The 20-Minute Workout Plan

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Welcome to There Is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and most importantly why things work. Hence the name, There is a Method to the Madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilden of the Gilden Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. How is everybody doing today? I'm doing good. And uh play some softball tonight. So I typically do all my dynamic stretches and warm-ups and things like that beforehand. So that'll give me a little more exercise. And then I ate a nice healthy breakfast after that. So I feel pretty ready to roll. That's one of the best ways to start a day, I think, is to exercise and then always properly refuel afterwards. I think that's very, very critical, you know. Too often people think of food as a bad thing, you know, it's like gotta diet, gotta diet, gotta diet, and there's a case for that for sure. But you know what? It doesn't always have to be that way. You can really think of food as a good thing because obviously in the big picture it is, and we need that proper nutrition, even if we never think about weight loss or anything like that. We need to be thinking about the foods that we put in our body because we can really help our mood and help our energy by eating good nutrient-dense foods compared to high calorically dense food. We want high nutrients. That's what we need to be thinking about. All right, so that's my little rant on that this morning. And today's pretty cool because I got a question from the internet. And I, as I've said before, really, really enjoy questions because questions are the things that are on people's minds, you know. And when I used to teach, I used to say to the students the thing all of us have heard before, and that is there's no such thing as a stupid question, only stupid people. No, I'm totally kidding, and just trying to see if you're paying attention. But we used to say that when you ask a question, you are in 99 out of 100 times not just asking for yourself, somebody else has that same question. So I want those questions. Sometimes people say, Well, you know, I don't want to take your time with my question, or there's probably things out there that are more important that you need to cover. And that's usually not the case. I mean, the questions that I typically get are like good questions. And this question here, I think is one of the best questions I've ever been asked. And when they asked it, I thought, wow, yeah, that is a really good one. And they asked me, they said, if I only have 20 minutes a day to exercise, what should I do? I'm like, wow, that is really, really good. Such an important question because the number one reason people give for not working out is they say they have not enough time. If you've read my book, which hopefully everybody who listens to this has already gotten a copy of my latest book, and no, this isn't a shameless plug because really I make the book and I almost sell it for nothing. I really just want it out there. I want people to read it because I think it will help a lot of people and it talks about the value of personal training. But in any event, I talk about what keeps people out of the gym. And the number one thing is most people say, over 90% of the people say, it's that they don't have enough time. Now, a lot of us, allied health experts for years have kind of come back with the statement, well, it's not a time issue, it's a priority issue. You know, we've said that. And usually the people that have the time issue don't want to hear that, and they usually end up kind of insulted and defensive. And I don't think we get anywhere putting people on the defense. I just don't think that is a good way to be an influencer, sadly, to use the word, but I don't think that's a good way to influence people in the direction that you want them to go, which in this case I want people to go towards exercise, fitness, and health lifestyle. That's what I want. So I don't think kind of like being demeaning is going to get anybody there. And like when I cover that in my book, I talk about that there, yeah, sure, it's a priority issue, but it also is a time issue. I mean, we are hardwired to do what we need to do that's most pressing. And for most people, that is going to work and putting food on the table. I mean, for most people, that is the case. Now, I know the arguments, I teach the arguments, I preach the arguments, which is yeah, but if you're more fit and healthy, you're going to be more likely to want to do that. And there's even studies that state you'll be better at what you do and more employable. All of that, I believe, is absolutely true. At the same time, two things can be true at the same time. This doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. It doesn't have to be, well, you just have no priorities. If you say you don't have the time, it could be both. You maybe have the priority, and maybe you don't understand that it doesn't take as much time as you think that it needs to. All right. So that is why that question is so great. Now, to cover my