Over the past year, my schedule has been more crowded than ever because of work on this gym business, coaching, program design, jiu jitsu, soccer with my son, family bike rides, and many other appointments and responsibilities.
I also turned 50 years old and felt a noticeable shift in how my body recovers when under mental and physical stress.
Add in a full meniscus tear and big toe joint issues, and it became clear that the way I wanted to train (and was training) wasn’t respecting my body or my time if I wanted to continue making strength progress.
I’ve run a lot of programs over the past 15+ years. I’ve learned from coaches like Dan John, Jody Beasley, Mike Perry, Alwyn Cosgrove, Ben Bruno and others. Some programs worked better than others, often based on how I progressed, felt and recovered session to session.
I recently simplified my training and it’s made a huge difference. I credit Mike Perry for suggesting I venture into this “on the minute” format.
What I landed on is a format built around 30-minute training blocks, with a full warm up and short cool down that caps my sessions at 40-45 minutes total.
I never feel rushed. I rarely push my RPE past 7 out of 10, always feeling like 3 quality reps are left in the tank.
Most importantly, I am recovering to perform to my expectations in the rest of my life.
Each session is run “On The Minute” for 30 minutes straight, and includes:
- 3 exercises
- 10 minutes per exercise
- 3-5 reps for weighted movements
- A mix of upper and lower body patterns: hinges, squats, pushes, and pulls
- Sub-maximal loads with clean execution
I’m not trying to smash myself into big gains. I’m going after consistency, quality of movement, and skill refinement.
This approach gives me the minimum effective dose, which is enough work to drive a stimulus, yet not so much that I feel under-recovered.
I’ve been running this program for 12 weeks, getting ready to start my third 6-week phase, and I am steadily increasing weight on the Trap Bar Deadlift, Landmine Half Kneel Press, and my Push Ups have gone from 8 to 10 on the minute over that 10 minute block.
If something feels easy, I repeat it for another week or two before increasing weight, which might be 2-4 kilos or 5-10 pounds. I’m in no rush and my ego is in check.
After seeing how well this worked for me, we introduced it to our Worcester Kettlebell Club program. Knowing many of those members also train in our TEAM and MetCon sessions, we wanted something effective and sustainable. The feedback has been positive and technique improvements, especially with the Kettlebell Snatch, has been great to see.
If your time is limited, or if you want to train without beating yourself up, and you want to move well, improve skill and experience progress, this structure works.
It fits into a busy life with a demanding schedule.
If you have questions or want help adapting this program style to your training schedule, I’m always happy to help.