Minimum effective dose of exercise

What is the smallest amount of exercise that will give you the results you want?

It’s probably not as much time as you think.

For walking it’s only 8k steps per day, which is about 4 miles, and takes a little over an hour.

And for resistance training it’s 30 minutes, 3 days per week.

To find this dose, I started with this study, which shows that testosterone was significantly elevated after just 30 minutes of resistance training. Also, a meta-analysis published last year found that 30-90 minutes of resistance training per week was associated with 10–17% lower risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and death from all causes.

Another guideline to build strength and muscle mass is to train on non-consecutive days (IE Monday, Wednesday and Friday), which limits you to 3-4 days per week.

Most of the men I work with are high-performers at work (CEOs, doctors, dentists, business owners), as well dads and husbands--they have a lot of responsibilities, so the last thing I want them to do is add 10 hours of exercise to their schedule every week.

Instead, we start with three days per week of resistance training, and then we build-up to 4 days per week as part of our progressive overload strategy.

Why do the specifics matter?

The hardest thing about exercise is starting. And the best way to get started is to make your workouts pre-planned, and structured. Then make it repetitive.

Overall, you want to aim for a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity movement where your heart rate is elevated, yet you can still hold a conversation.

The beauty of my plan is that you're most of the way to that weekly goal if all you’re doing is walking 8k steps per day, and strength training 3 days per week. 

Then repeat.