How much exercise is enough?

Picture this.

Your humble author.

Wide eyed, bushy tailed, (my hair was seriously crazy) and fresh out of university.

Full of enthusiasm.

Full of good ideas.

Armed with all the information needed to get clients with different health conditions and goals achieving their dreams.

I was absolutely convinced that I would soon be booked out with people wanting to seek my valuable expertise on all the ways exercise could improve their life. And I genuinely believed that all these clients would only be too happy to follow my programs which were modelled on what the textbooks told me.

That phase didn’t last long :)

Thankfully I stuck around long enough to change my approach. Once I actually started listening to clients I realised a few things.

• They were busy
• They had multiple balls in the air with kids, jobs, uni/school
• Very few of them actually liked exercise
• Health although a priority, wasn’t their only focus
• None of them wanted to follow the standard “textbook” approach 

Sound familiar?

With the silly season fast approaching, I certainly appreciate the time and motivation to exercise may be lower than ever! If some of the points above resonate with you, then read on for some of my minimalist exercise tips.

DISCLAIMER: These apply if you want to know what the BARE MINIMUM is if you still want to have a good crack at achieving some results.

If strength is your goal...

• 2 sessions per week
• Good quality sessions targeting all the main muscle groups
• Challenging enough that you don’t want to do it again the next day

If mobility is your goal...

• Improves best with short doses done frequently as opposed to one long session each week
• Needs to also be teamed with a good work and home postural set up
• Can also be aided with 2 minute bursts on a spike ball or foam roller.

If weight loss is your goal..

• Intensity is the key here, you need to sweat and puff and push!
• Need to get 3 vigorous sessions in a week.
• Interval based sessions tend to be most effective

So there you have it. A minimalist approach to exercise when you are on (time) budget! Please remember I've made things very simplistic for the purpose of minimalism.

Often in real life, clients want to achieve all of the goals listed above to some degree. Buidling a program can then become a bit trickier if they remain short of time. Us EP's find the key is to help clients prioritse. From there we can also help direct clients in how they can use their time most effectively.

With the holidays fast approaching, hope you find this bare minimum approach useful. As always, if you seek any specific advice on where to start or what to do, our EP's are ready and willing to help.

Happy training :)