A minimalist according to dictionary.com is:
a person who favors a moderate approach to the achievement of a set of goals or who holds minimal expectations for the success of a program.
As I write this, I am sitting in an empty bedroom. My bed, dresser and accessories are still in the living area as I haven’t taken the time to set everything up yet. I am actually just soaking up the simplicity of a bare room, nothing on the walls, nothing taking up any space except for me, my desk and my computer. That’s it. Heck, I even just unsubscribed from a bunch of blogs that I never read anymore.
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At this time in my life, I am relearning what it’s like to be a minimalist. Of course I am not one of those hippy-type minimalists either. I still enjoy my fancy cell phone and other random gadgets. However I tend to enjoy the simple things in life. I appreciate simplicity in every form.
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Today I want to talk about simplicity and minimalism when approaching training and diet. Some people like to reference an ideal called KISS(keep it simple stupid). It makes me laugh a bit but there is so much truth in those four little words.
A Minimalist’s Approach To Training
There are a few training programs and approaches floating around that could be classified as a minimalistic approach. A few that immediately come to mind are Starting Strength and the old HIT type stuff. Then you also have the old hardgainer routines that suggested only 2 workouts per week with really low volume. I don’t really recommend these. Most people that claim they are hardgainers are newbies or those who just never eat enough(thus never making any progress). I don’t really buy into the hardgainer philosophy. Enough with that.
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What does a minimalist’s training program look like? There is no set-in-stone routine or formula to go by. It’s merely just picking a handful of exercises and executing. I really like full body style training so here is what an example template would look like.
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A
Squat 5×5
Horizontal Press 5×5
Horizontal Pull 5×5
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B
Deadlift 5×5
Vertical Press 5×5
Vertical Pull 5×5
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Note: For all sets, work up to a top set and drop weight to make reps. Try to increase 2-5% each workout. Each workout is done on non-consecutive days. You train every other day or every 5th day, whichever works best for your schedule.
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What you might notice is that I chose a rep scheme that is very popular. You see the 5×5 everywhere and there is a reason for this. I did not attempt to reinvent the wheel here. I am simply leaning on what works. So, if you find yourself caught up in some bullshit training program I have a proposal for you. I propose that you pull your head out of your rear, take one week off and return to something simple, something like I have proposed.
A Minimalist’s Approach To Diet
Since I consider myself somewhat of a minimalist, I will briefly share my approach to diet. I always start with protein. There are no exceptions, really. If you are reading this article and are in search of better body composition, bigger muscles or an increase in strength, protein should be set to at least 1g per pound of body weight. Ideally you would be consuming around 3g per kg of body weight according to Lyle’s research from The Protein Book.
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Next I set minimum amount of essential fatty acids. The general recommendation is about 3-5grams of EPA/DHA per day. In short, just go buy a generic brand of fish oil capsules at Costco or Sam’s club and pop 3-5 each morning(or whenever).
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So now we got the essentials out of the way. You just fill in the rest with whatever you like. I personally like the values for fat intake that Alan Aragon suggests. He says one should aim for .4 – .5g fat per pound of body weight. So set protein, set fat and fill in the rest with carbs to make your macro goals. I normally use this approach when setting kcals because it allows for a lot of variety in ones diet.
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My food choices rarely change. I eat a lot of fruits, oats, protein powder, cereal, chicken and dairy. That’s about it. Every once in a while I will get a steak or greasy burger but it just depends on my mood and budget at the time.
Putting It All Together
The take-home point is that none of this should be complicated. You train, eat, sleep and repeat. If you need to drop some fat, focus on more protein and eating less. If you want to grow stronger and bigger, focus on eating a caloric surplus; put a nice amount of your kcals around the workouts.
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If you ever catch yourself becoming obsessed or fixed on a certain training protocol, spending too much time in the gym or pulling your hair out about nutrition, you should definitely try the minimalist approach.
Minimalism works – the Stuart McRobert, Rippetoe, Pavel stuff, etc. People just need to focus on intensity in the workout and progressive overload over time.
“Note: For all sets, work up to a top set and drop weight to make reps. Try to increase 2-5% each workout.”
