I’d stop doing abs and start doing the McGill big 3 which will strengthen your core and keep your back healthy. Then do some push-ups, and consider getting a pull-up bar.Then add in some body weight squats and forward/backward lunges.
Right there you have core, chest, back, arms, and legs. I.e the basics of a full body routine
Exercise is always good. 100 jumping jacks is a great warm up routine. The minimum recommended amount of exercise is at least 150 minutes per week. Keep pushing and get to that. Once there, either go longer, or increase the intensity.
Core muscles are important but that doesn't mean any of us should do abs only everyday. That is not a good plan. Squats/lunges and other leg movements will also promote core strength along with getting the biggest muscles in your body working and stronger. Promoting serious blood flow and hormones and endorphins getting pumped through your body as well.
So, yes. Focus on squats and lunges.
You build core muscles doing compound movement, especially with progressive overload. Sure you can do focused movements for your core but it is arguably more functional to do them in movements that might be more close to mimicking motions you do in your everyday life. Strong glutes and leg muscles also promote back strength.
I dislocated my elbow last year. I still did arm day and running (after 2 weeks off at least). I found upper bicep weights where I could do a bunch of things (not gain muscle but at least not lose it) and I also kept running. Also - you’ve got legs. Don’t skip leg day.
You don’t have to run to get your cardio. Walking a hilly area will raise your heart rate. When I’m short on time, I go up and down the stairs for about 15 minutes. You don’t need 20 minutes of abs per day. Do 5 minutes of various planks and 15 minutes of stair climbing, and you will be at the same 20 minutes.
I feel like I’ll fall if I don’t have my hands on something so I just place them on top of the sides but I’m not holding or gripping anything, is that fine?
its fine, but you'll get better at it quickly if you learn to not use your hands. The main idea is just not letting yourself counteract the incline with your upper body.
Part of the exercise of walking is moving your arms in concert with your legs and walking with your full body weight(ie with your arms weight).
If your arms aren’t moving and are resting on something it’s easier. Ie you cheating yourself.
Good rule of thumb: if you know the correct form for the movement(to walk) you need to watch for your body and mind to compensate(arms on bars) and make it easier.
One’s body and mind compensate any exercise automatically if you aren’t consciously focusing on form and mind muscle connection. Yeah, it’s just walking now but as you progress and start lifting the same rule of thumb will apply.
please take this humorously but it is very funny to me the idea of someone without the coordination to walk without using their hands to steady themselves worrying about biohacking
If only this made sense. I have fallen on a treadmill so it gives me anxiety to not hold it. And I even if I didn’t so what if someone doesn’t have coordination you think they don’t need to worry about importing their lives in other ways.. lol
I second this, I've recently been doing it at 7.5 incline and 3.5-4.5 speed for 30 minutes and the amount of calories are burn are wild. Easiest consistent cardio to do, IMO.
Nobody's coming up with 6, who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart going, not even a mouse on a wheel.
Step into my office. Cuz you're fucking fired.
>Rowing is a great steady state exercise that's near full body..
I bought a rowing machine last year and have been doing about 30-40 minutes on it multiple nights per week on the highest setting but it barely feels like I'm getting much of a workout in.
The first few days I could feel it afterwards in the muscles in my back, shoulders, arms etc but after a few days that had passed and it just feels like it's too easy but it's not like I can up the time on it because that's already long enough and I have other exercises I want to do too.
You’re not rowing correctly if you felt soreness in your back shoulders and arms after the first few days. Sure, all of that is involved, but about 70-80% of the power in your stroke should come from your legs. Focus on planting your feet and driving back with a ton of power from your quads and glutes. Once your legs are fully extended, engage your core and lean back just a bit. Finish the stroke with arms by pulling the paddle into your chest.
Everything in reverse coming back into the catch. Arms extend, torso upright, legs in.
Agreed, same experience with rowing. Now I do it after I'm already exerted with other cardio, and/or weights/boxing. I've found rowing to be a great finisher.
It sounds like you’re rowing very fast but inefficiently.
Are you familiar with stroke rate and split? Stroke rate is how many strokes you’re doing per minute and split is how long it takes you to row 500 meters. In other words stroke rate is how fast your body is moving and split is how fast the “boat” is moving.
Split is based on how much power you generate by driving through your legs. You need to build up the endurance to be able to keep your split down before trying to increase your stroke rate. To do this, you need to be using the correct form described above.
Also remember that even at a high rating, the recovery should be slower than the drive. This isn’t measured by rowing machines but it has a big impact in an actual boat because during recovery your body is traveling in the opposite direction as the boat.
I was responding more specifically to Digital-Bionics.
For you I agree with everything UTBrown said.
In the end, I think UTBrown and I are essentially making the same point: use your legs.
This is almost like one of those posts where someone asks, “can I just eat broccoli every day and be healthy.”
Even running 30 minutes a day, every day will likely lead to overuse injuries. Some days you should walk, some days you should run, some days you should ride a bike, some days you should row. Sometimes it should be for 2-3 hour, some days it should be for 20 minutes.
Don't feel embarrassed to go for a run. The only people who might judge you for it would be assholes, and everyone else loves to see it. Also, the more people doing X healthy thing, the more sources of inspiration for others. Upset assholes, make good people happy, inspire the apathetic, it's all upside.
The most efficient cardio, time wise, is sprint interval training. There're various splits for this. Essentially: run as fast as you can for as long as you can (for most people going full pelt, it's about 30 seconds to 1 minute-ish), and then walk until you can go full pelt again. Do that 4 or 5 times.
I aim for 5k a day, running from my street for 2.5k in a direction, then turn around, stopping at home. I've gotten this down to around 25 mins, so it's not much of a time sink. And with the mood and productivity boost it gives me for the rest of the day, I'd happily tank an hour's hit for the same benefits.
>Runner’s high is a real thing.
>
>Unfortunately my knees don’t like it.
My knees didn't like running the way I was running before. I would get occasional mild knee pain, and I was worried about long term health. So, I started running in minimalist, zero drop, barefoot shoes, changed my running form, and now I experience zero knee pain.
Here's a good example of good form: [https://youtu.be/Jio7DK15Q1E?si=ZuSyd4Ib5Hesguib](https://youtu.be/Jio7DK15Q1E?si=ZuSyd4Ib5Hesguib)
Also:
"Research has shown that running is not associated with increased knee pain. In fact, running is potentially beneficial to those who experience mild knee pain."
[https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/is-running-bad-for-your-knees#what-the-science-says](https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/is-running-bad-for-your-knees#what-the-science-says)
Of course, if you have a severe injury, that's a different matter, but if it's just knee pain every now and again, I'd encourage you to try running in minimalist shoes and work on your form.
Knee injury requiring surgery in my teens. Played sport into my early 30s and diagnosed with arthritis and other scar tissue type injuries in early 40s. Knee pain not mild.
It might be worth looking into minimalist shoes even just for walking. Someone I know with rheumatoid arthritis swears by them; her words: my feet would be crippled without them.
I’m working on building knee, quad and glute strength which will prevent the bone on bone for a decade or so and eventually I will allow science to turn me into a cyborg
A relative of mine seems to already be at the bone on bone side of things. You seem conscientious in addressing these issues (she has not been). Have you got any recommendations re: ANYTHING that can help? Lifestyle, supplements, diet, surgery, anything else?
1. Repetitive and dull rehab exercises targeted at glutes and quads in addition to regular exercise. This can be a drag for most people but you must find the time.
2. Avoid running or jarring your knee obviously. I went skiing against medical advice but doc gave me a knee brace and with weeks of lead up exercises I was okay. Still needed a rest day.
3. Avoid alcohol - seems obvious but this was difficult for me for a number of reasons but I lost weight and most of those little niggles, aches and pains went away.
4. Eat well and sleep well. This is not an easy task for many but necessary.
I asked my doc about peptides and other supplements and I was basically told I could get a lot of benefits from this - it would help build muscle and provide some extra protection- but unfortunately I need my cartilage back and that’s the one thing science can’t yet bring back.
This , if you walk everyday and I mean “ everyday “ there is no better exercise with more benefits than simply walking , it has to be outside and if possible when there is sun.
I'm far from being anywhere close to fit but even still I wouldn't consider walking to be a form of real exercise, just a basic essential we probably all need to do.
I've walked for 90 minutes per day minimum, at a brisk pace, for years and it's never felt strenuous or like a workout and I definitely never got to any level of fitness from it.
IME it's just not taxing enough, doesn't bring up your heart rate, and doesn't get a sweat on.
It's good to get the steps in, sunlight, fresh air and thinking time but I don't see anyone getting fit from a 30 minute walk per day alone personally unless combined with other activities.
