Master Chief Designer's New Exercise Routine Would Make Even Chief Himself Sweat

Marcus Lehto is credited with designing the iconic Xbox hero Master Chief, a super-soldier known for his size and strength. Well, Lehto himself is now committing to a new workout routine that sounds like something Chief would do to prepare for battle.

Lehto, who is now heading up an EA studio working on a narrative-themed Battlefield project, said on Twitter that he's extending his at-home workouts to include efforts in the "hypertrophy" category.

For Lehto, this means lifting about half his usual weight, but really pushing it in terms of sets and reps... and with minimal rest between sets. In short, he's going hard. "Loving the results, but killer workout!" Lehto said of his new regimen, which includes 6 sets of 25 reps each with no more than 60 seconds of rest between sets.

This is a pretty extreme way to grind at the gym, and Lehto acknowledged this. "Burns like crazy. I’ll switch back to regular routine in a week or so," he said.

Pablo Schreiber, who plays Master Chief in the soon-to-release Halo TV series, also put in some serious work at the gym to get in shape to play the iconic Xbox hero.

After moving on from Bungie and the Halo series, Lehto started a company called V1 Interactive that released a unique shooter called Disintegration in 2020. It could not find an audience; the game and the studio later closed. Lehto is running a new EA studio in the Seattle area focusing on expanding the Battlefield 2042 universe's storytelling. It's too soon for Lehto to be able to talk about what he's working on however, recently replying to someone on Twitter, "I wish I could say something."

As for Master Chief, his latest adventure in Halo Infinite has been a success, with the game recently passing 20 million players to become the biggest Halo launch of all time.