You mean something like 5×50, 60, 70, 80, 100 – where the 100 set is a max set, then drop the weight to 80 and do a few more sets?
right. So essentially you warm up to a top set, then drop the weights to make the rep ranges.
as an example on bench press.
for me it might look like this:
warm up
set 1: max set of 275lbs
set 2: drop set of 245lbs(10% reduction)
set 3: drop set of 230lbs(15% total reduction from top set)
by the 4th and 5th set I can usually get the same weight from set 3. There is also a judgment call here that is highly individual. If you are gassed by the 3rd set, just stop altogether. These are merely guidelines, nothing strict and in stone.
Cool, thanks. Sounds like something I will introduce to my deadlift training (doing half body workouts).
Even though I’ve been trying to add muscle to my skinny-fat frame since the beggining of the year it hasn’t work. I would class myself as a begginer after reading your article. For the majority of the year I’ve been using a high fat low carb ckd approach with a 5 day split routine, simplistic? I think not. I think my workout are sometimes fairly short (30-45 mins) and I dont feel like I’ve done much in terms of working my body enough. I think I’ll be giving your minimilistic approach a go. To tell the truth I get so fed up with not seeing results and seem to be spending so much money on high fat foods and steaks and eggs it just seems like I might as well give up.
I currently weigh 150lbs 5foot 9 inches with about 12% body fat, do you think It’s a good Idea to get the body fat lower first or concentrate on the muscle for know, my fat resides mainly on my stomach like any skinny-fat I guess?
John, first I would start with a diet higher in carbs. I am going to advise to consume a minimum of 150g per day.
At your size, I think the most important things to focus on at this point is gaining body weight and getting stronger. Good luck.
Heyo,
It’s important to note that the first routine listed in “Beyond Brawn” is a 3 day, compound-based routine that isn’t unlike what is listed in starting strength. It seems a lot of what Roberts wrote is distilled one routine: the “working like a motherfucker no time for anything” 2 day a week routine. He’s more rounded than that, even suggesting 5×5 (over 10 years ago!).
I’m a high fat diet guy, but that’s because it is what I like and fills me. YMMV.
Best,
Skyler
Great read JC! I am definitely trying to apply a
minimalistic approach to most things in my life right now.
Nice insight JC!
Have you ever come across what is “Minimally” needed for someone to maintain muscle mass, training and diet wise?
I feel a lot of folks when on a fat-loss phase think they still need to do a body part split. How do I convince them that minimal muscle stimulation is enough to MAINTAIN muscle mass during a deficit, since we wouldn’t be growing any new muscle?
Peace,
Dave
people can usually get away with hitting everything 1-2x a week as long as intensity is maintained. I always just have them either do 2 full body workouts per week or an upper/lower split in the ABA BAB fashion.
you convince them by saying “I am the coach, you are asking/paying me for advice, so do what I say” with a smile.
“The designer knows when he has achieved perfection, not when he has anything more to add, but when he has nothing left to take away”. I completely get this JC, keep it simple.
Wow, I just realized my math sucks. You only need to take 10 a day to reach 3g’s EPA/DHA with the generic capsules.
Anyway, I still prefer the pharmaceutical quality liquid fish oil.
LOL, I didn’t even add it up.
You can have my share of the liquid.
The generic fish oil brands at Costco/Sams typically have 180 EPA, and 120 DHA in each capsule. So you would need to pop 20 a day to reach 3g’s of combined EPA+DHA.
Personally, I like the pharmaceutical liquid fish oil in the bottles (one tsp has like 740 EPA, and 475 DHA, depending on the brand). I take like two table spoons a day (one in the morning, one at bedtime), and I’m done.
The ones I used to get were… maybe they have changed; I haven’t purchased from Sam’s in a while. The last bottle I got was at Walgreens. Each capsule is 1000mg. They don’t give exact ratios on this bottle but I am not too worried about it
I wouldn’t consider 5×5 DL minimalistic. Unless there moving some pansy ass weight thats going to cause a shit ton of fatigue.
wasn’t necessarily saying minimalistic in the sense of catering to the newbs.
nice n easy