The biggest hurdle most people have when it comes to fitness is consistently lifting weights.
Make no mistake: you MUST lift weights if you want to change your body composition. You will not get a toned, lean, muscular, snatched, or athletic figure (and whatever other terms people are using to describe their goal physique) from any thing other than lifting weights. Cardio, yoga, dancing, etc, won't do it. So get over it, and lift weights.
But, consistency is tough. I'll say right off the bat, though, that if you remain consistent for 90 days, your struggles with consistency will be behind you, because you've now developed a habit. So shoot to get through those first 90 workouts!
Our motivation comes and goes to get super fit, and often, there is a lot of resistance standing between you and your goals.
You've got the TV, the phone, the iPad, the couch, not to mention the commute to the gym, the traffic....
And then when you get to the gym you've got the overcrowded eclectic atmosphere filled with strange people and strange contraptions and there seems to be no privacy.
And to top it all off, NOW you're supposed to do a 1 hour workout, then drive 20+ minutes back home, cook dinner, eat dinner, and get ready for bed?
Let's not forget that many of you struggle with consistency because you're tired. Tired from work, from taking care of the house, taking care of the yard, taking care of the pets, taking care of the kids...
How are you expected to ALSO take care of yourself. All you want to do is lay down on the couch and have some peace and quiet, right?
I get it. Like I said, there is A LOT of resistance.
But, I'm going to solve that problem for you.
What you need is a simple, brief plan that will allow you to develop consistency! After you've become consistent with your workouts, it'll eventually become a habit, you'll have more energy (because exercise has a strange way of giving us more energy than it takes) and you'll be able and willing to take on bigger, more time consuming training plans, which will allow you to build even higher levels of fitness. (As a side, I don't believe there's any reason to train more than 60 minutes at a time).
Here's what you're going to do.
First, you're going to ditch the gym.
Gyms are overrated and they double the amount of obstacles you have to overcome just to train – commuting, parking, checking in, changing, locking your gear up, dodging everyone else in the gym, and trying to decide which peace of equipment you're going to use. We are going to avoid all that, which will save you about an hour of your day, without even including the workout yet.
You're going to set up a simple home gym. Find your courage corner.
You don't need to spend a whole bunch of money or do a whole getup. You can expand the home gym later down the road if you wish.
All you're going to need is a couple kettlebells or a couple dumbbells and a physio ball.
Resistance bands and a pullup tower might be nice, but if you can't do pullups yet, then that's not necessary.
You are going to alternate between the 2 sessions that I'm going to share below.
You will aim to do the amount of reps within the rep range, and over time, increase reps within the given range, and, eventually, increase weight.
I think a pair of adjustable dumbbells will be ideal because you'll be able to add weight without having a bunch of equipment taking up space, and they're cheap.
You don't even need a weight bench for this routine, but, if you decide to become a lifelong home gym rat – which I encourage for various reasons, not least of which is the convenience and lifestyle home gyms encourage for you AND your entire family – eventually you'll want to invest in an adjustable weight bench. Don't worry, they are also quite cheap these days.
You're going to train for just 15 minutes! And you're going to do AT LEAST 2 workouts per week. That's the minimum.
That's only a 30 minute weekly requirement.
Because the workouts are so brief, I'd encourage you to try to increase, over time, to doing 4, 5, or even 6 workouts per week alternating between the 2 sessions each day.
But 2 days is the minimum requirement, and it'll ensure your stimulating the muscles of the entire body each week.
Okay, let's take a look at the program.
Session A
A1: pullups OR rows-5-10 reps
A2: pushups/bench press variation or overhead press (alternate each session)-6-12 reps if OHP, 10-20 reps if pushups
A3: physio ball leg curls or kettlebell swings (alternate each session if you want to do both)-10-20 reps
(AMRAP 15 minutes)
Session B
A1: bicep curls-6-10 reps
A2: triceps extensions-8-12 reps
A3: reverse lunges or goblet squat or front squat-8-12 reps
(AMRAP 15 minutes)
AMRAP means "as many rounds as possible."
So, you'll rotate between the 3 exercises each day like this:
Exercise A1, rest as needed.
Then do exercise A2, rest as needed.
Then do exercise A3, rest as needed.
Start over with exercise A1.
Repeat for as many rounds as you can do in 15 minutes.
Some days you'll get lots of rounds, some days you'll get very few rounds. That's okay. That's life. It ebbs and it flows. Go with it.
3-5 rounds per exercise would be REALLY good, and throughout 3 or 4 sessions per week, you would be accumulating quite a bit of volume.
These sessions have the added benefit of training your cardiovascular system along with increasing strength and muscle mass. We are using the density training method – accomplishing plenty of work in very little time.
