5 Simple Exercises That Blasted Away My Lock-down Weight
Overcoming my Covid sedentary lifestyle
I’ll admit it.
When the Covid19 lock-down of 2020 hit, I gained tons of weight. Many of us did. In a twist of irony, we isolated for health and ended up packing on unhealthy pounds of fat.
It’s hard to say if it was the donuts, cookies, cake, or ice cream that did me in. It may be safe to say the combination did it. The new sedentary lifestyle didn’t help.
I travel for a living. I thought life on the road made it difficult to maintain healthy habits.
But now, I wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t seeing anybody. My attitude? There would be time for health later. Pass the chips.
Part of me wishes I could share how much weight I gained or how many inches along my waist. Hard data like that creates confidence in the process and can be highly motivating.
But I was too embarrassed. I didn’t even take a before picture.
Instead, I resolved to figure out this fitness thing once and for all. No more yo-yo dieting. No more fitness routines I couldn’t maintain.
This time, I was going to do it right.
They say you can’t outrun a bad diet. No problem. I hate running.
You also can’t out-lift or out-cardio one either. Finding a suitable workout routine was only part of the solution. I used Intermittent Fasting to solve my relationship with food and hunger.
For my general health and fitness? I discovered The Simple Six: The Easy Way to Get in Shape and Stay in Shape for the Rest of Your Life by Clinton Dobbins.
I can perform the workout in as little as 5 minutes a day, Monday-Friday. Most days, I take longer, but I still finish within 15 minutes. The results are astounding. We’ll get to that.
I didn’t write this book though I wish I had. As of this moment, it has a well deserved 4.5-star rating on Amazon with 801 reviews. One of them is mine. Simple Six is a bestseller in its category.
Dobbins makes a claim as self-evident as it is astounding.
The guiding principle behind the Simple Six program is that consistency outperforms intensity. — Clinton Dobbins.
In the past, once I’d grown fit enough for them, I loved intense workouts.
I’d do a 45-minute workout consisting of free weights, body weights, and intervals. I’d cap it off with another 30–45 minutes of swimming.
If I didn’t have time, I’d do a few rounds of HIIT and call it a day.
Did all this get me in shape? Yes. Did this keep me in shape? No.
The intensity couldn’t be maintained. Either through burnout or injury, every time, I eventually gave up. More accurately, my body gave out.
Listen to me. The workout you can continue performing benefits you more than the one you don’t do. (I almost said it outweighs the one you don’t do, but that’s not the imagery I’m going for here.)
That’s what The Simple Six is all about. And yes, I know the title says 5 Simple Exercises. I modified the program. We’ll get to that.
I’ll be sharing how I’ve adopted this program and what that looks like in my life. It has meant success both in isolation and on the road, now that my travel has resumed.
I highly recommend turning to the book itself for more information, including the science behind it.
According to Dobbins:
The Simple Six focuses on a minimal set of basic exercises, and each of these exercises focuses on one of the basic human movement patterns. — Clinton Dobbins.
In the order I perform them, those movements are:
- Squat.
- Vertical Push.
- Horizontal Push.
- Pull.
- Hinge.
- Gait.
Let’s get gait out of the way. Dobbins recommends walking as part of the workout routine.
He’s right. You should walk. Walking is wonderful. It’s healthy. If you don’t think it’s strenuous enough, Dobbins adds variations, such as rucking.
No, that’s not a typo referring to something more entertaining than walking. Rucking means to walk with weight, usually involving a weighted backpack.
According to my FitBit, I get plenty of walking in. I choose not to make it an intentional part of my workout. At the same time, I make it an intentional part of my life.
With that out of the way, here is an overview of the exercises, followed by the workout itself.
Note: for each of these movements, Dobbins goes over variations. If you don’t have the strength or technique to perform one of them yet (like chin-ups) there are alternatives. This is what I do, at a minimum. I have added more challenging variations for most of these also, for when I feel the need to exert myself more.
Squat: Goblet Squat
- Stand with your feet slightly wider than your hips.
- Hold the weight in front of your chest.
- Bend your hips and knees, lowering your body slowly.
- Stand back up.
Horizontal Push: Kettlebell Press
- Raise the kettlebell to your shoulder level to begin.
- As you raise it, rotate your write so that the palm faces inward.
- Brace your core and watch the kettlebell as you lift it.
- Lower the kettlebell back to the starting position.
Vertical Press: Push-up
- Get on the ground, on your hands and feet.
- Straighten your legs and arms.
- Lower your body to the ground until your chest nearly touches it.
- Push yourself back up.
Pull: Chin-Up
- Place your hands on the bar with your palms facing toward you.
- Hang from the bar with your arms extended.
- Raise yourself until your chin is up, over the bar.
- Lower yourself back down.
Hinge: Kettlebell Swing
- Grip the kettlebell with both hands. Place your feet a bit wider than shoulder-width.
- Start the swing by letting the kettlebell fall between your legs and towards your bottom.
- With your hips, drive it back up through your legs until your arms are straight in front of you.
- Control the kettlebell as it falls, moving back in the same direction to start the next rep.
The workout program
Every weekday, at minimum, I perform a circuit routine of the exercises. One set of ten repetitions is performed for each exercise, except for the day’s focus. I start with a set of ten repetitions with that exercise. Then, after every set, I repeat the focused exercise.
Here’s a quick example. On Monday, my focus is the squat movement. For that, I do the goblet squat. So here’s Monday’s workout:
- Goblet Squat x 10 reps.
- Kettlebell Press x 10 reps.
- Goblet Squat x 10 reps.
- Push-up x 10 reps.
- Goblet Squat x 10 reps.
- Chin-up x 10 reps.
- Goblet Squat x 10 reps.
- Kettlebell Swing x 10 reps.
- Goblet Squat x 10 reps.
Tuesday looks the same, except the Kettlebell Press becomes my focus. I start with 10 Kettlebell Presses, then 10 Goblet Squats, 10 more Kettlebell presses, and on down the line.
By the end of the week, I will have performed a minimum of 450 reps. Sometimes I do 12 reps. Sometimes I add exercises in. Sometimes, I work out on the weekend.
But, the point of this is minimalism. It’s getting an effective workout, while minimizing the risk of burnout or injury.
For months, I’ve not missed a single workout(*). My muscle mass has improved even as my waistline has diminished. For the first time in my adult life, my blood pressure is normal. I’ve even had bloodwork done, and my health markers across the board are improved.
I feel and look better than I have in years. My range of motion has improved. My muscles are developing again. And, I’m able to do more physically.
When I finally got back to traveling after just a couple of months of this, I was loading and unloading 130-pound kiosks off a pallet. It should be a two-person job. One hundred thirty pounds isn’t unheard of for one person to lift, but the size of the kiosks make them unwieldy.
I’ve lifted them alone before, but I have generally had to stop after just one in the past.
This time? I lifted all eight of them. Off the pallet onto a cart, and then off the cart and onto the ground. It felt great.
This works at home. It works in lock-down. And, since I can check my kettlebell on flights, it works for travel.
Call to action: Start a similar routine. Remember that the workout you can do regularly helps you more than the one you do once and quit.
For more information, along with alternate exercises, look up The Simple Six on Amazon. I’m not an affiliate, so I get nothing from it other than the satisfaction of helping others with their health.
If you find this beneficial in any way, please let me know.
Scott Hughey was pleased to discover that he needs to add another 5–10 pounds to his kettlebell. That pleases him a great deal.
(*) Okay. I had dental work done on a Thursday early on. I missed that day’s workout, but I made up for it the following Saturday. Honest.
More from Scott Hughey (TheWriteScott)
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