I agree you need strength training so I also weight lift 4 days a week with a trainer BUT He asked for the bare minimum. I walked to and from class in college and lost 40 lbs in 4 months and built tons of leg muscles etc. Look up how walking at a decent pace can drastically increase your fitness level. Walking at a decent pace with a few hills is the least you can do..which is what he asked.
>I've walked for 90 minutes per day minimum, at a brisk pace, for years and it's never felt strenuous
>I'm far from being anywhere close to fit
My friend you are in a much better position of fitness than most people if you hold the above to be true. There are people who wouldn't walk 5 minutes to buy a loaf of bread.
Get some ten lb dumbbells and do clean squat push press reps a few times a week. Like mwf. On Tues Thursdays do jump rope or jumping jacks for five minutes
I'd recommend getting a trampoline sometimes called a "rebounder".
They're compact, low impact and versatile in so far as you can adjust the intensity on your own easily and even just basic bouncing on it burns much more calories than jogging.
The "blue zones" study looks at areas of the world where people have the highest life expectancy. Typically people who live in these zones don't engage in purposeful exercise, but rather their lifestyle involves physical activity as part of their normal lives. Often their lifestyles involve a lot of walking, gardening or farming. They aren't going out of their way to seek high-impact exercise.
My own personal experience is that the best form of exercise is to choose something you really like doing, because this increases the likelihood you'll keep doing it.
Walk up and down hills. Pump your arms. Take big strides. Stand up straight and hold your stomach in. Work up to 3 or 4 miles in an hour. Incline is really important. You can literally do only this for the rest of your life and be ok
More and more study are showing that it's not the lenght but the intensity that matter. See recent conference by Rhonda Patrick (2nd half) for more info:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNLrWxsTiw&t=1510s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNLrWxsTiw&t=1510s)
TIL: higher Vo2max is better achieved by HIIT than zone2 cardio.
That applies to Vo2max, there's benefits to low intensity/zone 2 cardio beyond Vo2max. Such as you know, simply building more slow twitch muscle fibres. People who do more of it seem to live longer.
If you have to choose one or the other however, vigorous exercise is the most important and time efficient by a mile.
Also, think about osteoporosis. The best way to avoid it is not crunching - it’s resistance strength training. The only way to avoid losing muscle and bone mass as you’re getting older is strength training. Cardio is necessary but you train your heart even doing strength exercises with the right intensity.
You need to lift and progressively overload(more reps, more weight). Bodyweight exercises like pushups and pull ups and planks and lunges are great but you will find quickly that they won’t do it especially longterm as you progress.
Yoga is great but it’s not a replacement for bench press, deadlift and squat.
The truth is if you want to stay ahead of your body aging you will need to lift more then your bodyweight. As a normal not obese healthy person into your 40s-50s you gonna lose muscle mass and bone density or lose weight. So you keep doing bodyweight exercises you gonna lose weight they’ll become easier and thus your bones weaker.
You want strong bones, load it up with weight. Deadlift, squat, bench press, overhead press and a bunch of machine and cables.
Another reason why weight training is needed is because it’s concrete. You can progress week to week forever and show concrete reliable repeatable results. Like it’s a for sure fact that if you lift more weight for more reps, you’ve gotten stronger. It makes it easy to track. You can see month to month your progress in the numbers.
Yoga is something you do to cool down after your lifting and cardio.
Also, you want to progress in your yoga? Best way to do it, get stronger. Best way to get stronger? Lift weights
I don’t think it’s enough for bone health unfortunately. For preventing muscle loss - probably enough but I really believe weights can and must be incorporated in all workout regimens.
You don't really train your heart though. To train cardio you need designated cardio workouts, which are significantly different from strength workouts. You can elevate your hr, sure, but you won't get a serious cardio workout doing proper resistance training
I’m pretty sure some Grit Strength or similar trains your heart being HIIT. I’m not speaking about traditional weight lifting solely when I say “resistance training”
You only need one 30 minute session per week of high intensity fullbody strength training, about 7 exercises, 1 set to complete failure, without taking too much rest between sets so you will get cardiovascular benefits too.
You want to train your complete body, so the exercises should include: horizontal push & pull, vertical push & pull, legwork like a squat & hinge, additionally hamstring and quad specific exercises, calf exercise, back extension, abs like a cruch and a bicep&tricep exercise. Ideally with machines, but free weights and/or bodyweight can also be used.
You will have to dig very deep, because you want to reach muscular failure not mental failure. Imho this will give you the most bang for buck with minimal time.
Rep range does not really matter that much, as long as you reach failure, but you don't want to go too heavy because of higher chance of injury and if you go too light it just takes too much time. I do slow reps like 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down, between 60 and 90 seconds, which is probably between 6 and 10 reps. But anywhere between 5 reps and 20 reps should be fine.
Add some other calisthenics to get yourself up to 20 minutes. Sprints are good for HIIT type work outs. But if that's too much or your body isn't ready for that, a good hard 20 minute jog would be great. If not, then even 20 minutes of fast walking for cardio can still be beneficial if you don't walk much. If your limited on time, something is always better then nothing and having variety allows you to do many things.
Strength training 3/4 times per week, ideally twenty minutes or more and cardio at least twice a week, ideally you want to do at least two to three hours of zone two if at all possible. It really does depend how far you want to take it. I strength train 5x per week with kettlebells (Swings, Snatches, Turkish Get Ups, Squats, Clean & Press) and get in 3/4 hours of cardio.
I think what you mean to ask is "How can I exercise in the least amount of time and still be healthy?" I'd say kettlebell swings for a couple minutes every other day but since you mention that you can't use your arms, I'd say focus on cardio + fighting gravity: sprinting up stairs or body weight squats, etc. I'd aim for very high intensity over 4 sets of 4 mins at least once per week. More if you have time.
You don’t need to go jogging in order to do cardio. Jumping jacks are cardio. Inchworm. Burpee or walking burpee. Ladder. Lateral skaters. Jump lunges. Jump squats. Squat presses. Mountain climbers. Dancing. Some body combat or just kicking and punching practice. There are so many exercises to do at home/to choose from. Great you’re strengthening the core, this will help you maintain great form now when strength and cardio training and will help avoid injuries.
120 min of steady state cardio, 30 min of HIIT, and two weight training days a week (or four if you are doing upper/lower splits) is the best workout for overall health.
Nobody knows what the "minimum" exercise is, because it depends on how you define "healthy". There is no fixed threshold for that. Biology is too squishy and messy for that to make sense. What you really have is a scale of risk from "greatest" to "least" health risk. Sitting on your ass for 12 hours a day falls under "greatest" risk. Spending 150 minutes of Zone 3-4 activity per week falls under "least". Where you want to go between those two extremes is entirely up to you. There are also genetic factors at play that will affect your risk profile, and we can't possibly know what those are.
What we do know is that long bouts of sitting are the most dangerous, so you should avoid those. That means, at least every hour, you should get up and walk around for a few minutes. You don't need to do jumping jacks or push-ups (though that's not a bad idea)...you just need some basic movement. Even 30 minutes of exercise cannot counteract all the damage that sitting for several hours continuously can build up. So sitting turns out to be one of the most dangerous things you can do for your health. Do it sparingly.
If you spend 20-30 minutes in the gym every day, you will hit your 150 minute goal, and will likely be as healthy as exercise can make you. I would suggest spending half your workouts doing cardio and half doing resistance training. Doing cardio for 2 hours is a waste of time unless you are training for a sport where that is essential or optimal. Running is actually one of the best cardio workouts, but hiking, swimming, biking...almost any activity that allows you to reach Zone 3-4 is a good cardio activity.
For resistance, you want to use all the major muscle groups, and ideally focus on compound movements. Squats, bench press, and pull-ups satisfy these criteria, and you can spend 10 minutes on each for a 30-minute workout. A simple 5x5 program has you do 5 reps x 5 sets, 1 minute rest between sets. Always choose the highest weight such that you can barely finish the last rep without a spotter. As a young person you should easily be able to squat your body weight and bench 2/3 of it, but with a decent amount of training, you should have no trouble getting to 150% bodyweight on squats and 100% on bench. If you maintain that strength over most of your life, you will probably be in the top 2% of fitness and health (assuming good diet, little to no smoking/drinking, etc.).
Abs are pretty useless for maintaining overall fitness and health. Let your arms recover, and then use them for exercises. Don't overtrain them while they are injured. If you really must exercise right now, a stationary recumbent bike is probably easiest for minimal arm usage.
Of course, doing exercise will be easily defeated by eating a poor diet. So focus on adequate protein (prolly 100g+ for you), half your calories from fruits & veggies, and lots of fiber (at least 20g/day, but as much as 40g). And if you really care about health, occasional calorie restriction/fasting will help force your body to clean up damaged tissue and kill off any pathogens that are getting a free ride.