This is great for general, all around fitness. It's obviously not optimal, because it's only 15 minutes. And since we are training strength, hypertrophy (muscle), and cardio simultaneously, it's not the best approach for improving any one of those qualities. But if the goal is general fitness – who cares if we're optimizing one or the other. By nature, you can only optimize one quality at a time. So embrace IMPROVING all 3 qualities simultaneously, and reap the rewards of a quality, sensible program that take very little time and allows you to train in the privacy of your own home, garage, or backyard.
This your program to catapult you into a fit lifestyle and a better looking, better performing body! Do it!
Accumulate those 90 workouts. Then, when/if you're ready to do more, let me know and we'll get you on a more traditional lifting program that will take around 30-45 minutes per session. Or, feel free to keep rocking the 15 minute workouts. If it works for you and it ain't broke, don't fix it.
"What if I like the simplicity and style of program, but have more time and energy to dedicate towards my training?"
This is common. People do these strength circuit routines and find them very fun and entertaining. But maybe 15 minutes no longer challenges them.
In that case, continue doing the program!
But....
Instead of doing 15 minute AMRAPs, do 20, 30, or even 40 minutes AMRAPs!
You'll be doing the exact same routine, but you'll be getting way more volume and challenging yourself even more. I've long been a fan of strength circuits and even wrote my first ebook (which is currently under revision) called "The Wild Yak Method" which was literally just a bunch of 20-40 minute strength circuits like these 2 programs above!
I would add 1 or 2 things to the program, however.
First, I would switch up the exercise variations from time to time to keep myself interested.
Second, I would add a quick warmup of calf raises (to get some direct stimulus for the calves) and I would do some loaded carries or an ab exercise as part of the warmup.
So before each session, take 3-5 minutes and do 1-2 sets of calf raises along with 1-2 sets of loaded carries or an ab exercise.
In the name of thoroughness, here's the program layout:
(We shall call this program, "Mindless Muscle," because there's no thinking or overthinking involved. Just pick 3 sensible exercises, set some time on the clock, and rotate through the 3 exercises accumulating a bunch of volume during 30-40 minutes).
Warmup: 1-2 sets of calf raises + loaded carries or abs
Session A
A1: pullups OR rows (alternate each session)-5-12 reps
A2: pushups/bench press or overhead press (alternate each session)-6-12 reps if bench press variation or OHP, 10-20 reps if pushups
A3: physio ball leg curls or kettlebell swings (alternate each session)-10-20 reps
(AMRAP 30 minutes)
Session B
A1: bicep curls-6-10 reps
A2: triceps extensions-8-12 reps
A3: reverse lunges or Bulgarian split squats or goblet squat or front squat (feel free to alternate each session)-8-12 reps
(AMRAP 30 minutes)
I didn't mention this in the first half of this writing, because I didn't think it was that important for those just looking to get 15 minute workouts to build consistency, to know...
But, this program pairs our upper body compound movement patterns (push & pull) with a less taxing, less complex lower body isolation (leg curls or swings). Yes, I'm aware that kettlebell swings are technically a compound exercise. But they're much less fatiguing than deadlift variations or squat & lunge variations.
We pair our compound squat & lunge exercise with upper body isolation exercises for biceps and triceps.
Again, these AMRAPs can be done for anywhere from 15-40 minutes. I put 30 minutes in the parentheses just because I think that's a good, regular goal to shoot for with this program.
Train as frequently as you're able to recover from and as frequently as your schedule will allow.
What about isolations?
Well, we have the posterior chain isolation option there, and the biceps and triceps.
I'm not a fan of back or chest isolation exercises. They just seem to have a low return on investment, and chest isolations cause many people discomfort in the shoulders.
But, I accept the shoulder isolation argument. So, if you want to do lateral raises on occasion, simply alternate every other overhead press session with lateral raises. So you're session A training schedule may look like this:
Session A (1)
A1: overhead press
A2: pullups
A3: swings
Session A (2)
A1: pushups
A2: single arm rows
A3: leg curls
Session A (3)
A1: lateral raise
A2: pullups
A3: swings
Session A (4)
A1: incline DB bench press
A2: gorilla rows
A3: leg curls
See? Easy? Good.
Of course, you're alternating A sessions with B sessions. Give that a go if you want to isolate those side delts and spam lateral raises once every 4 A sessions.
My go-to pieces of equipment with this program are:
1. Dumbbells
2. Pullup bar
3. Kettlebells
4. Cable attachment for triceps
5. Adjustable bench
You could make do with less or more. Just make the most out of what you have, take each set within 2-3 reps of failure, don't rest longer than 3 minutes at one time, keep things moving, and build your general fitness as well as your body.
As always, thanks for reading and supporting, and happy hoisting!
-Benen
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