I don't want to spend hours upon hours working out every day!  Sounds kind of strange coming from a fitness expert, doesn’t it?

Well, the truth is, I am a fitness expert, but I’m also a regular person who runs a business, does consulting work, has a wife and two dogs, and enjoys personal time.  I simply can't have my life revolve around 2-hour workouts every day...

Fortunately, I don't have to.  And, neither do you.

There is a common misunderstanding regarding exercise – “more is better.”  It’s kind of like the old saying, “No pain. No Gain.”

Both are completely FALSE when it comes to exercise for weight loss, body transformation, fitness, and even performance.

I’m not saying you can just go through the motions and not put any effort into your workouts, or that you can just workout once a week and say that’s enough to transform your body into a beautiful, tight, toned physique that turns heads and makes your friends think you’ve discovered a secret formula or hired the best plastic surgeon in town...

However, there is a right and wrong way to approach your exercise program.

Minimum Effective Load, a term coined by Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus® exercise machines and (when he was alive) a very influential figure in the exercise science world.

Jones defined the minimum effective load as “the smallest load needed to get the desired outcome.”(1)

In other words, how much weight do you need to lift to get the result (strength gain, lean muscle development, fat loss) that you desire?

He also goes on to show why doing any more is simply wasted effort at best and detrimental to results or even harmful at worst…

This same approach can be applied to how often you exercise and how hard you push yourself.  And, it’s not just limited to weight lifting exercises.  It applies to all forms of exercise, although then it’s generally referred to as Minimum Effective Dose.

It is important to realize that no matter who you are, over-training will not deliver faster and better results.  Instead, it will lead to injury and/or burnout.

Trust me, I’ve seen it firsthand, and I’ve watched those that have ignored my advice fall completely “off the wagon” and lose all the results they worked so hard to achieve.  It’s a real shame…

Your wisest choice is to practice moderation and consistency using the Minimum Effective Dose principle...

No one is going to be surprised to hear that we don’t exercise enough as a population.  We've all heard the obesity statistics and they’re atrocious, so let’s not beat that dead horse.  Let’s just get down to what works to lose weight,  get fit, and transform your body, shall we?

First, going from nothing to something is, well, something...

Meaning, if you haven’t been exercising for 20 years and you decide to dust off the old workout shoes, just going through the motions and focusing on mastering form and technique 2-3 times per week is a GREAT start!

You simply don’t need to do insane workout DVDs or go to extreme alpha high-performance classes.  Getting your butt kicked doesn’t mean you’re getting a good workout.  In fact, it WILL ultimately be detrimental in the long run…

Take a look at these fun facts…

While many folks will initially lose weight if they engage in 60 minutes of non-stop daily exercise, any gains will eventually be eroded by factors like burnout, injury, and boredom.

This reality is exemplified by conclusions drawn from a 2009 study performed on sedentary, overweight, postmenopausal women that forced a dramatic increase in their amount and intensity of daily exercise:

“…we observed no difference in the actual and predicted weight loss with 4 and 8 KKW of exercise (72 and 136 minutes respectively), while the 12 KKW (194 minutes) produced only about half of the predicted weight loss.”(2)

This study offers us another clear example of how exceeding the minimum effective dose does NOT deliver greater results -- quite the opposite in fact.

By the way, I’m going to tell you that 72 minutes is w-a-y too long of a workout for most people.  Studying exercise in a laboratory is much different than analyzing workouts that are crowded in between shuttling kids around, working, making dinners, and having a life.

Author Tim Ferriss writes in The 4-Hour Body that “More is not better. Indeed, your greatest challenge will be resisting the temptation to do more.”(1)

If on your exercise journey, you blast out of the gate at top speed with an intensity that you can’t possibly sustain, you WILL burn out and likely give up.

Remember, what you do every day is more important than what you do every once in a while.  Those everyday activities may not be terribly exciting while you are doing them, they may not feel like you are making progress, but give the compound effect time to work... 

Your effort will pay off.  You will become leaner, stronger, fitter, and create the body transformation you desire.

Take care of your body and your mind by practicing the minimum effective dose strategy and you will achieve your goals…for life!

HAVE FAITH & TAKE ACTION!
Justin Yule