Minimalist Workout Ideas: 10, 15, and 30 Minute Routines

Pat and Dan put fitness minimalism into practice by sharing 10, 15, and 20 minute kettlebell workout ideas.

For 101 FREE #kettlebell workouts visit http://www.101kettlebellworkouts.com

Minimalist Workout Ideas w/ Dan John

Excerpt from Dan’s Upcoming Book: “Two Lift Programs”

Pavel has become famous offering two lift workouts. Let’s look at some of his combinations:

Bent Press

Kettlebell Snatch (from his original RKC book)

Kettlebell Swing

Turkish Get Up (the later Program Minimum)

Side Press

Deadlift (from Power to the People)

Pavel and I were joking once at dinner that if he would have used the bench press and deadlift, no other strength book would have ever been written!

Dick Notmeyer, my Olympic lifting coach, basically had us do…the Olympic lifts! Joe Mills, the late great Olympic lifting coach, also basically just had his athletes do this:

            Snatch

            Clean and Jerk

Both Dick and Joe were famous for their athletes coming through in the clutch. One thing I can tell you about focusing on the competitive platform movements in every session is that the easy day is the contest!

I’ve seen a few people argue for something this simple:

            Press variation

            Squat variation

Frankly, this is how many of my teammates trained in college. It wasn’t fancy and blended with hill sprints and lots and lots of track and field training it worked rather well.

My final example comes from my experience with two full-time careers, girls in middle school, and very little time on my hands. I wanted to lift in the State Meet, but I could afford almost no time to train. Oddly, this template comes BEFORE meeting Pavel and beginning Easy Strength:

            Snatch grip deadlifts (Two sets of five)

            Overhead squats (Two sets of five)

            During the rest periods, I worked on my techniques (Olympic lifts) with a stick.

I went six for six and broke all the state records. My workouts lasted about fifteen minutes, five days a week. As I often say:

“It worked so well, I stopped doing it!”

 Clearly, there seems to be a formula to just two lift training programs:

            A big upper body movement

            A big lower body movement

Related Episodes

New eBook: Introduction to Kettlebells – Just $1 on Amazon!

Recently, I wrote a short (read: 30 pages) eBook called Introduction to Kettlebells, which is now available on Amazon for a whopping — brace yourself! — $1.

You can snag it here ==> https://amzn.to/2HgwJgO

Short story: Introduction to Kettlebells is a quick and dirty reference guide to the core single kettlebell techniques — exercises like the swing, snatch, clean, get up, squat, etc — and a simple, 7-day training cycle for getting strong and tough.

Inside the eBook are instructional pointers, pictures of each technique, and links to video tutorials. Finally, a simple and straightforward collection of workouts for improving general physical preparedness with just one kettlebell.

While this eBook is aimed at beginners, I think even veterans will get something out of it, since it’s always good to brush up on technique and return to basics.

The Pat Flynn Show

If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me if you could subscribe to, and leave a review for, The Pat Flynn show on iTunes HERE or Stitcher HERE.

Reading your reviews and hearing your feedback is what keeps me fired up to make The Pat Flynn Show happen. Thank you!