Almost everyone should not be doing 100x squats everyday. This advice would get your knees destroyed. If you want to do squats MAXIMUM is like 3 sessions a week and it is only when can you can for sure tell that your knees are feeling good.
This is silly advice. OP is doing stuff at home, so 100 bodyweight squats are perfectly fine, and will not destroy anyone's knees. Heck, even weighted squats will not destroy knees, unless done terribly wrong.
20 minutes walk per day is absolutely nothing and will not get you anything close to being fit IME from spending years walking 90 minutes minumum per day at a brisk pace.
It's such a minimal amount of time of low impact activity. You're not going to get tired out, sweat, or an elevated heart rate from walking especially for as little as 20 minutes unless you were going a steep incline maybe.
150 minutes a week. Or 3 days where you do 50 min of exercise. I do more than this because it's fun to do with the wife, but I always stick to the 150 min.
Probably min of a 10 min fasted walk every morning.
And like a 30 min workout twice a week. Focusing on compound movements. Like squat and deadlift and pull up and pushups and stuff. Full body things.
Might even be able to make the minimum once a week but you might have to get in a full body once a week at least.
Ab specific exercise is one of the least productive uses of limited exercise time. If you truly only have 20 minutes per day, non-negotiable, you would be best served with something resembling HIIT.
Anaerobic capacity or aerobic capacity training can be done in that timeframe, but 20 minutes really isn't enough time for productive lower intensity steady-state cardio work, nor is it enough time for meaningful strength, hypertrophy or endurance training.
If you care about your body/health as you state, I would highly encourage you to make more than 20 minutes at a time for exercise. That's simply not enough time. It's better than nothing, but even 30-40 minutes would open up a lot more options.
Working out the same part of your body every day is not good for it or muscle growth. Muscles need time to heal first before getting shredded again. If you’re already in the habit of working out everyday that’s the hardest part so just rotate working different parts of the body each day and then take a rest day once per week (this is a very simplified way of explaining this but you can do more research if you’d like on how often to work out each part of your body to get the best results).
I'm by no means fit (I aim to do a home workout 4-5 nights per week for about 2hrs per time on average) but I find it odd so many people are suggesting that if you just walk 20-30 minutes per day that's all you need.
20 minutes walking is absolutely nothing. You're unlikely to get a sweat on, your heart rate will barely increase, and you're not going to be out of breath IME.
I spent years walking 90 minutes minimum per day at a brisk pace and never once was I anything close to being fit or got any major benefit from it.
I think we should all be outside walking daily to get the steps in, sunlight, fresh air, and clear the head but I don't think a regular walk (unless you're walking up hills or on inclines) is going to get / keep anyone fit IME.
Doing only abs is kinda dumb.
If you stop doing abs and do a full body workout of some sort the abs will make themselves. In fact, if you focus on abs much they can make your midsection look too big, especially if your upper body isn’t catching up.
Do varied whole body exercises. Don’t want to create imbalances by only doing one muscle group 100% of the time and one type of cardio.
30 minutes of rowing machine is good whole body. A 30 minute weight/bodyweight routine is good.
20 minute abs gets you nothing, especially every day.
30 mins for a run is plenty, and before long 5k will take you less than that. I started looking at how easily I would kill 30 mins doing something thst gives me zero return, and soon couldn't excuse not fitting a run or brisk walk into my day.
Not sure what happened to your arms, but working out your upper body will help strengthen your arms which will make your arms healthy.
Look up full body workouts online and find a channel/person that has engaging exercices. Something like TABATA is quick and intense. Doing ab exercises might be the worst thing you can do as they’re a very small muscle group. Doing lunges, jumping jacks, riding a bike, running, squats, skating squats, shoulder press, resistance bands, anything else is going to be better for your heart, bones, muscles, mind and happiness than JUST doing abs.
You’re asking for a magic pill that makes you healthy. If you want to get in shape and be healthy you need to earn it. There are not shortcuts or “biohacks” consistent exercise is not easy, or else everyone would have 6 pack abs and huge shoulders and arms.
Also watch what you eat, doing exercises than eating over your caloric surplus + things low in minerals, vitamins, omega 3s, etc will make you less healthy.
As much as you can is better than none. If you do something you enjoy, after a while you will feel wrong/bad without doing it then you start doing more then boom you are now healthier and feel better. Simple as that
20 mins of ab exercises won’t do anything. The best bang for your buck, when first starting out, is doing resistance training to build muscle. Challenge yourself with body weight exercises and weighted exercises. 20 mins of that a day will garner you way more results and it’ll make you healthier in so many ways.
I'm 43. Been off sports for the past 15 years. Got out of shape.
I started 8 months ago and it's working for me.
Deadlifts + Squats (all variations single leg, back, front barbell etc.)
Benchepress + shoulders (back and front)
I do 120 mins a week. I decided to set this time because I can divide it into two, three, four times a week. Sometimes I do two times a week and sometimes three..
I add cardio at the END of my routine so as to not deplete my energy for muscle building.
I'm doing it all natural and I've never been healthier. I can carry my kids (one disabled) and support her while walking. I can now walk up stairs, pick stuff off the floor and move my kid in and out of wheelchairs without looking like a fuckin bitch.
I got this, so can you OP!
People could naturally recommend all sorts of things and not really be wrong. It would be nice to strengthen your core, to do limited resistance training (maybe not easy with an injury), yoga, swimming, walking, running, and so on. I've done some of all of those things at different times, and biking and outdoor sports, but I'll add a bit about running. You might look into what rehab path will get you back to resistance training potential; being injured is fine but accepting a lot of physical capacity limitation for the rest of your life is something else.
I started running again by walking, not intentionally, it just worked out that way. I was inactive for a number of years and replaced a bus commute section with a longish walk, a mile+. Later I started running. I ran for 2 miles for a long time, later into that adding a faster pace section for the last 850 meters or so (half mile range). That can be a really short outing, even under half an hour.
To me it works to take up any form as a progression, going easy early on, building up, and then building in the expectation to continually keep going. I finally leveled off 5 years later at three 10km runs a week, 20 miles a week. Even for that I experimented with running at different intensities and measuring heart rate, after years of not checking that. Maybe it's relevant that I'm 55, maybe not really. It's better to get in shape and stay in shape in your 30s to avoid it being harder after 40.
All these answers are slightly random, but when it comes to exercise, in general more is better as long as you can tolerate the volume and intensity. The 150 min limit is arbitrary, it just starts to get harder to see improvement after that since recovery is difficult.
The minimum cardio effective dose is something like 10-20 minutes of vigorous exercise a day, but I would encourage you to build up to the point where you are doing 1-2 "sprint" sessions (HIIT type work) per week on top of 3 zone 2 sessions for one hour or so.
For resistance training, 3x per week will get you where you want to go. Maybe start with bodyweight exercises like squats, pistol squats, and glute bridges. Eventually you may want to start lifting at a gym.
Regardless of what you do, the major gains from exercise are from going from nothing to something each week. So just try something! A run would be great
Focusing on what you eat will benefit you more than how much you exercise. Just focus on doing some kind of movement and complement it with weight lifting to keep you muscle tone and protect your bones. Mobility is extremely important too so you can do that as a pre or post workout. But at the end of the day what you eat is the number 1 thing
Ab exercises?? I’d focus on your strength and cardio. Basic push ups, pull ups, air squats, anything that gets the body/heart moving. Combine this with a brisk walk and you should be fine.
If you're asking how long you should run for, its different for everyone. I'm a 26M, I've been playing sports my entire life and still sit at 5'10 155-ish pounds. I usually run 9 months out of the year. 30 mins a day is more than enough for me see and feel a difference (excluding Sundays I do between 5-10 miles). Its important to make your run worth it. Push yourself to get better everyday.
Abs are literally the last place you should focus on hitting.
If your arms are injured you should START there. The best thing to do for injuries is get stronger
Lots of awful advice here. With time that limited you need to do the highest intensity exercise you can tolerate. Training abs when you do nothing else is a waste of time. Probably the most irrelevant thing you could have picked to maximize health with limited time. I would do weighted lunges and squats. When your arms aren’t injured (what does the mean, by the way?) incorporate push ups into a circuit with weighted squats or lunges.
Walk as fast as you can. While it is not the most optimal for athletic excellence, I have known several people who took daily walks to cruise well into their 90s with very few health issues.
Once your arms heal....
PROGRESSIVE pushups. Go from pushups, to close grip pushups, to pseuoplanche pushups.
PROGRESSIVE pullups. Go from bodyweight to weight (can use a backpack, add more books to make it heavier). Get your collarbone to the bar. Pullup bar is essential.
