When it comes to fat loss, the big 3 to focus on are calories, protein & steps, the rest is noise.
This phenomenon is known as the power laws or Pareto’s principle, and it actually impacts everything in this world.
The principle states that 20% of our efforts generate 80% of the results. And that means the other 80% of effort only generates 20% of results. The issue is, most people are spending 80% of their effort on the 20% and this is why progress sucks, and it feels demoralising.
So, when it comes to strength training and its benefits, what’s the 20% we can focus on for the majority of the benefits?
Here’s the breakdown
- Minimal Training for Health and Fitness: You need only basic strength and cardiovascular training to achieve the majority of health benefits, with additional effort providing diminishing returns.
- Strength Training Requirements: Perform full-body strength training twice a week, doing 1-3 sets per major muscle group, typically with 8-12 reps (slightly heavier for bone density).
- Efficient Strength Training Routine: A sample routine could include compound exercises for the lower body, chest, back, delts, biceps, triceps, core, and back extension. Even just four compound exercises can cover the whole body in a pinch. (Sample routines at the bottom of the page)
- Cardiovascular Training Minimum: For cardiovascular health, do 20-30 minutes of moderate intensity (RPE 3-5) aerobic exercise three times a week. Optionally, include one interval session.
- Total Weekly Commitment: Achieve basic health with a maximum of three hours of exercise per week, combining strength and cardiovascular training. You can lower this to 1.5 hours to focus just on strength training if you wanted.
- Maintenance Training: To maintain fitness, reduce training volume and frequency by up to 2/3, but maintain intensity. Intensity must remain high to preserve fitness. Intensity means the weight you lift needs to still be challenging for you.
- Consistency is Key: Consistency in maintaining training intensity is crucial, even if frequency and volume are reduced significantly. So if you think doing 1 full-body workout a week with 1 set per body part but at a challenging weight does nothing, you’re wrong. It can do more than something, it can help you maintain your progress in strength.
In recent research, it’s also shown that strength training delivers cardio benefits too! But when you combine strength + cardio you get the best of both. However, as with the philosophy of ParrotPal, start with 1 and make it manageable.
Workout samples below.
1. At Home with No Equipment
Frequency: 2 times per week
Workout Routine:
- Bodyweight Squats: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Push-ups: 3 sets of 10 reps (can be modified to knees if needed or push of a wall or incline if you struggle with knees)
- Lunges: 3 sets of 10 reps per leg
- Plank: 3 sets of 30 seconds
- Glute Bridges: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Supermans: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Sit-ups or Crunches: 3 sets of 15 reps
2. At Home with Dumbbells and Resistance Bands
Frequency: 2 times per week
Workout Routine:
- Dumbbell Squats: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Dumbbell Chest Press: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Resistance Band Rows (or DB rows): 3 sets of 12 reps
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Resistance Band Bicep Curls (or db bicep curls): 3 sets of 15 reps
- Dumbbell Tricep Extensions: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Dumbbell Deadlifts: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Plank with Shoulder Taps: 3 sets of 30 seconds
3. At the Gym
Frequency: 2 times per week
Workout Routine:
- Leg Press or Hack Squat: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Chest Press Machine or Bench Press: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Seated Row Machine or Lat Pulldown: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Shoulder Press Machine or Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 12 reps
- Leg Curl Machine: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Bicep Curl Machine or Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Tricep Extension Machine or Cable Tricep Pushdowns: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Ab Machine or Weighted Ab Crunches or bodyweight ab crunches: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Hyper extension (with or without weight): 3 sets of 15 reps