off.

4. I Lie To Myself

Lifting weights for the rest of my life is depressing (although who knows as a month I might like this). So my goal is to get to 190 by February 8th 2018 (my 52nd birthday). It is an aggressive goal, but I'm committed. By telling myself, “It's only until February” I can stomach the pain as I know it's not forever.

5. I Give Myself Pop Talks

I mentioned a few episodes about using non-flattering pictures as motivation, I've also made posters with my goal weight, my goal date, and a slogan like “YOU GOT THIS” and I've put it in my kitchen, my bathroom, and other places I see on a regular basis. I've also found a cool affirmation app (more on that later).

6. I've Got Some Skin in the Game

I spent some money on some new tools (Skulpt Chisel, and some apps) so I need to get my money's worth.

Skulpt Chisel Review

I came across the Skulpt Chisel on YouTube. I saw very chiseled men singing it's praises. What is it? It's a device that looks like a plastic wallet. You spray some water on some sensors and push it against your body in different locations to get insights into your body composition (how much fat, and how much muscle). It syncs with your phone (works on both iOs and Android) and gives you an overall reading on your body composition as well as each body party. It's not shocking as a man in his 50's with a body that looks like a man in his 50's my worst area is my belly (abs only 29.9% muscle). The Skult Chisel is $99 so I bought it knowing I really wanted to track all of my changes (and I love gadgets)

A Very Rough Start

Anytime I buy anything electronic, I expect it to need to update the minute I get it out of the box. After all, how long has it been sitting on a shelf somewhere? What the PDF didn't tell me is that for me to connect to the skulpt, I needed to go into my Bluetooth settings of my phone and disconnect all other Bluetooth devices. I sat trying and trying to connect my phone and it just wouldn't. I would find it, the device would turn green, and it would prompt me to press a button and that would then lock it up.

Thank God for Google. I was able to find a Facebook group with some clues. I turned off all Bluetooth devices, and I put it on the charger to be able to update the unit. This took me an hour to figure out.

I was really surprised that while everyone and their brother is reviewing the Skulpt Chisel, there are very few videos (and zero from the company) on how to use it. They give you a squirt bottle and a pdf. I had no idea how much to squirt on the sensors before pressing it against my body. It turns out you only need a squirt or two.

So the learning curve was pretty bad, but once I get it all setup and syncing, everything works fine. You can do a full scan (where you measure many parts of your body) or a quick scan (which scans around four parts of your body).

I did get some help with Skulpt on Facebook, who pointed me at their help desk I'm still not sure how I missed their support area, but I did.

Skulpt Chisel Fairly Easy to Use

Once I go through the initial setup and update, the Skulpt Chisel is pretty easy to use. You don't have to spray that much water on the sensors. You might occasionally have to reposition the unit to get a good reading, but so far I'm happy with it. While my Withings (now owned by Nokia) scale lets me know my body fat percentage (29.3) the Skulp Chisel said I was at 31% and let me see where the problem areas were.

The Analysis Needs Work

I liked that it lets me know I need to work my shoulders and even gives me names of exercises I could do to build those muscles. Then when I click on the name of the exercise it leads me to a page that apparently had a video at one point, but it was removed. So it's helpful, ( I can search the exercise and find a video) but it just left me thinking that they are understaffed.

Some Features Not Available

Some videos I saw on YouTube mentioned it would give nutrition advice. That does not exist at this point and time.

Overall Summary About Skulpt Chisel

Yes the setup procedure was a nightmare and they need to update their PDF, but once it's going (and since you read this article you shouldn't have as bad an experience) I like it, and I believe the graphics it generates will help motivate me to keep going.

More Information Available Here

Workout Tracking Made Easy With the Stacked App.

I've tried a few apps in the past and they seemed geared toward the bodybuilder with uber options or made shaping a list of exercises into a workout confusing (pumping weight app). The Stacked App is for iOs only at this point, and I love the fact that I was able to log in, click around and figure out how to add an exercise that wasn't listed (even though their list is impressive) turn those exercises into workouts. Then as I was actually doing the workout it was super easy to enter the weight and reps (and add exercises on the fly if needed). You can try it for free, but it's only $4.99