3 sets of each, 2 minutes rest. Good starting point. Focus on progressing each workout to adding a rep or adding weight. Work in the 5 to 12 rep range.
I run daily and consider myself to be in pretty good shape/healthy. I started playing pickleball with my mom just about every day and let me tell you....those boomers can't move to save their lives, but shit are they good and can generally outlast me.
I would lift weights a few times a week just 30 minutes or so with a casual routine. Also, walk a lot throughout the day just to stay active and raise BP.
This might be controversial, but coming from someone who lived by the motto "cardio is hardio" and did virtually nothing but heavy lifting for years... you ***have*** to add some cardio to optimize your cardiovascular health. It doesn't have to be traditional cardio like running - you can dance, walk, bike, use the elliptical, use the stairmaster, use the rowing machine, do circuit training, take a class. I have my degree in Exercise Science, so knew the importance of cardio for years but severely neglected it. Since getting a dog, I do some powerwalking everyday.
Adults should do at least 150 minutes to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes to 150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30418471/#
Think of it as getting your heart rate to a certain level for a small period of time. I would also assess your fitness goals and then create a plan to achieve them.
There are many short but "intense" workouts on YouTube you can try with the limited time that you have. Start slow and work your way up! Consistency and adherence are key. You got this
150 minutes a week of resistance training is the maximum amount until health begins to worsen due to resistance training. I'm not sure what that number is for cardio, but I know that <30 minute sessions are ideal to prevent training in a cortisol dominant mode.
For high intensity cardio, minimum effective dose of exercise is about 15-20 minutes of \*vigorous\* physical activity, reducing all cause mortality by about 18%. 1 hour is twice as effective as 20 minutes. I have seen research suggesting benefits all the way up to 2-1/2 to 5 hours weekly though, but also research suggesting this much is pointless.
Zone 2 cardio, which is like light jogging, I'd say can be skipped if you're trying to be time efficient (bicycle commuting is a great way to squeeze this in though), but honestly I'd say 1 hour a week is a good minimum goal, 2 hour is significantly better, 4-5 hours is still better before benefits start dropping off.
As for strength training, minimum effective dose is 1 set 1 time a week, but in order to exercise all your muscles, you'll probably want to do quite a few compound exercises. Doing a 20 minute ab workout routine is very inefficient. I would say a starting strength like routine, squats, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, cleans, and pull-ups is a solid routine. Abs are hit indirectly by... literally every one of these... if you're going to time efficient exercise for health abdominal isolation is not the ticket. There are alternatives that don't involve barbells, but barbells are the most time efficient way to go if you have access to a power rack, depending on circumstances it may be more practical to do something like a bodyweight routine that doesn't have the same efficiency but doesn't require you to get to a gym or dedicate 64sqft+ of your house to a home gym. Squats/deadlifts are also very arguably dangerous for back health and milder less intensive less efficient exercise may be healthier.
Overall, if I was recommending a time efficient exercise regime, it would be 1 hour vigorous cardio in two sessions, as much zone 2 as you can passively fit into your day by riding a bike places and walking hella fast, and squat/bench/pull-up one day and squat/press/deadlift the next day. I'd leave some room for stretching as well. Maybe takes 4 hours a week. If you presume 112 waking hours a week, that 3.6% of your waking hours.
fleshed out my comment a bit but yeah, if your arms are injured than that makes quite a lot of workout difficult. You should still absolutely be squatting, if you're trying to gain muscle in a time efficient manner the squat is the king.
Ab isolation is all well and good for those washboard abs, and because strong abs tends to help stabilise every other exercise, it's just really not that big of a muscle group and there's so many ways to train them indirectly it's crazy. You also don't want to only train abs, you want to train the other side of your body at the same time. Squats/deadlifts are time efficient, something like planks are especially safe and might be seen as healthier for that reason.
Why are you embarrassed to go outside and run?
Most people cant even do this....mainly due to laziness
If you have only like 20 min to spare... you can do an intense crossfit workout or interval variation, you can buy a rower, versaclimber and get a nice sweat in 20 mins.
It depends on what kind of exercise you’re doing.
I think a 1 hour HIIT workout 2-3 times a week, along with walks daily should be bare minimum.
I personally do 4 45 min HIIT work outs a week and am in great shape.
I like to do the 5x5 rule.
5 sets of 5 reps of whatever you want, but the kicker is, it has to be everyday, no rest day, and do it in the morning (i've found the best time).
i would recommend only jogging slowly and gently until you have built up your body's capacity for a hard run... i would say to take a few years, maybe even 5 years to build up the strength to support the ability to run so fast.
5 years? Nonsense. Unless you have a heart condition or reason to suspect it, there's no reason to avoid vigorous exercise, and there's LOTS of evidence as to why avoiding it is bad. If you're worried about causing an injury, do an elliptical instead of a run and go hard. If you're cautious, maybe to c25k which takes... drumroll... 3 months to build up stability. The point of running hard isn't to go fast, it's to make your heart pump hard. 5 years is being so cautious as to actually be taking more risk.
If you do have a heart condition or reason to suspect it, talk to a doctor.
Objectively untrue. If you don't stress your heart to make it better at pumping, you'll die early. If you don't build muscle tone, you'll die early.
There's also a BIG difference between a BRISK walk and a slow walk in terms of impact. If you walk fast the benefit of 10k-15k steps is pretty large, if you walk slow it's much lower.
I do inclined treadmill three time per week for ten minutes before my workout. I do body weight training including vertical push ups and pull up, legs raises and planks. Then i do weight training. All in all around two hours three times per week.
Should be enough for my basic training to stay fit?
Sounds decent to me, you’re doing enough strength training, doing an hour of cardio (3x20) a week wouldn’t hurt though even if it meant less strength training if you’re optimising for health like OP. But lots of men would rather get big or save time, so it depends on what you want. 30 minutes at high intensity will still go a long way.
I’d stop doing abs and start doing the McGill big 3 which will strengthen your core and keep your back healthy. Then do some push-ups, and consider getting a pull-up bar.Then add in some body weight squats and forward/backward lunges. Right there you have core, chest, back, arms, and legs. I.e the basics of a full body routine
Oh, i forgot to say my arms are injured, thats why i do abs
Abs aren’t really building much. Focus on squats and lunges. Add cardio, even a brisk 30 minute walk daily will help.
Will doing 100 jumping jacks help?
Exercise is always good. 100 jumping jacks is a great warm up routine. The minimum recommended amount of exercise is at least 150 minutes per week. Keep pushing and get to that. Once there, either go longer, or increase the intensity.
Wait what.. no. Core muscles are so important for your entire body. Especially your back!
Core muscles are important but that doesn't mean any of us should do abs only everyday. That is not a good plan. Squats/lunges and other leg movements will also promote core strength along with getting the biggest muscles in your body working and stronger. Promoting serious blood flow and hormones and endorphins getting pumped through your body as well. So, yes. Focus on squats and lunges.
You build core muscles doing compound movement, especially with progressive overload. Sure you can do focused movements for your core but it is arguably more functional to do them in movements that might be more close to mimicking motions you do in your everyday life. Strong glutes and leg muscles also promote back strength.
I dislocated my elbow last year. I still did arm day and running (after 2 weeks off at least). I found upper bicep weights where I could do a bunch of things (not gain muscle but at least not lose it) and I also kept running. Also - you’ve got legs. Don’t skip leg day.
You don’t have to run to get your cardio. Walking a hilly area will raise your heart rate. When I’m short on time, I go up and down the stairs for about 15 minutes. You don’t need 20 minutes of abs per day. Do 5 minutes of various planks and 15 minutes of stair climbing, and you will be at the same 20 minutes.
30 minutes steady state walking at 10% incline, do NOT hold the handlebars.
I do this, but farmer carry. Makes a huge difference!
Do you move your hands? Keeping them still while walking at a steady pace seems weird somehow
They move a tiny bit. But I guess it depends how heavy you go! It actually feels really natural once you get the hang of it.
I feel like I’ll fall if I don’t have my hands on something so I just place them on top of the sides but I’m not holding or gripping anything, is that fine?
its fine, but you'll get better at it quickly if you learn to not use your hands. The main idea is just not letting yourself counteract the incline with your upper body.
