What Is The Absolute Minimum I Could Do Daily To Get Some Muscles?

The other day, I talked with a buddy, and he asked me, "What is the absolute minimum I could do daily to get some muscles?"

As a career personal trainer, this question struck me as unique. It may look like a common question on the surface, but I assure you it isn't. When someone starts with "what is the absolute minimum I could do," it usually ends with "to lose weight," "to get a six-pack," or "to get jacked." I've answered those questions so many times I have basically canned responses.

What is the absolute minimum I could do to lose weight? Eat healthily and go for walks.

What is the absolute minimum I could do to get a six-pack? Unfortunately, not everyone can have a six-pack. Sorry. Do a few basic ab exercises, focus on your diet, and it couldn't hurt to go for walks. Weight loss is usually the biggest hurdle for achieving a six-pack, not building the ab muscles.

What is the absolute minimum I could do to get jacked? Getting jacked isn't easy. Nobody gets shredded by accident. Lift heavy at least three days a week and do some cardio on the other days (Walk/run/bike/swim/row/ski/whatever you enjoy).

However, to get "some muscle" is a unique goal. Nobody has ever asked me that before. It creates an exciting criterion.

First, the goal is "some muscle," so you don't need heavy weights to achieve that. You need heavy weights for increasing muscle size in the fastest and easiest way. But not necessarily to get some definition and build strength which better fits the bill for "some muscle" in my mind.

Second, he asked, "daily," which I usually would ignore and give an exercise plan that has rest days, but I thought it a unique challenge to program a daily routine that wouldn't leave you sore. And daily habits are easier to maintain than bi-weekly ones.

Third, if it is a daily challenge, what is the minimum you could do? Contrary to popular titles, you can't do a 1-minute or 5-minute, or 7-minute workout. Your warm-up should take 5-10 minutes, so the premise is a little ridiculous. Realistically, I can't see you being able to do a workout in less than 20 minutes. You need five minutes to warm no matter how much like a supple leopard you are or a practiced sprinter. Warming up significantly reduces the risk of injury, so why wouldn't you program it?

Plus, we need a work interval. The "work" is when you are doing the actual exercises. I think you could get away with 10 minutes most days. But I don't want to program HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) every day. It is just too hard, and it is why I suggest people walk when they want to lose weight. It is easy. HIIT has a lot of great benefits, but being easy isn't one of them. So along with that ten minutes of "work," I'll have to program at least five minutes of rest.

5 minutes of warm-up + 5 minutes of rest + 10 minutes of work = 20-minute workouts.

That last challenge is making the workouts accessible to anyone with varying ways to increase the difficulty. Typically making an exercise more difficult is easy – increase the volume (how many repetitions you do), although increase volume will increase the time the workout takes. Which also limits our ability to vary tempo to increase difficulty. That leaves us with only two options adding resistance and decreasing the rest interval, which can increase total volume (without increasing time).

The solution to this last challenge was the genesis of a new workout plan. Two a day. Not two workouts a day. Two exercises a day.

Think about it, two exercises a day is plenty to create "some muscle." Not be insanely challenging, and when paired with a proper diet, still see rapid results.

Two a day is a straightforward exercise program that closely reflects my workout style. It involves doing only two exercises and being done in under 20 minutes.

These are daily workouts, so we never repeat muscle groups two days in a row. Except, of course, legs, the great lie of the fitness industry is leg day. Every day is leg day, and some days you also train your arms. If you do an overhead press, you are standing; what's holding up you and the weight? If you do a push-press, snatch, clean, or plank, your legs are working hard.

Where do we start? Easy with the two exercises almost everyone can do:

A push-up or assisted push-up. There are so many ways to change the push-up's difficulty, and it is the best at home upper-body exercise.

A squat is something everyone can do and can be made challenging for anyone. If a squat is too hard, it can also be made easier.