You probably believe 5-10 minutes workouts is a marketing scam because you believe 90+ minutes workouts are the only way to build strength. I’m here to challenge that notion and hopefully inspire you to see things from a different angle.
In the world of fitness, there are multiple attributes like strength, balance, agility, coordination, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and so on.
The most exhausting to the body is strength training. One of the most fun and entertaining ways for fitness enthusiasts is to train agility, balance and coordination for hours without feeling exhausted. In fact, you will leave the training area more refreshed than you entered.
The reason is simple. These attributes are very light weight on the mind and the body. You enjoy them because they feel more like play than a workout.
But when it comes to strength training, which is the fundamental attribute to any fitness goal, things are different because you can’t actually train your muscles for hours without feeling exhausted.. or can you?
If you go into any gym, you’ll see everyone following the same strategy of building what they call “strength”. Long hours of training, massive workout volume and everyone so tensed with their AirPods on.
This type of training is good for muscle building, which is only one part of strength training. But the majority of strength training doesn’t come from muscle size. It comes from a strong mind and strong nervous system.
Strength as a skill
Take a look at the physique of Bruce Lee and Russian strength athletes and gymnasts. They do have big muscles, but not as big as promoted in a weight lifting gym. The reason is that these athletes knew that strength is not the same as size.
Muscle strength is determined by the number of neurons coming from your brain and innervate that muscle. The best way to increase that number is by practicing the exercise you want to be strong at as many times as possible in daily life.
This principle is not applied to strength training alone. This is applied to anything in life. I’m not saying this to be controversial. In fact, that’s how I learnt everything I know, like portrait drawing, software engineering, physiology, anatomy, handstands, back lever, V-sit and more.
I never burned out myself in anything I learnt because I practiced everything as a skill, including strength training. I graduated as a pharmacist, worked as a fitness coach and software developer, and read tons of books in philosophy, poetry, psychology and business. That’s not because I’m somehow special. It’s because I practice everything as a skill.
On the power of practice, my favourite philosopher and polymath says:
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
So by know you’re probably convinced that strength is best practiced as a skill. But how to achieve that?
it’s very simple. Take 2-3 exercises that you love to develop the most — say pushup and pull-up.
The idea is to do a single set of each exercise as many times as you can throughout the day. This works best for office workers who can have a dumbbell at their office, remote and home office workers who can take breaks every hour without being judged or feeling guilty in a typical office environment or part time workers.
Regarding weekly frequency, you need to practice this way as many times as you can. Start with taking a day off every 2 days. As your strength develops, you’ll be able to workout every day.
Here is an example of how to implement this in a typical work day for simple exercises like pushups and pull-ups.
Let’s suppose you struggle with getting a single pushup or a single pull-up. I’ll show you how to get your first reps in a couple of weeks.
On Monday and Tuesday you’ll practice 1 set of knee pushup till 80% of your total capacity. Then rest few seconds before going to 1 set of assisted pull-up also for 70-80% of your capacity.
Set a timer for 1 hour, then practice those skills again. Repeat this for 6-8 hours. By the end of your workday you’ll have 6 sets minimum, and by the end of the week you’ll have 30 sets minimum done, while in a typical workout style you’ll only get 18-24 sets per week. Isn’t this magical?
And on top of that, you’ll feel fresh and energised after training instead of exhausted like typical gym bros.
But you might say that takes only 30 seconds to finish those 2 exercises. Yes, that’s correct. If strength is your only goal, then you can be happy for that. But if you wish to be a full rounded athlete, you should practice other attributes like agility, coordination, balance and so on. That’s why I have my “Movement Snacks” system. It is there to teach you how to be a serious top level athlete without sacrificing your day.
