Simplifying Your Workout

Simplifying Your Workout

After working full time or going to school full time, who has the time for a long workout session? Typical gym junkies go to the gym as long as 2-3 hours for as much as 5-6 days a week. Even if you’re not a gym junkie, you most likely don’t want to spend more than 3 days in the gym more than an hour at a time. 80% of the time people spent at the gym are wasted by either doing worthless exercises or socializing.

Ever since I started practicing minimalism, which was 3 months ago, I only go to the gym 2 times a week working out around 30 minutes each time. How do I do this? I do it by only working out smart, not hard. After studying about the human body and exercises for 5+ years in my life, I figured out how to work out all the muscles in the body with only 4 exercises.

These are the BIG 4:

-Barbell Back Squats

-Barbell Bench Press

-Barbell Deadlift

-Weighted Chin Ups

On Monday I would perform the Barbell Bench Press and the Weighted Chin Ups, and it takes me approximately 15-20 minutes to do both as I superset them. Then I have some time leftover to use it for some cardio, but I don’t do cardio every time.

On Friday I would put the Barbell Back Squats and Barbell Deadlift to use. This takes me 20-25 minutes to complete since I do one at a time. Most of the time (75%) I squat first and sometimes (25%) I deadlift first. If I have 10 minutes leftover I would do a short cardio, and if only 5 minutes then I just call it quits for the day.

After only 3 months my results were phenomenal for only working out 2x a week, around 30 minutes each workout session. My Squats went from 165 to 225 (60 lbs or 36% increase). My Bench from 150 to 210 (60 lbs or 40% increase). My deadlift from 225 to 315 (90 lbs or 40% increase). Weighted Chin Up from 150 lbs [140 lbs bodyweight+ 10 lbs extra weights] to 190 lbs [145 lbs bodyweight + 45 lbs extra] (50 lbs or 27% increase).

I know these numbers aren’t too big, but I only weigh 140 lbs when I started and 145 lbs currently. I also only recently started working out again 3 months ago (Sept. 2011). My bodyfat went from 14% down to 12% in 3 months from working out only 2 times a week with 30 minutes each session. I do this by following this routing and eating a low/slow carbs high protein/fat diet 3x a day. This is what I call minimalism.

My next goal/project is to work 4 hours a day and make just as much money or more than I do currently while working 8 hours a day. Stay tuned and find out.