How To Come Up With 20 Minute Workouts That Actually Work?

3-step easy process to effective fitness program design

When I was a competitive figure athlete, in a bid to hit my daily protein intake, I blend chicken breast with my protein shakes and swallowed 30 eggs a day. I was also a “gym rat”, spending 3 hours, clocking 50 sets of exercises with weights 6 times a week.

On “rest” days, where I don't exactly rest — I would be taking 60-min walks, while still cautiously eating my “cheat” meals, which are just a meal of grilled chicken with BBQ sauce or occasionally chocolate pie.

I was told by the boys in the gym that for fitness beginners, that’s the lifestyle, the bodybuilder lifestyle if you want to gain muscles to look good.

Being young and outwardly focused, I believed them, after all, they sure all look good to me. Yet over the next few years, while I admire their sheer determination and dedication, I also watched how these men and women become emotionally and mentally unhealthy, often struggling with addiction, depression, and eating disorders. Some also became more aggressive and their personal relationships crumbled.

As I started becoming too isolated from my family and friends as a result of such an extreme lifestyle and also finding no further joy in such a style of weight training, I distant myself from that scene.

I wanted to return to life and that’s when I discovered a new concept of what human movement is when I ventured into the movement-practitioner community. I fell in love with the freedom movement-based workouts are all about, what movement expression is all about.

That’s when I realize, I do not have to spend 3 hours a day to gain muscles or strength, instead, when I learn to master the skills of human movement patterns, combining with the element of fun and rest — gaining muscles and strength while looking radiant and feeling good could become a reality, effortlessly.

And now with my priorities changed and my focus on achieving life-long sustainable overall health, I now only do 20-min workouts a day. This has free up more time and headspace for me to work on the other endeavors and interests in my life, while still inching towards my health goal.

(However, if I do have a unique fitness or performance goal in mind, I would then plan for it and the length of my training sessions may increase.)

So how do I program my 20-min workout sessions?

I break it down into what I call the movements-based combination.

1) Determine your movement patterns

According to various functional movement practitioners who are usually trained in both physical therapy and strength and conditioning, such as Gray Cook, Paul Chek, Stuart McGill, Michael Boyle, there are about 7 human movement patterns, (though the debate can always be “it depends.”)

The 7 human movement patterns are as follow:

1. PUSH
2. PULL
3. SQUAT
4. LUNGE
5. BEND (DEADLIFT)
6. TWIST (ROTATE)
7. GAIT (CARRY)
8. *THRUST (I probably want to add this 8th because of my own personal unique goal of building a functional perky tush and of one unique movement famously researched and popularized by The Glute Guy, Bret Contreras.)

2) Determine the directions and segments

Next, when you factor in segments and planes of movement, we now open a lot more variations. Typically, there are 6 different segments and planes of movement. Note: Some of them are not applicable to all the movements above.

1. Upper/Lower: This is essentially saying your upper body and lower body.
2. Single /Double: This refers to single or double limbs, i.e. your arms and legs. Single leg or both legs?
3. Forward/ Reverse/ Side: Think front, back, and sideways movement of legs or arms
4. Prone / Supine/ Lateral: These are positions where you are either facing down towards the ground, up towards the sky, or on your sides.

3) Mix it up like tacos

This is the fun part, which I enjoy the most! You basically mix the movement patterns and directions up to get a couple of movement-based exercises. Get into a 20-minute time and that’s it. (minus the warm-up movement flow that is highly recommended)

An example of a day can go like this:

A Simple Push-Pull Day (Full body)

1- Upper body push Double Supine: 2-arm push-ups or chest-press 2- Upper body pull Double Prone: 2-arm bent-over row 3- Lower body push Double: Squat 4- Lower body pull: Kettlebell 2-arm swing

In contrast, you can also have a Push-Pull combo day ( Full body) that goes something like this:

1- Upper/Lower body Push: Squat to Push-ups 2- Upper/Lower body Pull: Kettlebell 2-arm swing to the 2-arm bent-over row

Even though this second workout looks like there are fewer exercises, do not be deceived by it. This is because these movements are more metabolic demanding, as it requires the body to cover more planes of motions in a single movement and with the up-and-down motion, we are also working against gravity as well. Notice how burpees often leave us huffing and puffing more than just push-ups and squats performed separately?

You could also spice it up with a BIG 7 MOVEMENT DAY as follows:

1- PUSH: Chest Press 2- PULL: Supine BW Row 3- SQUAT: Parallel Squat 4- LUNGE: Forward Lunge 5- BEND: Classic Deadlift 6- TWIST: Woodchops 7- CARRY: Rack Carries *8- THRUST: Hip Thrust (My personal bonus FTW)

So there you go, coming up with exercises for a 20-min workout shouldn’t be too mind-boggling. Sometimes I think we, fitness professionals may complicate movements too much, especially with all the various exercise trends popping up. When you realize you are spending too much time in your head, it probably means it’s time to keep things stupid and simple!

Give it a go and let’s bring fun and joy back into the creative game of movement into life, because

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” - John F. Kennedy

Other articles that may be of interest to you

• How To Make Fitness Trackers Work For You, Not Against You?
• Can You Strength Train at Home?

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