Your Last Excuse Dies Here: Transformative Minimalist Training
This post was inspired by a conversation I had with a new client, during my initial assessment.
Fully motivated and with specific goals, he had hired a virtual coach and though initially he saw results, he ended up quitting within a few months.
I probed further, intrigued as to why. To which he responded… the workouts became too long and overwhelming. He was spending hours in the gym, doing so many different exercises… he couldn’t keep up despite loving working out and very clear (and motivated) on his WHY for doing it.
As a father of two young kiddos, he said he just didn’t have the bandwidth to handle it.
This got my passionate, pet peeve juices all riled up.
Here's the thing:
Doing TOO many exercises during your workout leads to neurologic FATIGUE and DIMINISHED results. More is NOT always better.
With finite time and energy, excessive exercise repertoire workouts at some point diminish returns.
Your training should:
ENHANCE your energy, not suck it from you.
Allow you to keep coming back, over the long term.
For the busy dad, mom, business owner, executive or entrepreneur, it is a far smarter idea to embrace a MINIMALIST TRAINING strategy.
I will get to the juicy bits of how I would structure your workouts, but first, I want to explain what I mean by minimalistic training.
Minimalism DOES NOT mean half-ass effort or embracing low intensity.
What it does mean is:
VERY SPECIFIC MOVEMENT SELECTIONS. Whole body movements, 3-5 movements per session. Yes, you read right, per session.
TOTAL VOLUME of each session is LOW! Both sets and reps. Because you're using the
SAFEST heaviest weight you can, while maintaining movement integrity!!!Train with INTENSITY, INTENTION and FOCUS. Squeeze everything out of the low reps/ sets
The total TIME of each workout typically should not exceed 30 minutes.
CONSISTENT Minimalist workouts even 10-20 minutes at a time WILL move the ball forward and guess what… it will keep you coming back for more! Trust me, I promise this works!!!!
My Two Favorite Minimalist Frameworks
There are many training frameworks out there that work great. These are the two that I tend to fall back on when training clients or myself.
Framework "A" - Kettlebell Chain - EMOM (Every Minute On The Minute)
Example: Choose either:
Double Kettlebell Clean + Squat + Press
or
Barbell Clean and Press
Complete 2 to 3 high quality reps on the minute for 10 to 20 minutes. Perform 2 to 3 reps, then rest for the remainder of the minute. Start again at the top of every minute.
The most important aspect of this training is QUALITY reps. No junk reps as you'll risk injury and will program your nervous system to move poorly. If 3 reps gets hard, then drop to 2 reps and so on.
This type of training is incredibly impactful because it saves you time, accelerates results due to the systemic stress on your body.
You'll get more fat loss, more muscle gains, and a nice boost in cardiovascular conditioning (I call it incidental cardio because it's not the goal of this training, just a nice bi-product).
You could substitute other drills such as kettlebell or barbell front squats, clean and jerks, snatches, swings, etc.
Framework "B" - Metabolic Tri-Set
(You choose a Leg, Push and Pull Exercise and do them in a circuit format)
Example -
Squat (barbell or Kettlebell) or Deadlift, Lunge, Step Up, Etc
Horizontal or Vertical Push (barbell bench press, dumbbell or kettlebell bench press, push up, military press)
Horizontal or Vertical Row (barbell bent over row, kettlebell or dumbbell bent over row, TRX rows, Chin Ups, Pull Downs)
Perform anywhere from 5 to 10 reps of each movement in a circuit format. Rest 2-3 minutes after each circuit.
This should take you between 20 and 30 minutes.
Minimalist workouts, done WELL REALLY work because they are:
SUSTAINABLE
TIME EFFICIENT
MENTALLY DOABLE
REPEATABLE
STIMULATES HORMONE PRODUCTION (AKA builds muscle and burns fat)
That’s it for this article.
Hope it helped.