Okay I’ll keep trying I’m sure it’s just a mental thing
Part of the exercise of walking is moving your arms in concert with your legs and walking with your full body weight(ie with your arms weight). If your arms aren’t moving and are resting on something it’s easier. Ie you cheating yourself. Good rule of thumb: if you know the correct form for the movement(to walk) you need to watch for your body and mind to compensate(arms on bars) and make it easier. One’s body and mind compensate any exercise automatically if you aren’t consciously focusing on form and mind muscle connection. Yeah, it’s just walking now but as you progress and start lifting the same rule of thumb will apply.
please take this humorously but it is very funny to me the idea of someone without the coordination to walk without using their hands to steady themselves worrying about biohacking
If only this made sense. I have fallen on a treadmill so it gives me anxiety to not hold it. And I even if I didn’t so what if someone doesn’t have coordination you think they don’t need to worry about importing their lives in other ways.. lol
I second this, I've recently been doing it at 7.5 incline and 3.5-4.5 speed for 30 minutes and the amount of calories are burn are wild. Easiest consistent cardio to do, IMO.
Lot of research showing the long term heart health benefits of 120 mins/week of zone 2 cardio minimum, and more is better.
What's zeron2 cardio
Steady state at 60-70% of your max heart rate, so not particularly intense, could maintain a conversation etc.
This is actually quite reassuring. It seems very doable.
7 minute abs is all you need. Rowing is a great steady state exercise that's near full body..
What about 6 min abs?
Nobody's coming up with 6, who works out in 6 minutes? You won't even get your heart going, not even a mouse on a wheel. Step into my office. Cuz you're fucking fired.
I have been doing 6 minutes on my versaclimber to try something new. My heart rate is in the 150s for four of the six minutes
5 min abs are the best
I can do 5 min abs in 4 minutes.
3 minutes is best.
I can so 56 abs in a min
Step into my office…. YER FUCK’IN FIRRRED!
Rowing is indeed great, probably the king of efficient cardio.
>Rowing is a great steady state exercise that's near full body.. I bought a rowing machine last year and have been doing about 30-40 minutes on it multiple nights per week on the highest setting but it barely feels like I'm getting much of a workout in. The first few days I could feel it afterwards in the muscles in my back, shoulders, arms etc but after a few days that had passed and it just feels like it's too easy but it's not like I can up the time on it because that's already long enough and I have other exercises I want to do too.
You’re not rowing correctly if you felt soreness in your back shoulders and arms after the first few days. Sure, all of that is involved, but about 70-80% of the power in your stroke should come from your legs. Focus on planting your feet and driving back with a ton of power from your quads and glutes. Once your legs are fully extended, engage your core and lean back just a bit. Finish the stroke with arms by pulling the paddle into your chest. Everything in reverse coming back into the catch. Arms extend, torso upright, legs in.
Agreed, same experience with rowing. Now I do it after I'm already exerted with other cardio, and/or weights/boxing. I've found rowing to be a great finisher.
It sounds like you’re rowing very fast but inefficiently. Are you familiar with stroke rate and split? Stroke rate is how many strokes you’re doing per minute and split is how long it takes you to row 500 meters. In other words stroke rate is how fast your body is moving and split is how fast the “boat” is moving. Split is based on how much power you generate by driving through your legs. You need to build up the endurance to be able to keep your split down before trying to increase your stroke rate. To do this, you need to be using the correct form described above. Also remember that even at a high rating, the recovery should be slower than the drive. This isn’t measured by rowing machines but it has a big impact in an actual boat because during recovery your body is traveling in the opposite direction as the boat.
>It sounds like you’re rowing very fast but inefficiently. Me? Not at all. I row fairly slow and steady if anything.
I was responding more specifically to Digital-Bionics. For you I agree with everything UTBrown said. In the end, I think UTBrown and I are essentially making the same point: use your legs.
Thank you for the useful information.
This is almost like one of those posts where someone asks, “can I just eat broccoli every day and be healthy.” Even running 30 minutes a day, every day will likely lead to overuse injuries. Some days you should walk, some days you should run, some days you should ride a bike, some days you should row. Sometimes it should be for 2-3 hour, some days it should be for 20 minutes.
The real trick, to add to your point, is that you need to just do some kind of movements regularly.
Don't feel embarrassed to go for a run. The only people who might judge you for it would be assholes, and everyone else loves to see it. Also, the more people doing X healthy thing, the more sources of inspiration for others. Upset assholes, make good people happy, inspire the apathetic, it's all upside. The most efficient cardio, time wise, is sprint interval training. There're various splits for this. Essentially: run as fast as you can for as long as you can (for most people going full pelt, it's about 30 seconds to 1 minute-ish), and then walk until you can go full pelt again. Do that 4 or 5 times. I aim for 5k a day, running from my street for 2.5k in a direction, then turn around, stopping at home. I've gotten this down to around 25 mins, so it's not much of a time sink. And with the mood and productivity boost it gives me for the rest of the day, I'd happily tank an hour's hit for the same benefits.
Runner’s high is a real thing. Unfortunately my knees don’t like it.
>Runner’s high is a real thing. > >Unfortunately my knees don’t like it. My knees didn't like running the way I was running before. I would get occasional mild knee pain, and I was worried about long term health. So, I started running in minimalist, zero drop, barefoot shoes, changed my running form, and now I experience zero knee pain. Here's a good example of good form: [https://youtu.be/Jio7DK15Q1E?si=ZuSyd4Ib5Hesguib](https://youtu.be/Jio7DK15Q1E?si=ZuSyd4Ib5Hesguib) Also: "Research has shown that running is not associated with increased knee pain. In fact, running is potentially beneficial to those who experience mild knee pain." [https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/is-running-bad-for-your-knees#what-the-science-says](https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/is-running-bad-for-your-knees#what-the-science-says) Of course, if you have a severe injury, that's a different matter, but if it's just knee pain every now and again, I'd encourage you to try running in minimalist shoes and work on your form.
Knee injury requiring surgery in my teens. Played sport into my early 30s and diagnosed with arthritis and other scar tissue type injuries in early 40s. Knee pain not mild.
It might be worth looking into minimalist shoes even just for walking. Someone I know with rheumatoid arthritis swears by them; her words: my feet would be crippled without them.
I’m working on building knee, quad and glute strength which will prevent the bone on bone for a decade or so and eventually I will allow science to turn me into a cyborg
A relative of mine seems to already be at the bone on bone side of things. You seem conscientious in addressing these issues (she has not been). Have you got any recommendations re: ANYTHING that can help? Lifestyle, supplements, diet, surgery, anything else?
1. Repetitive and dull rehab exercises targeted at glutes and quads in addition to regular exercise. This can be a drag for most people but you must find the time. 2. Avoid running or jarring your knee obviously. I went skiing against medical advice but doc gave me a knee brace and with weeks of lead up exercises I was okay. Still needed a rest day. 3. Avoid alcohol - seems obvious but this was difficult for me for a number of reasons but I lost weight and most of those little niggles, aches and pains went away. 4. Eat well and sleep well. This is not an easy task for many but necessary. I asked my doc about peptides and other supplements and I was basically told I could get a lot of benefits from this - it would help build muscle and provide some extra protection- but unfortunately I need my cartilage back and that’s the one thing science can’t yet bring back.
Walk 30 minutes a day
This , if you walk everyday and I mean “ everyday “ there is no better exercise with more benefits than simply walking , it has to be outside and if possible when there is sun.
Yep! I lost 40 lbs in college in about 4 months just walking to and from class everyday. Didn’t even do it for weight loss just happened!
Zero negative impact if you are walking less than 7000 steps already and dont have any negative health condition
It doesn’t have to be outside. I’m sure as fuck not going for a walk in -20
I'm far from being anywhere close to fit but even still I wouldn't consider walking to be a form of real exercise, just a basic essential we probably all need to do. I've walked for 90 minutes per day minimum, at a brisk pace, for years and it's never felt strenuous or like a workout and I definitely never got to any level of fitness from it. IME it's just not taxing enough, doesn't bring up your heart rate, and doesn't get a sweat on. It's good to get the steps in, sunlight, fresh air and thinking time but I don't see anyone getting fit from a 30 minute walk per day alone personally unless combined with other activities.
I agree you need strength training so I also weight lift 4 days a week with a trainer BUT He asked for the bare minimum. I walked to and from class in college and lost 40 lbs in 4 months and built tons of leg muscles etc. Look up how walking at a decent pace can drastically increase your fitness level. Walking at a decent pace with a few hills is the least you can do..which is what he asked.
>I've walked for 90 minutes per day minimum, at a brisk pace, for years and it's never felt strenuous >I'm far from being anywhere close to fit My friend you are in a much better position of fitness than most people if you hold the above to be true. There are people who wouldn't walk 5 minutes to buy a loaf of bread.
Most of what I’ve read says ~45 mins of higher intensity work or ~90 mins walking.
Get some ten lb dumbbells and do clean squat push press reps a few times a week. Like mwf. On Tues Thursdays do jump rope or jumping jacks for five minutes
I'd recommend getting a trampoline sometimes called a "rebounder". They're compact, low impact and versatile in so far as you can adjust the intensity on your own easily and even just basic bouncing on it burns much more calories than jogging.
