Hi friends,

In the eternal battle between your fitness goals and your packed schedule, time emerges as the heavyweight champion keeping you from the gym.

Fortunately, you can have an effective resistance training session in about 30 minutes if you focus on the basics.

The Pareto principle should be your fitness ally if you’re a busy professional. The famous 80/20 rule suggests that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts. In fitness terms, this means you can discard the fitness fluff and focus on movements that actually matter:

• Hinge

• Squat

• Push (vertical and horizontal)

• Pull (vertical and horizontal)

• Carry

As a physical therapist, my workout routine often disappoints those expecting something revolutionary. I simply focus on 1-2 major lifts per session with 3-4 training sessions per week. After the major lifts, I follow them up with accessory movements aligned with my goals.

Here is one of the workouts I’ve been doing each week to help my body get ready for beach volleyball, tennis, and golf this summer:

• Barbell backsquat, 3 x 6

• Barbell overhead press, 3 x 8

• Single leg RDL, 3 x 10

• Smith machine heel raise, 3 x 12

• Lat pulldown, 3 x 12

Notice the complete absence of exercises that would make a good TikTok video? That's intentional.

All too often, I see people attempting crazy exercises in the gym they saw on social media that are more likely to result in injury than positive adaptations for muscle growth or strength

If you’re doing single-leg squats on a BOSU ball to gain muscle, you’re wasting your time. You’d be better off doing split squats or lunges with weight.

The bottom line is that modern humans have mastered many things, except perhaps time management. If your schedule resembles a game of Tetris on the highest difficulty level, focus on the timeless fundamentals instead of chasing fitness trends.

Your muscles don't care about novelty—they respond to progressive overload and consistency.

The most effective workout isn't the one that looks impressive—it's the one you actually complete.

Until next week,

Kevin

✍️ Quote I’m reflecting upon

"Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist."

— Pablo Picasso