basis, I'm going to start with the easy way out first, but then I'm just going to leave it at that. It does depend on, and you know, just make sure. I know some people forget here, it's okay. I believe in going back. So remember the question was if I only have 20 minutes, what should I do? So I'm going to give the cop-out answer first, which is it depends on what is most important to you, like what your needs are. You know, everybody needs to be healthy. There are five components to physical fitness, five health components to physical fitness. There's cardio, there is strength, which is broken up into two uh areas, muscular endurance, muscular strength. So that's three, and then there's flexibility four, and then there's body composition. Now, body composition, we're gonna take out of that 20 minutes because that's 99% diet. I mean, really to get the body fat to the levels that you want. Another shameless plug for one of my books, you can't outrun a poor diet, which is true. It's gonna have to be a combination of diet and exercise. But in the case of body composition and weight loss, mostly diet, as in how you eat, not a specific diet. Okay. So then that leaves four muscular strength and endurance, one, two, cardiorespiratory, three, flexibility. So it does kind of depend on what you need the most. But at the same time, we all need all of it. But what do you need the most? So the the number one variable I want you to remember when we ask this question is intensity. Intensity. I had a discussion with a client about that the other day who also asked a very good question. She asked when we were talking about sets and reps and things like that. She said, So, someone I know goes to the gym and they do more like multiple sets, maybe not as hard, but they do more like repetitions, more sets, and they're at the gym longer. You know, the typical question we get a lot. And this is the same answer. First off, what I explained was well, the only wrong way to exercise is if you kind of hurt yourself. Well, not kind of, but if you hurt yourself. So, in other words, there's a lot of right ways. Like if somebody's going to the gym and they're doing a bunch of sets, three or four sets or whatever, per exercise per muscle group, and they're there for a long time. It's not that it's wrong. Once again, in in the fitness world and in too many areas of life, you know, politics and religion and everywhere you go, people argue like it's a zero-sum gain. And it's not. It really is, it depends, and both can work. It's what works for you. So as I explained to her, I said, well, that's not necessarily wrong, but it could be unnecessary. Now, if they have all the time in the day, like meaning they don't work or, you know, they're given a three-hour gym allowance, whatever, and they want to spend the time there and they like it there, okay. I mean, you could still potentially be over-training and not maximizing your fitness, but at the same time, it's not like it's wrong. But what drives fitness, no matter what it is, is intensity. Intensity, intensity, intensity. It's not how long we go, it's how hard we go. That doesn't mean you go all out all the time. It means though that there is a threshold of intensity that you need to reach to get maximal benefits. All right. So I use the example sometimes, which I hope isn't off-putting, but I think it makes a good point. You see people sometimes out casually walking their dog, and you don't know how far they're going. Let's just say you're driving down the road and you see them. Maybe they're older, maybe whatever. And again, I'm not knocking this as an activity, I'm using this as a learning opportunity because I believe telling stories works and helps people see things. But you see them casually walking their dog. And, you know, maybe they're not in the greatest shape. Well, then you go a little bit further down the road, you get a mile down the road, then all of a sudden you're seeing somebody, and they've got a tank top on, they look pretty fit, and they're like, they look like they're galloping down the road, they look like they're sprinting, but in reality, they're probably out on their jog or their run, but they look like they're really cruising. So what's the difference, other than the obvious, as I said, of appearance, which again, you can't judge a book by its cover. You don't know, you know, I that we don't know these things. I'm just trying to make an example, but one is going really intensely and the other one isn't. All right. So the way to fitness, to fitness, not always health by itself. Like there are so many benefits to going for a slow walk. There are so many health benefits to that and psychological benefits. I mean, I like to casually stroll sort of as a form of meditation. In other words, like sometimes I'll literally, it's not the greatest scenery in the world, but I'll go out on the sidewalk in front of my gym and kind of like walk back and forth and kind of just be alone and just kind of be alone with my thoughts. And it really helps me come up with some thoughts rather than sitting in the gym staring at a computer if I don't have clients or