Now that I have a kid, I don’t really have the opportunity, nor the strong desire to go to a gym anymore. I would always prefer to be close to Seneca. But as somebody who is addicted to fitness and staying buff, what am I to do?

I have this notion of minimal viable work out. That is, what is the maximum bang for the buck you can get physiologically, with the least amount of time and effort.

Just one repetition

After much contemplation, I realize that the purpose of working out isn’t to necessarily tire yourself out. Rather, the purpose of working out is to give yourself a good adrenaline pump, which seems to be best achieved by a difficult and heavy one rep maximum lift of something.

For example, I recently bought a 105 pound kettle bell on Amazon. This is a great tool. I could just do one great clean and squat with it, and I’m pretty much done. Also, just one repetition of a bench press shoulder press, on the ground.

The reason why I like this notion is that it doesn’t tire you out. Instead, it actually recharges you, and turbocharges you.

Consider this compared to the tedious toil of doing repetitions, following some sort of zealous instructor. Why is it that fitness classes take so much time? I think it is because nobody is willing to pay somebody for just 15 minutes of short and intense training. We tend to think that our money is worth it when we spend money on time for at least an hour.

Also, the foolish American notion that more is better. That we think that working out for three hours in a gym is superior than working out for a 15 minute intense session.

But like anything in life, shorter time, greater intensity is superior to moderate intensity for long periods of time.

For another words, better to do 10 minutes of very insanely focused writing, then eight hours of semi-focused writing.