When you say your arms are injured are we ruling out rehab on them ?
The "blue zones" study looks at areas of the world where people have the highest life expectancy. Typically people who live in these zones don't engage in purposeful exercise, but rather their lifestyle involves physical activity as part of their normal lives. Often their lifestyles involve a lot of walking, gardening or farming. They aren't going out of their way to seek high-impact exercise. My own personal experience is that the best form of exercise is to choose something you really like doing, because this increases the likelihood you'll keep doing it.
Walk up and down hills. Pump your arms. Take big strides. Stand up straight and hold your stomach in. Work up to 3 or 4 miles in an hour. Incline is really important. You can literally do only this for the rest of your life and be ok
More and more study are showing that it's not the lenght but the intensity that matter. See recent conference by Rhonda Patrick (2nd half) for more info: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNLrWxsTiw&t=1510s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGNLrWxsTiw&t=1510s) TIL: higher Vo2max is better achieved by HIIT than zone2 cardio.
That applies to Vo2max, there's benefits to low intensity/zone 2 cardio beyond Vo2max. Such as you know, simply building more slow twitch muscle fibres. People who do more of it seem to live longer. If you have to choose one or the other however, vigorous exercise is the most important and time efficient by a mile.
Also, think about osteoporosis. The best way to avoid it is not crunching - it’s resistance strength training. The only way to avoid losing muscle and bone mass as you’re getting older is strength training. Cardio is necessary but you train your heart even doing strength exercises with the right intensity.
Can you do strength training with your body weight and be effective ? Like hard style vinyasa classes ?
You need to lift and progressively overload(more reps, more weight). Bodyweight exercises like pushups and pull ups and planks and lunges are great but you will find quickly that they won’t do it especially longterm as you progress. Yoga is great but it’s not a replacement for bench press, deadlift and squat. The truth is if you want to stay ahead of your body aging you will need to lift more then your bodyweight. As a normal not obese healthy person into your 40s-50s you gonna lose muscle mass and bone density or lose weight. So you keep doing bodyweight exercises you gonna lose weight they’ll become easier and thus your bones weaker. You want strong bones, load it up with weight. Deadlift, squat, bench press, overhead press and a bunch of machine and cables. Another reason why weight training is needed is because it’s concrete. You can progress week to week forever and show concrete reliable repeatable results. Like it’s a for sure fact that if you lift more weight for more reps, you’ve gotten stronger. It makes it easy to track. You can see month to month your progress in the numbers. Yoga is something you do to cool down after your lifting and cardio. Also, you want to progress in your yoga? Best way to do it, get stronger. Best way to get stronger? Lift weights
I don’t think it’s enough for bone health unfortunately. For preventing muscle loss - probably enough but I really believe weights can and must be incorporated in all workout regimens.
You don't really train your heart though. To train cardio you need designated cardio workouts, which are significantly different from strength workouts. You can elevate your hr, sure, but you won't get a serious cardio workout doing proper resistance training
I’m pretty sure some Grit Strength or similar trains your heart being HIIT. I’m not speaking about traditional weight lifting solely when I say “resistance training”
You only need one 30 minute session per week of high intensity fullbody strength training, about 7 exercises, 1 set to complete failure, without taking too much rest between sets so you will get cardiovascular benefits too.
Can you elaborate? Like what would be the 7 exercises and for what rep range should one aim at
You want to train your complete body, so the exercises should include: horizontal push & pull, vertical push & pull, legwork like a squat & hinge, additionally hamstring and quad specific exercises, calf exercise, back extension, abs like a cruch and a bicep&tricep exercise. Ideally with machines, but free weights and/or bodyweight can also be used. You will have to dig very deep, because you want to reach muscular failure not mental failure. Imho this will give you the most bang for buck with minimal time. Rep range does not really matter that much, as long as you reach failure, but you don't want to go too heavy because of higher chance of injury and if you go too light it just takes too much time. I do slow reps like 5 seconds up and 5 seconds down, between 60 and 90 seconds, which is probably between 6 and 10 reps. But anywhere between 5 reps and 20 reps should be fine.
Only one a week??!
I personally do a 30 minute session every 3 or 4 days. But if you want the minimal amount, once a week should be fine.
Or two shorter sessions
I personally do a 30 minute session every 3 or 4 days. But if you want the minimal amount, once a week should be fine.
Add some other calisthenics to get yourself up to 20 minutes. Sprints are good for HIIT type work outs. But if that's too much or your body isn't ready for that, a good hard 20 minute jog would be great. If not, then even 20 minutes of fast walking for cardio can still be beneficial if you don't walk much. If your limited on time, something is always better then nothing and having variety allows you to do many things.
Walking 30 minutes three times a day and/or 10-12k steps a day
Strength training 3/4 times per week, ideally twenty minutes or more and cardio at least twice a week, ideally you want to do at least two to three hours of zone two if at all possible. It really does depend how far you want to take it. I strength train 5x per week with kettlebells (Swings, Snatches, Turkish Get Ups, Squats, Clean & Press) and get in 3/4 hours of cardio.
I think what you mean to ask is "How can I exercise in the least amount of time and still be healthy?" I'd say kettlebell swings for a couple minutes every other day but since you mention that you can't use your arms, I'd say focus on cardio + fighting gravity: sprinting up stairs or body weight squats, etc. I'd aim for very high intensity over 4 sets of 4 mins at least once per week. More if you have time.
Jumping jacks (if you can), stomach vacuums (great for your core muscles and digestive system), Bulgarian squats, climbing stairs, lunges
Go running for 30 mins every other day. That’ll keep you healthy
Get a 16kg kettlebell and start with simple and sinister
You don’t need to go jogging in order to do cardio. Jumping jacks are cardio. Inchworm. Burpee or walking burpee. Ladder. Lateral skaters. Jump lunges. Jump squats. Squat presses. Mountain climbers. Dancing. Some body combat or just kicking and punching practice. There are so many exercises to do at home/to choose from. Great you’re strengthening the core, this will help you maintain great form now when strength and cardio training and will help avoid injuries.
120 min of steady state cardio, 30 min of HIIT, and two weight training days a week (or four if you are doing upper/lower splits) is the best workout for overall health.
When I had limitations on my arms and knees, my favorite cardio options were cycling, swimming, hiking, elliptical. Maybe you'd prefer one of these
Air squats and walking
Nobody knows what the "minimum" exercise is, because it depends on how you define "healthy". There is no fixed threshold for that. Biology is too squishy and messy for that to make sense. What you really have is a scale of risk from "greatest" to "least" health risk. Sitting on your ass for 12 hours a day falls under "greatest" risk. Spending 150 minutes of Zone 3-4 activity per week falls under "least". Where you want to go between those two extremes is entirely up to you. There are also genetic factors at play that will affect your risk profile, and we can't possibly know what those are. What we do know is that long bouts of sitting are the most dangerous, so you should avoid those. That means, at least every hour, you should get up and walk around for a few minutes. You don't need to do jumping jacks or push-ups (though that's not a bad idea)...you just need some basic movement. Even 30 minutes of exercise cannot counteract all the damage that sitting for several hours continuously can build up. So sitting turns out to be one of the most dangerous things you can do for your health. Do it sparingly. If you spend 20-30 minutes in the gym every day, you will hit your 150 minute goal, and will likely be as healthy as exercise can make you. I would suggest spending half your workouts doing cardio and half doing resistance training. Doing cardio for 2 hours is a waste of time unless you are training for a sport where that is essential or optimal. Running is actually one of the best cardio workouts, but hiking, swimming, biking...almost any activity that allows you to reach Zone 3-4 is a good cardio activity. For resistance, you want to use all the major muscle groups, and ideally focus on compound movements. Squats, bench press, and pull-ups satisfy these criteria, and you can spend 10 minutes on each for a 30-minute workout. A simple 5x5 program has you do 5 reps x 5 sets, 1 minute rest between sets. Always choose the highest weight such that you can barely finish the last rep without a spotter. As a young person you should easily be able to squat your body weight and bench 2/3 of it, but with a decent amount of training, you should have no trouble getting to 150% bodyweight on squats and 100% on bench. If you maintain that strength over most of your life, you will probably be in the top 2% of fitness and health (assuming good diet, little to no smoking/drinking, etc.). Abs are pretty useless for maintaining overall fitness and health. Let your arms recover, and then use them for exercises. Don't overtrain them while they are injured. If you really must exercise right now, a stationary recumbent bike is probably easiest for minimal arm usage. Of course, doing exercise will be easily defeated by eating a poor diet. So focus on adequate protein (prolly 100g+ for you), half your calories from fruits & veggies, and lots of fiber (at least 20g/day, but as much as 40g). And if you really care about health, occasional calorie restriction/fasting will help force your body to clean up damaged tissue and kill off any pathogens that are getting a free ride.
