18-Minute Minimalist Exercises

18-Minute Minimalist Exercises A few years ago, I couldn’t do a single push-upâ€"and I certainly couldn’t do a pull-up. I hardly exercised at all; and when I did exercise, it was sporadic: it never lasted more than a few days before I gave up. Sound familiar? Even after I shed 70 pounds of fatâ€"due mostly to dietâ€"I was in terrible shape. At age 28, I was doughy, flabby, and weak. Not anymore. At age 30, I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m in good shape because I’ve found ways to enjoy exercising: I’ve found ways to make exercise a daily reward instead of a dreaded task. I can point to three reasons exercise is now enjoyable. I do only exercises I enjoy. I don’t enjoy running, so I don’t do it. I attempted it for six months and discovered it wasn’t for me. If you see me running, call the policeâ€"someone is chasing me. Instead, I find other ways to do cardio: I walk, I get on the elliptical machine at the gym, I do bodyweight exercises that incorporate cardio. Exercise relieves stress. Although I enjoy exercising most in the mornings, I love hitting the gym (or the park) in the evenings if I feel tense or stressed. Exercising at the end of a long, stressful day also gives me time in solitude to reflect on what’s important. Variety keeps exercise fresh. When I first started exercising, I used to hit the gym three times per week, which was certainly better than not exercising at all. Then, as I got more serious, I started going to the gym daily. This routine became time-consuming, and doing the same thing over and over eventually caused me to plateau. These days I mix it up: I walk every day, and I still hit the gym occasionally, but the thing that has made the biggest, most noticeable difference has been the variety of daily eighteen-minute bodyweight exercises. Eighteen minutes? I know, eighteen minutes sounds like an arbitrary number. That’s because it is. When I started these bodyweight exercises, I didn’t have a specific window of time in mind. But I timed myself for a week and discovered that almost every time I hit the park for my exercises, I was worn out within eighteen minutes. Thus, these are my eighteen-minute exercises (all of which you can do in your living room, outdoors, or just about anywhere). I usually alternate between the following exercises. You can of course pepper in your own favorites. And, yes, these exercises are suitable for men and women. Push-ups. Like I said, a few years ago I couldn’t do a single push-up. Eventually, I could do one (after doing modified push-ups for a while). After a while, I could do ten and then 20. Now I can do 50â€"100. I tend to do three to five sets, resulting in about 200â€"400 push-ups within my eighteen minutes. Pull-ups. Two years ago I thought I’d never be able to do a pull-up. Eventually, I learned how to do one. Soon, two, and then four. Now I can do ten to fifteen in a row. I complete three to four sets, resulting in about 50 pull-ups within my eighteen minutes. I use monkey bars at the park. You can use a pull-up bar at home. A friend of mine uses tree branches. I hated pull-ups because they seemed impossible, but now it’s my favorite exercise. Squats. I just started doing bodyweight squats, and I’ve already noticed a huge difference. I’m doing only three or four sets of 30 right now, but I’ll continue to work my way upâ€"I’ll continue to grow. I don’t have a specific routine or plan, I simply take a 30-second break between sets, bouncing from one exercise to the next. After eighteen minutes, I’m spent. And I feel great afterward. I get that wonderful tired-but-accomplished feeling you get after a great workout. What used to be tedious is now exhilarating. Read this essay and 150 others in our book, Essential. You May Also Enjoy How to Start a Successful Blog Today Learn how to start a blog in less than an hour. Follow the step-by-step instructions we used when starting our blog, which now has reached more than 20 million people. Creating this blog is one of the best decisions Ryan and I ever made. After all, our blog is how we earn a living. More important, it's how we add value to other people's lives. Read more 30-Day Minimalism Game Let's play a simple game together. We call it the 30-Day Minimalism Game. Find a friend, family member, or coworker who's willing to minimize their stuff with you next month. Read more 11 Ways to Write Better We are all writers now. Whether you write books, blog posts, emails, Instagram captions, or text messages, you are a writer. No matter your preferred medium, here are a few tips to help you write more effectively. Read more Subscribe to The Minimalists via email.