The Power of Simple Workouts
The Art of Doing Simple Things Well
You had high hopes for 2020. At the end of 2019, you made New Year’s Resolutions. You told yourself that 2020 was going to be “My Year.” You got yourself a gym membership. You started the year with excitement and hope. But all that energy started to fizzle out. To say that 2020 has been a rough year would be an understatement.
Right at the start of the year, a chain of events that we only see in apocalyptic movies began to unfold. There were bushfires in Australia. NBA Legend, Kobe Bryant passed away in a fatal helicopter crash.
But at this point, we were still hopeful and not ready to press the panic button yet. We told ourselves, the year just began and we have more than enough time to turn things around.
Then came COVID-19.
At first, a lot of us wrote it off as any other deadly disease that came and went away quickly like SARS or Ebola.
We began to see glimpses of how serious our situation would become. We heard about the death tolls in China and Italy. The NBA shut down and other sports leagues did the same. Even then we were still hopeful.
We didn’t imagine a future where our favorite bars, restaurants, and gyms shut down. We didn’t ask to stay confined in our homes.
So what happens to all the fitness resolutions that you made for 2020? Do we have to cancel them too? To both of these questions, I say no. Although we won’t be returning to a gym any time soon, it doesn’t mean that your fitness journey has to come to an end.
What I love about the human race is that we always find a way to solve tough problems. The reason we have all the nice things in life is that somebody wanted to create the solutions. And since commercial gyms are not available, it forced our hand to get creative. Ever since the lockdown orders came down, people started scrambling to bring the gym home. Dumbbells, squat racks, barbells, and any gym equipment you could imagine began to sell out.
And of course, a home gym is not the same as going to a commercial gym like LA Fitness or 24 Hour Fitness. You won’t have the same variety of options that those gyms provide. But does complexity always produce better results?
Not necessarily.
Do Simple Solutions Work?
As humans, we tend to have a bias that complexity is more valuable than simplicity. This often leads to over-complicating the way we approach problems. When we don’t understand our problems we become skeptical about simple solutions. In disbelief, we often think to ourselves, “it can’t be that simple can it?”
I struggled with the same thoughts. Throughout my late teens to early 20s, I was the “skinny kid” who couldn’t put on more weight. Much like any college student, I vowed to train at the gym during summer breaks. But I failed time and time again. I wasn’t seeing much results. I tried all types of methods. I didn’t know what would work for me and how long it would take to get to my goals. I grew discouraged after repeatedly failing. I wanted to give up.
Then came Summer 2013. I began weight training with a friend who had a home gym. At first, I was skeptical about his training methods because they were simple. So simple that at the end of each workout, I would respond with “that’s it?”
“Yup,” my friend would reply.
Although the workout routines were simple, they were not easy by any means. My body became extremely sore after each workout. In the first few weeks, I didn’t see noticeable differences with my body or my strength. But what did change was the fact that I trained consistently every day for an entire month.
Lifting weights still felt foreign to me, but I felt much more comfortable than I did when I first started. Because my workouts were simple and straightforward, I knew what I needed to do when I stepped into my friend’s gym.
The Value of Simplicity
Knowing what I needed to do gave me a sense of relief. And having that peace of mind helped me build up my confidence. I knew that it was only a matter of time before I reached my goals. I became less focused on the results and more on the journey itself.
Although our workouts were simple enough for anyone to learn how to do, there was something more to it. I noticed that my friend would challenge me to correct my form during my lifts. Continuous improvements with my form helped me get more out of my workouts. This experience helped me come up with this insight:
Doing simple things in a great way produces great results.
Oftentimes, we attempt complex workouts in a mediocre way. We then complain about poor results. My friend’s method was all about building a strong foundation. He emphasized doing only what I need to make progress. If there was a minimalist way to weight train, his method would be one.
Focus on Consistency
We often overlook the power of consistency. We devalue putting in a little time or effort into the goals we’re trying to achieve.
Why? Because we think that it doesn’t make much of a difference.
Indeed, a 15-minute workout would not be as effective as an hour-long one. But we ignore the impact that these small workouts can have in the long-term.
We want instant results so we push ourselves hard during our workout sessions. I’m all for a tough workout, but not if it’s burning someone out to the point where they fall off their fitness journey. It’s important to have goals and deadlines. But it’s also just as important to set realistic goals.
In my early days of training, I set goals for myself that I could never meet. After each workout, I would feel stressed thinking about my next workout because of how brutal it was. A better way I could have gone about my workouts was to focus on consistency. We tend to treat our lives like a hundred-meter dash when really, life is much more like a marathon.
Most of us avoid taking a longer path to get to our goals. When it takes a long time to get what we want, we dread the process and give up. But what if we harnessed the power of time rather than resenting it? Focusing on building habits will attribute to your success. When the right habits are in place, time is on our side. Here’s a simple formula for a great life:
Great Habits x Time = A Great Life
You can apply this formula to anything, including your fitness goals. When the right habits become a part of your life, time will multiply the fruits of your labor.
Keep a Fitness Journal
There are always ways to improve the way you train. You can challenge yourself by:
- Increasing your reps
- Taking shorter breaks
- Having stricter form
I recommend keeping a fitness journal. Fitness journals will allow you to record your progress and collect data. You can then reflect on your workouts so that you can make the right adjustments in the future. You might discover that you like doing certain workouts in a different order. Or that you prefer to do particular workouts on different days.
There are no cookie-cutter methods for creating a workout that works for everyone. A workout you love is the one that you create through your own experience. The more enjoyable you make your workouts, the more likely you’ll stay committed to your journey. When you’re committed, you’re more likely to reach your goals.
I kept a fitness journal to record the following:
- Name of the exercise
- Amount of weight lifted
- Number of sets and reps finished
Tracking my progress over many months became very rewarding. Because when I looked back in my journal, I felt encouraged by the progress I made. Focusing on how far I’ve come in my journey made me feel proud. I wasn’t bogged down by how much further I had to go to get to my destination.
Figuring out how to get more out of your workouts can seem complicated. But it doesn’t have to be. Now that you understand the power of simplicity, what will you change about your workouts?