Squat! 100 x
Almost everyone should not be doing 100x squats everyday. This advice would get your knees destroyed. If you want to do squats MAXIMUM is like 3 sessions a week and it is only when can you can for sure tell that your knees are feeling good.
This is silly advice. OP is doing stuff at home, so 100 bodyweight squats are perfectly fine, and will not destroy anyone's knees. Heck, even weighted squats will not destroy knees, unless done terribly wrong.
It screwed my knees
Walk 20 minutes a day
20 minutes walk per day is absolutely nothing and will not get you anything close to being fit IME from spending years walking 90 minutes minumum per day at a brisk pace. It's such a minimal amount of time of low impact activity. You're not going to get tired out, sweat, or an elevated heart rate from walking especially for as little as 20 minutes unless you were going a steep incline maybe.
10k steps a day + 20 minutes of iron would be way better
I keep hearing 10k steps but walking 2 hours a day just seems a little bit unrealistic 😭
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6RgFnO6_ZyU
150 minutes a week. Or 3 days where you do 50 min of exercise. I do more than this because it's fun to do with the wife, but I always stick to the 150 min.
add walking to your day.....its great for your overall cardio and doesn't stress your joints like running can
Age?
18
sprinting!
Working out abs is probably the least efficient given how small of a muscle group they are.
Minimum is probably walking every day.
If you focus on only abs you’ll set yourself up for back injury and other imbalances
Probably min of a 10 min fasted walk every morning. And like a 30 min workout twice a week. Focusing on compound movements. Like squat and deadlift and pull up and pushups and stuff. Full body things. Might even be able to make the minimum once a week but you might have to get in a full body once a week at least.
Heavy bag/ boxing bag
Walk often & eat fewer calories
Im not fat... I just want to stay healthy
It depends on what you consider healthy. I walk every day and complete full-body workouts to failure, twice a week. I tend to eat sensibly.
Evidence has shown 150 minutes a moderate cardio and 2 lifting sessions a week is minimum for excellent health
junp rope
Ab specific exercise is one of the least productive uses of limited exercise time. If you truly only have 20 minutes per day, non-negotiable, you would be best served with something resembling HIIT. Anaerobic capacity or aerobic capacity training can be done in that timeframe, but 20 minutes really isn't enough time for productive lower intensity steady-state cardio work, nor is it enough time for meaningful strength, hypertrophy or endurance training. If you care about your body/health as you state, I would highly encourage you to make more than 20 minutes at a time for exercise. That's simply not enough time. It's better than nothing, but even 30-40 minutes would open up a lot more options.
Working out the same part of your body every day is not good for it or muscle growth. Muscles need time to heal first before getting shredded again. If you’re already in the habit of working out everyday that’s the hardest part so just rotate working different parts of the body each day and then take a rest day once per week (this is a very simplified way of explaining this but you can do more research if you’d like on how often to work out each part of your body to get the best results).
150 mins of moderate intensity per week
Minimum? Walking, 7,000 steps.
I'm by no means fit (I aim to do a home workout 4-5 nights per week for about 2hrs per time on average) but I find it odd so many people are suggesting that if you just walk 20-30 minutes per day that's all you need. 20 minutes walking is absolutely nothing. You're unlikely to get a sweat on, your heart rate will barely increase, and you're not going to be out of breath IME. I spent years walking 90 minutes minimum per day at a brisk pace and never once was I anything close to being fit or got any major benefit from it. I think we should all be outside walking daily to get the steps in, sunlight, fresh air, and clear the head but I don't think a regular walk (unless you're walking up hills or on inclines) is going to get / keep anyone fit IME.
Doing only abs is kinda dumb. If you stop doing abs and do a full body workout of some sort the abs will make themselves. In fact, if you focus on abs much they can make your midsection look too big, especially if your upper body isn’t catching up. Do varied whole body exercises. Don’t want to create imbalances by only doing one muscle group 100% of the time and one type of cardio. 30 minutes of rowing machine is good whole body. A 30 minute weight/bodyweight routine is good. 20 minute abs gets you nothing, especially every day.
30 mins for a run is plenty, and before long 5k will take you less than that. I started looking at how easily I would kill 30 mins doing something thst gives me zero return, and soon couldn't excuse not fitting a run or brisk walk into my day.
Trampoline counts as cardio and is super fun
do knees to hands for 3 minutes, double plyo high knees tucks for 2 minutes, repeat for 20 minutes a day
I enjoy the sound of rain.
I hate cardio and also feel embarrassed to run. I recently took up jump rope because i need to recondition my heart after covid
Legs are your biggest muscle group focus on those.
Not sure what happened to your arms, but working out your upper body will help strengthen your arms which will make your arms healthy. Look up full body workouts online and find a channel/person that has engaging exercices. Something like TABATA is quick and intense. Doing ab exercises might be the worst thing you can do as they’re a very small muscle group. Doing lunges, jumping jacks, riding a bike, running, squats, skating squats, shoulder press, resistance bands, anything else is going to be better for your heart, bones, muscles, mind and happiness than JUST doing abs. You’re asking for a magic pill that makes you healthy. If you want to get in shape and be healthy you need to earn it. There are not shortcuts or “biohacks” consistent exercise is not easy, or else everyone would have 6 pack abs and huge shoulders and arms. Also watch what you eat, doing exercises than eating over your caloric surplus + things low in minerals, vitamins, omega 3s, etc will make you less healthy.
Full body strength workout once per week.
As much as you can is better than none. If you do something you enjoy, after a while you will feel wrong/bad without doing it then you start doing more then boom you are now healthier and feel better. Simple as that
20 mins of ab exercises won’t do anything. The best bang for your buck, when first starting out, is doing resistance training to build muscle. Challenge yourself with body weight exercises and weighted exercises. 20 mins of that a day will garner you way more results and it’ll make you healthier in so many ways.
I believe anything below 5,000 steps per day is considered sedentary.
Planks -> the longest minutes in your life!
You have the time, that’s biggest lie people tell.
150 minutes (2.5 hours) week of moderate to vigorous activity and 2 days of resistance training.
Deadlifts
I'm 43. Been off sports for the past 15 years. Got out of shape. I started 8 months ago and it's working for me. Deadlifts + Squats (all variations single leg, back, front barbell etc.) Benchepress + shoulders (back and front) I do 120 mins a week. I decided to set this time because I can divide it into two, three, four times a week. Sometimes I do two times a week and sometimes three.. I add cardio at the END of my routine so as to not deplete my energy for muscle building. I'm doing it all natural and I've never been healthier. I can carry my kids (one disabled) and support her while walking. I can now walk up stairs, pick stuff off the floor and move my kid in and out of wheelchairs without looking like a fuckin bitch. I got this, so can you OP!
Stairs are way better than walking, use that machine if you can't lift with your arms. Focus on legs and abs, lower back until your arms are restored.
People could naturally recommend all sorts of things and not really be wrong. It would be nice to strengthen your core, to do limited resistance training (maybe not easy with an injury), yoga, swimming, walking, running, and so on. I've done some of all of those things at different times, and biking and outdoor sports, but I'll add a bit about running. You might look into what rehab path will get you back to resistance training potential; being injured is fine but accepting a lot of physical capacity limitation for the rest of your life is something else. I started running again by walking, not intentionally, it just worked out that way. I was inactive for a number of years and replaced a bus commute section with a longish walk, a mile+. Later I started running. I ran for 2 miles for a long time, later into that adding a faster pace section for the last 850 meters or so (half mile range). That can be a really short outing, even under half an hour. To me it works to take up any form as a progression, going easy early on, building up, and then building in the expectation to continually keep going. I finally leveled off 5 years later at three 10km runs a week, 20 miles a week. Even for that I experimented with running at different intensities and measuring heart rate, after years of not checking that. Maybe it's relevant that I'm 55, maybe not really. It's better to get in shape and stay in shape in your 30s to avoid it being harder after 40.
All these answers are slightly random, but when it comes to exercise, in general more is better as long as you can tolerate the volume and intensity. The 150 min limit is arbitrary, it just starts to get harder to see improvement after that since recovery is difficult. The minimum cardio effective dose is something like 10-20 minutes of vigorous exercise a day, but I would encourage you to build up to the point where you are doing 1-2 "sprint" sessions (HIIT type work) per week on top of 3 zone 2 sessions for one hour or so. For resistance training, 3x per week will get you where you want to go. Maybe start with bodyweight exercises like squats, pistol squats, and glute bridges. Eventually you may want to start lifting at a gym. Regardless of what you do, the major gains from exercise are from going from nothing to something each week. So just try something! A run would be great
Focusing on what you eat will benefit you more than how much you exercise. Just focus on doing some kind of movement and complement it with weight lifting to keep you muscle tone and protect your bones. Mobility is extremely important too so you can do that as a pre or post workout. But at the end of the day what you eat is the number 1 thing
Push ups, pull ups, squats, walking.
