18 WORKOUTS TO NEW POWER
Life as a responsible adult means time is often at a premium. Finding a balance between work, rest, play, and self improvement is near impossible for most of us. Work takes up the vast majority of our time and we find ourselves trying to cram the other three into one. “Well, I went to a book club meeting, so that was pretty restful, but also fun, and I read a book! So, self improvement.” If only it were that easy.
Exercise tends to fall into a weird place. It’s definitely not rest. For some people it can be play and/or self improvement; for others it is definitely work. Whatever category it falls into, it can be a challenge to find enough time to do it. Particularly to do it in a way that actually accomplishes something. At least that seems to be the common view that is frequently heard. I’ve had many new clients say that they can’t train for more than 90 minutes 3 or 4 days per week.
Buddy. That is ample time.
The following program is a 6 week minimalist strength blast. 3 exercises (or at least variations) done 3 days per week. Why 3 exercises? That’s what Bill Starr recommended in his timeless book The Strongest Shall Survive and if it’s good enough for ol’ Bill, well, it’s good enough for me.
Much like that book, this program follows a medium-light-heavy approach to the workout and uses the following 3 exercises — squat, bench, and power clean. If you don’t know how to power clean, you can substitute a clean high pull. But learn to power clean. If this takes you more than an hour, you are being lazy.
I chose 6 weeks because it forces you to make every training session count. Longer cycles have their place, but it can be easy to skip a session or half-ass your effort. When you only have 18 workouts there can only be full-ass.
The goal of this program isn’t to convince you that more training is bad, or that three exercises are somehow the magic number; it isn’t and it’s not. It’s to demonstrate just how much you can accomplish when you focus on getting stronger at a few basic movements. You don’t need to spend two hours in the gym to get stronger. If you’ve been telling yourself that you don’t have enough time to train, try doing less. Just make the less count.