whatever. So there's so many health benefits to casually getting out and moving. I'm not trying to discount it, but we have to remember there is a difference between health and fitness. They're related, but they're also different. All right. Becoming more fit usually helps our health. Absolutely. But not always. I'm not even going to get into when it doesn't, because that's also a long situation. But let's just say like somebody has an eating disorder and they appear certainly very fit, but obviously in that situation, they're not healthy. So it's not always a direct correlation. So to become more fit, we need more intensity. And intensity is always going to be gained more by overload, meaning trying to do a little bit more than we've done before. And as I explained to the client who asked me the question, I said, well, let me give you a scenario. I asked her. I said, so if you're on that leg extension over there and you've been on it, it burns. She nods her head yes. I said, okay. So let's say I put it on the weight you're on, and you basically do as many as you can, and you stop maybe one repetition short of that would have been your maximal effort. Says, okay. And I said, now we take 20 pounds off of that. So basically half the weight, and I have you do eight of those and then rest and do eight more, and then rest and do eight more, which is more intense. And she said, Well, obviously the first one. I said, right. Now, which one do you think is actually going to push you further? And she said, Well, the first one. I said, right. So it's the intensity that's going to make you more fit, not the times you do it. So in that example, the three sets of eight person, are they getting nothing out of it? No, they're getting something. And again, being at the gym is better than not being at the gym unless you're hurting yourself, because you know, it's kind of also a myth that you're going to get hurt in the gym. I mean, you kind of have to go out of your way and look to get hurt, because if you're following the exercises the way they're supposed to be done, it's usually you don't get hurt. If you're leaving your ego at the door and not using weights heavier than you should lift, you're probably not going to get hurt. So the point is intensity, which brings me back to the original question, which is really the same thing. What can you do for 20 minutes? Well, most important for your fitness is going to be your cardiorespiratory fitness and your strength training. The flexibility is important for sure, but it doesn't take a lot. It still is going to be a factor of intensity. Like you can sit there and kind of pull your leg up as you're doing a quad stretch with like no mindfulness. You're just kind of going through the motions, you're pulling your leg back because you've seen other people do it. You're not even paying attention, you're not even really counting how long it is. I mean, again, that's still an intensity thing, right? I mean, that person's just kind of like, oh, I see people do this, I'm going to do it. Are you going to get anything out of that? I mean, probably hardly anything. Or you can really, in this case of a quad stretch, as an example, grab the bottom of your ankle, grip it tightly, make sure your knee is pointed at the ground and make sure you're pulling that stretch as far as you can, meaning with flexibility to the point of stretch, not the pain, but you're definitely pulling it to the point of stretch. And then you're holding it for about 10 to 15 seconds, but your mind is there the whole time. So you're keeping that mental intensity, you're not just drifting off, you're really focused on stretching your quad, you're going to get more out of that. So it's always going to come back to intensity. You have to do the reps. There's no question you have to do it. But once you get into the reps, then the most important thing is going to be how hard. And I don't care how old you are, I don't care how fit you are, it's going to come down to going harder for you. I have a 94-year-old, gonna be 95, that I train here. And let me tell you, he's up to 100 pounds on the low back machine in good form. We started at, I don't know, six, seven months ago at 30 or 40 pounds, very light, and then we built up to the hundred he's at. Age is not a factor. Now that's really awesome weight. Now, let's say that he barely got past that 30 or 40 pounds, which isn't true, but let's say he did. Well, that's okay too. It's as long as he's going to the point where he can go. So it's going to be intensity, not how many. It's going to be intensity of what he can do. So with the cardiorespiratory endurance and the strength training, it's going to come down to doing things that are quality in nature for 20 minutes. So I would suggest this for the person. I would say, okay, take 20 minutes and then every other day do a combination. Well, let me let me repeat that. 20 minutes every other day. One day do cardio with a little bit of stretching at the end. The next day do strength training with a little bit of stretching at the end. That's what I would do. So let's take the day they're gonna do cardio. Okay, they