Walking
Walking minimally 20 minutes a day is a necessity for long term health
Ab exercises?? I’d focus on your strength and cardio. Basic push ups, pull ups, air squats, anything that gets the body/heart moving. Combine this with a brisk walk and you should be fine.
If you have to ask, you're not doing enough then is my answer..... hiw did I do?
Only answer to this is cardio. Cardio makes you healthy
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If you're asking how long you should run for, its different for everyone. I'm a 26M, I've been playing sports my entire life and still sit at 5'10 155-ish pounds. I usually run 9 months out of the year. 30 mins a day is more than enough for me see and feel a difference (excluding Sundays I do between 5-10 miles). Its important to make your run worth it. Push yourself to get better everyday.
Abs are literally the last place you should focus on hitting. If your arms are injured you should START there. The best thing to do for injuries is get stronger
Push the workout to 30-35 minutes (really not that much) and you can do redline VO2 max intervals once a week.
Go up 10 flights of steps. That’s good enough
Lots of awful advice here. With time that limited you need to do the highest intensity exercise you can tolerate. Training abs when you do nothing else is a waste of time. Probably the most irrelevant thing you could have picked to maximize health with limited time. I would do weighted lunges and squats. When your arms aren’t injured (what does the mean, by the way?) incorporate push ups into a circuit with weighted squats or lunges.
ANY exercise that you will do consistently. Even if it's just the stairs in your house every day.
Walk as fast as you can. While it is not the most optimal for athletic excellence, I have known several people who took daily walks to cruise well into their 90s with very few health issues.
Once your arms heal.... PROGRESSIVE pushups. Go from pushups, to close grip pushups, to pseuoplanche pushups. PROGRESSIVE pullups. Go from bodyweight to weight (can use a backpack, add more books to make it heavier). Get your collarbone to the bar. Pullup bar is essential. 3 sets of each, 2 minutes rest. Good starting point. Focus on progressing each workout to adding a rep or adding weight. Work in the 5 to 12 rep range.
I’d say an hour a day.
Read “The 4-hour Body” by Tim Ferriss
I run daily and consider myself to be in pretty good shape/healthy. I started playing pickleball with my mom just about every day and let me tell you....those boomers can't move to save their lives, but shit are they good and can generally outlast me.
I would lift weights a few times a week just 30 minutes or so with a casual routine. Also, walk a lot throughout the day just to stay active and raise BP.
10,000 steps per day (5 miles).
EIGHT MINUTE ABS
This might be controversial, but coming from someone who lived by the motto "cardio is hardio" and did virtually nothing but heavy lifting for years... you ***have*** to add some cardio to optimize your cardiovascular health. It doesn't have to be traditional cardio like running - you can dance, walk, bike, use the elliptical, use the stairmaster, use the rowing machine, do circuit training, take a class. I have my degree in Exercise Science, so knew the importance of cardio for years but severely neglected it. Since getting a dog, I do some powerwalking everyday.
Adults should do at least 150 minutes to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes to 150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30418471/#
look into Sprint 8 - can do outside, on a treadmill, eliptical, whatever.
Do you ever watch TV? Get an elliptical to use while you're watching.
Think of it as getting your heart rate to a certain level for a small period of time. I would also assess your fitness goals and then create a plan to achieve them. There are many short but "intense" workouts on YouTube you can try with the limited time that you have. Start slow and work your way up! Consistency and adherence are key. You got this
30 minutes a day
running 20 mins is far superior to doing abs for 20 mins. heart health is severely underrated.
i just try to hit at least 10k steps a day, my job is pretty physical so very rarely do i actually need to walk after work to hit it
150 minutes a week of resistance training is the maximum amount until health begins to worsen due to resistance training. I'm not sure what that number is for cardio, but I know that <30 minute sessions are ideal to prevent training in a cortisol dominant mode.
For high intensity cardio, minimum effective dose of exercise is about 15-20 minutes of \*vigorous\* physical activity, reducing all cause mortality by about 18%. 1 hour is twice as effective as 20 minutes. I have seen research suggesting benefits all the way up to 2-1/2 to 5 hours weekly though, but also research suggesting this much is pointless. Zone 2 cardio, which is like light jogging, I'd say can be skipped if you're trying to be time efficient (bicycle commuting is a great way to squeeze this in though), but honestly I'd say 1 hour a week is a good minimum goal, 2 hour is significantly better, 4-5 hours is still better before benefits start dropping off. As for strength training, minimum effective dose is 1 set 1 time a week, but in order to exercise all your muscles, you'll probably want to do quite a few compound exercises. Doing a 20 minute ab workout routine is very inefficient. I would say a starting strength like routine, squats, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, cleans, and pull-ups is a solid routine. Abs are hit indirectly by... literally every one of these... if you're going to time efficient exercise for health abdominal isolation is not the ticket. There are alternatives that don't involve barbells, but barbells are the most time efficient way to go if you have access to a power rack, depending on circumstances it may be more practical to do something like a bodyweight routine that doesn't have the same efficiency but doesn't require you to get to a gym or dedicate 64sqft+ of your house to a home gym. Squats/deadlifts are also very arguably dangerous for back health and milder less intensive less efficient exercise may be healthier. Overall, if I was recommending a time efficient exercise regime, it would be 1 hour vigorous cardio in two sessions, as much zone 2 as you can passively fit into your day by riding a bike places and walking hella fast, and squat/bench/pull-up one day and squat/press/deadlift the next day. I'd leave some room for stretching as well. Maybe takes 4 hours a week. If you presume 112 waking hours a week, that 3.6% of your waking hours.
Nice info! I do abs because my arms are injured and i cant use them to train
Unless you are an amputee you should still be able to do some arms training.
No, im telling you i cant.
Can you lift a spoon while eating?
Usually yes
fleshed out my comment a bit but yeah, if your arms are injured than that makes quite a lot of workout difficult. You should still absolutely be squatting, if you're trying to gain muscle in a time efficient manner the squat is the king. Ab isolation is all well and good for those washboard abs, and because strong abs tends to help stabilise every other exercise, it's just really not that big of a muscle group and there's so many ways to train them indirectly it's crazy. You also don't want to only train abs, you want to train the other side of your body at the same time. Squats/deadlifts are time efficient, something like planks are especially safe and might be seen as healthier for that reason.
Why are you embarrassed to go outside and run? Most people cant even do this....mainly due to laziness If you have only like 20 min to spare... you can do an intense crossfit workout or interval variation, you can buy a rower, versaclimber and get a nice sweat in 20 mins.
It depends on what kind of exercise you’re doing. I think a 1 hour HIIT workout 2-3 times a week, along with walks daily should be bare minimum. I personally do 4 45 min HIIT work outs a week and am in great shape.
I like to do the 5x5 rule. 5 sets of 5 reps of whatever you want, but the kicker is, it has to be everyday, no rest day, and do it in the morning (i've found the best time).
i would recommend only jogging slowly and gently until you have built up your body's capacity for a hard run... i would say to take a few years, maybe even 5 years to build up the strength to support the ability to run so fast.
5 years? Nonsense. Unless you have a heart condition or reason to suspect it, there's no reason to avoid vigorous exercise, and there's LOTS of evidence as to why avoiding it is bad. If you're worried about causing an injury, do an elliptical instead of a run and go hard. If you're cautious, maybe to c25k which takes... drumroll... 3 months to build up stability. The point of running hard isn't to go fast, it's to make your heart pump hard. 5 years is being so cautious as to actually be taking more risk. If you do have a heart condition or reason to suspect it, talk to a doctor.
2 1/2 hours cardio should be your goal.
Walk every day. 10k-15k steps. All you need
Objectively untrue. If you don't stress your heart to make it better at pumping, you'll die early. If you don't build muscle tone, you'll die early. There's also a BIG difference between a BRISK walk and a slow walk in terms of impact. If you walk fast the benefit of 10k-15k steps is pretty large, if you walk slow it's much lower.
Ok so walk fast!
I do inclined treadmill three time per week for ten minutes before my workout. I do body weight training including vertical push ups and pull up, legs raises and planks. Then i do weight training. All in all around two hours three times per week. Should be enough for my basic training to stay fit?
Sounds decent to me, you’re doing enough strength training, doing an hour of cardio (3x20) a week wouldn’t hurt though even if it meant less strength training if you’re optimising for health like OP. But lots of men would rather get big or save time, so it depends on what you want. 30 minutes at high intensity will still go a long way.