The minimum requirement for the maximum gains

Seven-minute abs. Yeah, I can hear all you snickering in your seats. I mean come on, seven minutes and the promise of abs? Too good to be true, right? Then again throughout the course of exercise history, man has tried its best to shrink exercise time in the interest of gaining more time to do daily tasks. And let’s face it, only a small percentage of the population actually enjoy exercise so much that they don’t mind spending hours in the gym (they’re usually called “trainers”).

But what if I tell you that there is such a thing as a “minimum requirement of work, for the maximum amount of results”? The problem that we have here is that too often, we trainers mistake you clients as having the same amount of interest (and to put it bluntly, addiction) that we have when it comes to exercise. We make you do too much because we enjoy it, so if we do, then you should to, right? Again, not necessarily. If the instructions to bake a cake were to bake it for 15 minutes, you wouldn’t want to bake it for 30, right? Obviously it’s going to burn, well that’s the same thing that happens to us when we “overcook” it. We get burned out.

I recently attended the Perform Better Functional Training Conference in the States where one of the speakers spoke briefly about this topic. (I hate it when people say “back in the States…” but I really did get a lot from my weekend there and I will be referring to the new information I learned for the next couple of posts, so I’m sorry if I’m going to be mentioning it often.) If you know me, and you know my gym 360 Fitness Club, you know that I already practice efficient exercise routines. Our main program gives you a full body workout in 30 minutes.

This speaker however, John Berardi, who developed Precision Nutrition, gave us an example of a program he designed for his client who was planning for her wedding. Since she was busy planning for the wedding and was working in a high-stress job, she only had 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week for a workout. Now trainers, let's face it, most of us would be, “Well, that’s not going to cut it, you’re gonna have to see me at least four times a week and we’re gonna have to work for 30-45 minutes, if you want to see results.”

Of course, by saying that, we would be losing her attention completely because that wasn’t what she wanted. Instead, John Berardi gave her what she wanted, a sound 10-minute program, and to back it up, one lifestyle change every 2 weeks. The result: she went down from 150 to 124 lbs in 12 weeks. Needless to say, it worked.

Another guy who practices minimum work for maximum gains is the author of the “4-hour body”, Tim Ferris. He also questions why we need to spend hours upon hours in the gym when you can use that time to, again to put it bluntly, actually live life. Makes sense, right? His program does, and thousands of people back it up with results. The same goes with my program (yes, I know, total sell-out), 30 minutes a day for three to four times a week and you get results that you wanted.

So this is my plea. First to gym goers and gym clients: When your trainer tells you that you’ve had enough, trust him, and stop. Of course given that your trainer is reputable, trust your trainer when he says that you’ve put in the work, you’re good for the day, see you in the next session. And to trainers: don’t make the mistake of giving too much to your clients thinking that you and they are the same. They might not have the same affinity to exercise that we have and we might end up hurting them more than helping them.

Of course, nothing will ever beat a routine specifically made for your body. But maybe the next time your trainer gives you something that looks too easy, he might be just giving you the gift of more time in your hands. Don’t fight it, enjoy it.

Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.