Minimalism in Fitness: Do Less to Do More

I don’t know when it became the norm to do dozens of exercises each time you go to the gym. Back day has you doing 6 different variations of rows, leg day has you doing 8 kinds of lunges… What on earth is the point? Let’s take a moment to learn from minimalism. You don’t need to do that many different exercises.

You should only need 1-2 exercises per muscle group/plane of movement per workout.

“But that’s not enough! How am I going to get enough volume??”

It’s simple. You do more volume.

More sets, fewer exercises

Most people I know don’t necessarily want to do more. They don’t want thousands of exercises to sift through. They want to be shown a few things that will push them towards their goals.

Don’t get me wrong. Variation is good, but too much variation will derail progress and soften the focus of your training.

All of the evidence shows that total exercise volume is one of the most important factors for strength and muscle hypertrophy. This doesn’t mean you need to do dozens of different exercises and variations. Different studies will show that anything between 10 sets to 52 sets per muscle group per week will result in strength and hypertrophy gains. We will be aiming for the middle of that, around 10-20 sets per week per muscle group.

Taking the minimalist approach, you can just increase the number of sets per exercise. Focus on performing 1-2 big, compound movements per muscle group. For example, a great exercise for the upper back and lats is the seated cable row. Do 5-10 sets of 5-10 reps at a relatively heavy weight, control the tempo of each set, and see how pumped your back feels. You won’t be needing 5 more exercises for your lats and back.

Sample back/shoulders workout

Using this approach for a back and shoulders day, we can get a very well rounded workout.

Overhead Press: 6 sets x 5-8 reps
Seated Cable Row: 8 sets x 5-10 reps
Parallel Grip Pull Up: 6 sets x 5-10 reps
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 5 sets 8-12 reps

My arms are shaking just typing out that workout. That gives you more than 10 sets per muscle group.

If you are the type to deadlift on back and shoulder day (even though it will fit better on a leg day or low back, glute, and hamstring day) here is how it can look like.

Deadlift: 5 sets x 5 reps
Dumbbell Overhead Press: 6 sets x 5-8 reps
Seated Cable Row: 8 sets x 5-10 reps
Parallel Grip Pull Up: 6 sets x 5-10 reps

If you do a chest/shoulders/arm day sometime later in the week, you can hit the shoulders a second time to supplement more volume with lateral raises.

Sample chest/arms/shoulders workout

Here is a sample chest/arms/shoulders workout.

Bench Press: 5-8 sets x 5-8 reps
Parallel Bar Dips: 5 sets x 5-10 reps
Lateral Raise: 5 sets x 8-12 reps
EZ Bar Curl: 5 sets x 8-12 reps

Note that I did a double whammy with the dips hitting the chest and triceps at the same time. If you are worried about the biceps not having enough weekly volume, keep in mind the biceps are heavily involved in rows and pull ups from the back workout.

Sample leg day workout

Bodybuilder performing back squat exercise.

I usually split my leg days into 2 different workouts with one squat focused and one deadlift focused. Normally I perform about 5-6 exercises, but for the sake of taking the minimalist approach, we’re going to whittle that down.

Barbell Back Squat: 5 sets x 5-8 reps
Romanian Deadlift: 5 sets x 5-10 reps
Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat: 6 sets 5-10 reps

The deadlift focused workout performed later in the week will look like this:

Deadlift: 5 sets x 5 reps
Leg press: 6-8 sets x 5-10 reps
Good morning: 5 sets x 5-10 reps

The total sets for the quads is anywhere between 17-19 sets. The posterior chain will have about 15 focused sets but keep in mind the posterior chain is still working hard during normal squats.

Technical benefits of doing less

Most people shouldn’t be doing so many variations of exercises. Each exercise has its own technical challenges and it is impossible to get proficient at any exercise if you are doing too many.

When you cut down the total number of exercises that you are performing, you get a chance to hone in your technique on a few select exercises. When you are trying to learn a new skill, excessive variation will kill progress. Focusing on 1-2 variations at time will yield much greater gains in technical ability.

Do less to do more

One of the big lessons of minimalism is to have fewer things going on in your life so you don’t need to make so many decisions. By forcing yourself to pick just one or two exercises per muscle group, you spare yourself the headache of sifting through and choosing numerous exercises.

Plus, by doing fewer things, you can focus more of your time and energy on those few things. Instead of splitting your attention amongst 5 different exercises for your lats, you can focus on giving 100% of your effort on 1 or 2.

So as the cliche goes, less is more.

I just cringed at myself for saying that.