got 20 minutes. All right, let's just use walking, jogging, running, whatever. It doesn't matter. Let's use that as the example. But basically being on your feet, putting one foot in front of the other, whether it be walking, jogging, or running. What I would tell them to do is start, whether it be on the treadmill or outside, start fairly easy, and then build into a pretty brisk intensity. Build into it. If it's if the person stays walking the whole time, that's okay. I mean, there are some people that get their heart rate up just as high power walking as they would running. That's okay. But that's the idea. We would want to get the heart rate up so they would start at a pretty easy pace and then build, build, build until their heart rate is elevated. Maybe they get to the point where they can talk, but they can talk in words, like not in complete sentences. How do you feel, Mary? Uh, I feel okay. Okay. You know, that intensity, but she's not going to be able to do the pledge of allegiance. All right. I use that because we use the pledge of allegiance as one of our talk test things. All right. And then bring it down a little bit, just like an airplane. So they take off, they they reach full, full elevation, and then they start to come down for landing. So bring it in right around maybe, you know, 18 minutes, and then take the last two minutes of that workout and do some of those static stretches that they need to work on the most. With most people, it would be the quad, the hamstrings, maybe the upper back. So they got 18 minutes of total cardio with maybe 10 of it being brisk, and then cool down. So we're still getting some effects of the cardio because the heart rate's still coming down, and then we do a couple minutes of stretching out. Bing bang boom, you got 20 minutes of exercise, which I guarantee you you're gonna feel the mood elevation, and it's going to work. The statistics show, the studies show that it's the intensity. Now, if they just went out for a 20-minute kind of stroll walk, I mean, I'm not gonna say you're not gonna get anything out of that because you are. You're gonna get some activity, you're gonna burn some calories, you're it's good for the mind, but you're probably not gonna get the benefits. You want the fitness benefits, but you are if you push the intensity up for that 20 minutes. And by the way, there there's such a thing as basically um not getting more benefits after a certain amount of time. So, like if somebody went out for a say a 60-minute stroll every day, again, I'm not discounting that. That's okay. Good for the mind, good for the body, probably not gonna get too many fitness benefits, but I put my money on the person that went out pretty hard for 20 minutes versus the person that went out 60 minutes pretty easy. Matter of fact, it's a no-brainer. I absolutely would if we were to be able to measure the benefits gained from those two scenarios. Okay, so like duration doesn't always mean everything. It depends. And like the example I gave my client who asked me about the multiple sets and this in the gym, I said, well, a lot of people say they go to the gym for 90 minutes or an hour. Like, what does that mean really? Like, what's the objectivity to that? Were they busting their butt for 90 minutes or 60 minutes, or were they spending a lot of time at the water fountain? Were they going back and forth to the locker room? They're hanging out, like a lot of that absolutely matters with that. Okay, so that would be one day. The next day, I'd say, Okay, let's do some strength training. You got 20 minutes. I mean, even there, that's even easier to get in a great workout. Again, it depends on the situation. You know, it really, really just depends on what the person has for weights. But what we always tell people is think about the human movement with strength training, depending on what you can do. Let me just start there. Depending on what you can do, a 20-minute strength workout will absolutely be beneficial. Now, what you use for strength and all that is going to depend on you and your abilities and what you have for a mode. But we tell people you want to think about a squat, a push, a pull, a hinge, and some sort of single leg. Like if you do all single leg, like a um a lunge or a step up or something like that, that's an imperfect scenario. Somebody might say, Well, I can't do a lunge at all. It's like, okay, like we can still get a lot of benefits doing what we can do. I mean, really, and only if you did upper body, like it whatever you can do. The point is that you can get in a great workout in 20 minutes. So I would tell the person to start the first couple minutes doing like what we call a dynamic warm-up. Again, I can't like go through all the workout here, or number one, the podcast would get too long. I'm just trying to get everybody to understand. Like, there are so many ways to do it. And naturally, if you reached out to me and said, Hey, can you build me a 20-minute workout to do at home? This is what I have, I'd be like, absolutely, here we go. I mean, I enjoy doing that stuff. So we would do like a dynamic warm-up for one or two