Bodyweight strength, no gear
Become
unshakeable.
Six weeks of bodyweight training. One test sets your starting level.
Push ups, squats and hollow hold are free, start to finish.
For iPhone and Apple Watch, in the US and Canada. No Mantle account.
Magnus’s Field Note
“I packed for six weeks. It was one headband.”
The Oldest Beginner · a six-week series
A 4.5-billion-year-old rock tries his first workout plan.
One episode every Sunday from October 4. The same six weeks you would do, in the same app, with considerably more geology.
Magnus’s Field Note
“These are my old plans. They have become sediment.”
Release tracker
Episode 1 drops Sun, Oct 4
One episode a week for six weeks. The same six-week arc, with fewer push-ups.
How it works
One test. Six weeks. One final test.
Magnus’s Field Note
“Finally, something more stubborn than me.”
-
01
One test sets your level.
Do one continuous set, as many as you can with good form. That number sets your starting level for the six weeks. Then pick a grade: light, steady or full.
-
02
Three sessions a week.
Each session has its sets, targets and rest built in. The runner counts the sets and times the holds and the rest. You do the work.
-
03
Eighteen sessions, then The Final Test.
Meet the session targets to advance through the six-week descent. Your record builds as you go.
Example app screens. Targets and records vary.
Relics
Finish a week clean. Something surfaces.
Clear a week without missing a session and a relic turns up at the base of the dig. Some are gems. One is fossilized droppings. Mantle is honest about it.
Magnus’s Field Note
“The headband is now carrying the entire outfit.”
Coprolite Nodules
Yes, fossilized droppings.
Read Magnus’s Note
“I prepared a display case before reading the label.”
Trilobite Carapace
Among the first animals to really see.
Read Magnus’s Note
“I asked it to spot me. It was unavailable.”
Pyrite Sun Disc
Fool’s gold. Still counts.
Read Magnus’s Note
“I have already told everyone it is gold.”
Star Meteorite Core
Iron-nickel from a broken world.
Read Magnus’s Note
“It has travelled further than I have. I am handling that poorly.”
Bridgmanite Crucible
The most common mineral on Earth. It quietly runs the place.
Read Magnus’s Note
“I have offered to take the credit.”
Radiant Core Crystal
1,800 miles down.
Read Magnus’s Note
“I have prepared a six-hour presentation. Kevin has left.”
The relics of the Push Ups dig site. They stay in your archive for good.
When life happens
Took two weeks off? Still where you left it.
Taking a break does not move your week and day. Your descent pauses and nothing is erased. After two weeks away, Today also offers a lighter grade or a fresh baseline test. Or just dig.
Magnus’s Field Note
“I said I wanted depth. I should have been specific.”
The pace
Three sessions in five days is the pace on the built-in dig sites, so nobody crams a week into a Tuesday. Rest is part of the descent.
What’s inside
Floor and bodyweight only. Everything else is geology.
Magnus’s Field Note
“I will be mentioning this at every gathering.”
Sixteen dig sites
Push ups, squats, planks, lunges, burpees and more. Every one is six weeks, from your own baseline.
Apple Watch
Run a session from your wrist. The watch app is free.
Apple Health
Save finished sessions to Health if you want to. It is optional.
Your devices, your iCloud
Sync runs through your own private iCloud. There is no Mantle account and no Mantle server.
Build your own Pass
Pick a bodyweight move and a goal, and build your own six-week dig site.
Prefer it plain?
Minimalist Mode drops the geology. Same training, fewer rocks.
Free and the Subterranean Pass
Three dig sites are free, start to finish.
The Pass opens the other thirteen and everything marked below. Monthly, annual or lifetime, bought inside the app. We never revoke a purchase.
- Push upsFree
- SquatsFree
- Hollow holdFree
- Sit upsPass
- PlankPass
- LungesPass
- Wall sitPass
- Glute bridgesPass
- Calf raisesPass
- BurpeesPass
- Pike push upsPass
- Diamond push upsPass
- Side plankPass
- Mountain climbersPass
- Bird-dogsPass
- Single-leg bridgesPass
| Feature | Free | Pass |
|---|---|---|
| Push ups, squats and hollow hold, six weeks each | Included | Included |
| The other thirteen dig sites | Not included | Included |
| Build your own dig site | Not included | Included |
| The Endless Dig: keep going after the final test | Not included | Included |
| Relics | Six | All of them |
| Baseline test, session runner, archive and streak | Included | Included |
| Apple Watch app | Included | Included |
| Apple Health and iCloud sync | Included | Included |
| No third-party ads | Included | Included |
1,800 miles down
End of the website. Beginning of the dig.
He spent 4.5 billion years preparing to start. The preparation was mostly sitting.
Three dig sites are free, start to finish.
Magnus would make a speech, but he has used all his words on the relics. Back to the Surface