Mine is going to be laid back if all goes according to plan. I’m going to do some birding with a friend tomorrow morning, then I’m headed to a used bookstore to buy a copy of “the pricess bride” that I talked myself out of the other day (I’ve never read it). Then I’m hitting the farmers market and then relaxing at home for the foreseeable future. Enjoy your weekend!
I tried gym subscriptions but I always end up not going. Now I’m doing cardio at home but I would like to lift again. I don’t have equipment yet, but I am contemplating buying a bench and dumbbells. I don’t really want to bulk up, I just want to stay in shape.
I saw Jeff Nippard on YT recently discussing minimalist training (and his The Essentials Program) and it sounds right up my alley, because I don’t want maximum gains (nor maximum time training). But it looks like I would need to go to the gym for a lot of the exercises he suggests.
As I am a newbie for all of this, I would love to know where to look for more info on this. Anything I can do at home a few times a week without it being a major time investment. Thanks for any help :)
Sure, happy to help!
If you’re willing to work out three times a week, I’d say that you could also do the push-pull-legs routine. It’s super simple. On push day, pick one chest exercise, one triceps exercise, and one shoulder exercise. On pull day, do one lower-back or lat exercise, one trap exercise, and one biceps exercise. On leg day, do hamstrings, quads, and glutes. If you structure it like that—just three exercises, three times a week—it should put you ahead of almost everyone. Because most people don’t lift. :)
So here’s a sample schedule. Do 3x 8–12 of each:
Monday (push): Push-ups or bench press; tricep dips or skullcrushers; overhead press
Wednesday (pull): Chin-ups or pull-downs; shrugs; bicep curls or hammer curls
Friday (legs): Dumbbell, bodyweight, or sumo squats; dumbbell deadlifts; dumbbell hip thrusts
The beauty of a routine like that is that you can vary it as you like—there are dozens of available exercises as replacements for the above—and you can make it as intense as you want as well by doing heavier weights, more reps, etc. If you get close to failure at the end of your sets, that’s good enough. And you can completely do it with just a set of dumbbells. It might be handy to have a bench for doing bench press as opposed to push-ups or for tricep dips, but it’s not necessary.
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any questions.
Edited to add: And don’t feel like there’s a bar to jump over before you can start something like this, either. If you can’t do push-ups, there’s no reason that you can’t do them on a wall or on your knees. That’s just as good!
Thank you for the wealth of information! I will for sure adopt this regimen. Looks like I only need to reinstall my pull up bar and I am golden! :) Thanks again!
Of course! Don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything else. I love this shit. :-)