minutes, meaning kind of like some leg swings back and forth, maybe some bodyweight squats. We'd get the heart rate up just for a couple minutes. And then we would ultimately try to do some bodyweight squats or some loaded squats, then we would mean holding a dumbbell, then we can do some push-ups, or if you have dumbbells at home, we can do some chest press. Again, one or two sets per muscle group. We don't have to do a lot as far as volume, it just would be higher intensity. Again, I would guarantee you that if you just pushed yourself, like say, you know what, I hardly have any time to, I just have five minutes. Like, all right, so give me as many squats as you can, do as many push-ups as you can, and in this case, just do as many crunches as you can. Like you're gonna get a benefit from that. But in 20 minutes, you can get a lot in. So, again, we would do some squats and then we would do some form of a chest press, whether it be in the form of a push-up or it could be counter push-ups for some people, wall push-ups. If you have some dumbbells, it could be chest press. Because remember, we always want to do a form of a squat, a push, a pull, and then a hinge. And that's where we would do maybe some kind of like dumbbell deadlifts. If we don't have that, we can do some prone cobras off the floor. And then again, if we can do a split squat, so we're doing the legs isolated one at a time, because oftentimes with the legs, one is stronger than the other, so it's good to build that independent strength, and then some form of a core, like if we do that, like for a bodyweight exercise, I'm gonna give you an example of what you can do easily in 20 minutes. So a bodyweight squat, a push-up of some sorts, counter, floor, incline, whatever you can do, some sort of deadlifts with dumbbells. That's where you hold the dumbbells in front, you bend over, touch the toes, come up, some form of, say, a crunch on the floor, where you're just crunching your body, working your core, or even a plank. I mean, if you did those four exercises and then add in a form of a step up or a split squat or a lunge, then you're meeting the category of doing an isolatal leg. I mean, that's all possible. Let's say you're in my gym for some reason. You're like, you know what? Here I am. I'm gonna do a 20-minute quick workout in Rob's gym and I'm gonna use all the machines. Okay. I mean, that's even easier when you get down to it. Do a leg press followed by a chest press, followed by a row, followed by a split squat. So kind of those or single leg leg press, followed by the crunch machine. Like it can absolutely be done. For the 20-minute folks, what I always suggest, because you don't know exactly how long each exercise is going to take, I would say, you know what? If you're gonna do this where you do your dynamic warm-up and then you go into your strength exercise, I would do it as a circuit and basically just go through as many times until you're out of time. So you go like a squat, a push-up, a cobra, a lunge, a ab, and then back to squat and keep rotating. It can all be done. If you have no time at all or barely any time, then you would just go through one time. All right. And then a couple minutes of stretching at the end. So to answer the question, which was a great question, I only have 20 minutes a day to exercise. What should I do? Alternate every other day and maybe take Sunday off if you want to. Totally up to you, of course. But I would do a cardio on a Monday, 20 minutes brisk, followed by two minutes of stretching, strength training the next day, dynamic warm-up, quick strength training circuit, quick stretching cooldown. The next day repeat, the next day repeat. You'd have three days a week of pretty intense cardio, three days a week of pretty intense strength training. And I know 100% absolutely, if you were able to mostly stay mentally focused and mentally intense, it would be absolutely beneficial for anybody. And then, you know, someone might say, Well, that's not meeting my 150 minutes a week of exercise. Well, okay, look, they give us these guidelines because number one, they have to give you guidelines. It's just like what the government does. And number two, they they can't measure how intense you're going to do things. So they're figuring, well, if they do 150 minutes of something, it's better than nothing. Absolutely true. But I guarantee you, if you work intensely for 20 minutes, whether it be cardio or strength training, you're gonna get the benefits. And then if you have time throughout the day to stay active, take a lot of steps, park your car way out in a parking lot, you know, everything you can to stay active. I'm not saying that's not gonna help you, of course it is. The more activity, the better. But as far as structured exercise goes, you can absolutely get fit on 20 minutes a day. All right, so stay max fit and stay max well. Hope that helps, people. All right, thank you everybody for listening to today's show. I really appreciate it. I want to remind you to please hit automatic download. It really helps me and it helps the show. 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