2785: The Most Effective Workout You Can Do from Home

0:00If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump, Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump today. We're talking about the most effective workout you can do from home. Now, because of this episode, here's what we did. We have a bunch of MAPS 15 workout programs, 15 minutes a day. Most of them have an at-home version. So here's what we did because of this episode. They're 50 % off right now. Now, all of our MAPS15 programs, 50 % off.

0:38Go to maps15programs.com. Use the code HOME. That'll get you the 50 % off. This episode is also brought to you by our sponsor, Troscriptions. Look, you might have heard of methylene blue. So this is a compound. It's been around for a long time. But if you take it orally, boy, do you get a lot of energy. It improves mitochondrial function, focus. It increases circulating levels of things like dopamine and serotonin. Makes you feel good. Again, it's been around for 100 years, but people realize using this as a supplement has incredible cognitive benefits. Well, the best source of methyl in blue, Troscriptions.

1:16That's the only one we work with. So go check them out. Go to Troscriptions.com. That's T-R-O-S-C-R-I-P-T-I-O-N-S.com forward slash Mind Pump. Use the code Mind Pump. Get 10 % off. All right, real quick. If you love us like we love you, why not show up by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpumpstore.com? I'm talking right now. Hit pause. Head on over to mindpumpstore.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. When it comes to fitness, there's a widely held belief that you got to go to the gym. Look, it's not true. You can have an incredibly effective workout at home with no or little equipment.

1:56It's true. You just got to do it right. You got to plan it right, program it right, do the right thing. things but we're going to talk about that today how you can create the most effective workout that you do at home look how jack salas he's never been inside a gym not for a decade at least not for a long time it's been a long time since you've been in the gym i go to gyms all the time now well visits yeah that doesn't count like go to the gym oh yeah what in fact do you even have a gym membership somewhere i have several yeah i'm like you just you just i have one yeah i know we just donate we don't show up yeah i'm supporting the fitness that's it we're keeping them afloat no You know, there is a belief, right, that if you need lots of equipment and there's only so much you could do at home, which isn't true, and we're going to get into that.

2:39But I think that there's – I know this. I know this just through training people for so many years. There's a lot of advantages to having a good workout that you could do at home. One of them is just the convenience. That's a big one. It's a big time saver. When you look at the things that tend to get in the way initially of someone's consistency, because there's lots of reasons why people will stop working out. But the initial first hurdle is, ah, I got to drive somewhere. I got to go somewhere. And when you can get that out of the way, by the way, the data reflects this. The data shows that when people find a good workout that they could do at home or really close, that their consistency goes up quite a bit.

3:18And that's a big deal because consistency is the problem. It's not – all the other problems, let me put it this way, pale in comparison to the consistency issue. And trainers know this. This is what we've got to work on with our clients. So home workouts, if you can make it work with a good workout, which we'll talk about, they're great. I feel like especially in that beginning stage where you're really trying to kind of like tackle this and make this a lifestyle addition where you're consistently going and, you know, to have that one big barrier of like having to get in your car and then drive and then, you know, back and forth and then work, but then the kids and then, or this, all these things kind of erupted.

3:55So to just cut that out is, is pretty great way to streamline. Well, you guys, you guys converted me. Yeah. I mean, I, I, for, if you listen long enough, I was really staunch about the gym has to be the gym. Jim provides the energy and other people working out. And, and I like all that stuff and that hasn't changed. I still like all that stuff. I think to your point about the consistency and the convenience, the last decade of my training, I've really allowed these little workouts, little micro workouts, I'd even call them, where I only do one or two exercises. And I have to say this has been one of my best decades of overall health and fitness.

4:40I think I've been in greater peak shape, you know, bodybuilding when my whole life revolved around competing. But if I were to look at my life in decades, I'd say this has been one of the best decades of like just staying strong, balanced, mobile, having a decent amount of muscle in my body, metabolic, all the things. And I attribute a lot of that is shifting from being the hardcore gym guy to the guy who's like, I'll just go in the garage and do three sets of squats maybe. or maybe we'll get in the play around on the suspension trainer for a little bit and i think what a lot of that has to do with is in the past i wouldn't do that even with a close gym i had a gym that was really justified yeah i wouldn't get in a car and drive to the car to just do three sets of squats i needed to i needed to muster up the i'm gonna go do a workout or nothing and so and i think that's how you guys converted me was i realized like oh how many times i had probably talked myself out of going and working out because I wasn't in the mood for a 50 minute gym workout where when it, when I built it in my garage, it became this, like, I'm not in the mood for a 50, 50 minute workout, but you know what?

5:49I could go do some like suspension trainer stuff or, you know, I could go, I could go do a set of squats. And that has made all the difference when I look at the consistency over an entire decade. Here's another thing that a lot of people may not realize, but especially as a parent, I mean, that's a big hurdle is, is having kids and then finding someone to watch them. A lot of gyms offer daycare, what they'll call kids club, which is very valuable for gyms. They know this. But for some people, it's still difficult. When you work out at home, your kids hang around while you work out. And it's a great way for them to be positively influenced.

6:25It's awesome. Kids play while you do your set. Then you rest and you go hang out with them. And I know a lot of parents where this is what they do. My wife does this. My wife will work out. The kids go out with her in the garage. they ride their bikes or hang out with her and she gets a full workout um rather than having to worry about who's gonna watch the kids where i gotta put them and so just again it just gets rid of a lot of those barriers that tend to get in the way with people's i'm glad you said that too because i didn't even come top of mind for me but when i think about what a huge motivator um for the at-home workouts it's been really cool too and if you've followed me for a long time on Instagram you see I do videos clips all time of us as a family inside our garage working out and what a great way uh for my son to just see it like I don't tell him to work out I don't make him I don't mean he's just around it he's just around it and you know you when you're his age when you're you know three four five six years old you know I doubt you you connect the dots that when dad gets in the car and goes to the gym that he's going to a gym and working out I think there's probably a total different connection that he's going to have to seeing his dad and mom do things in the lift weights in the garage.

7:37And I mean, as parents, you know, how valuable what you do versus what you say is. And so it gives them that front row seat of, oh yeah, my mom and dad, they lift weights. They lift weights in the garage. And I love that because, and I'm not there yet where we're having that conversation, like some of you guys are with your teenagers and stuff but i believe that if he's around that for most of his life it won't be like this thing that i have to like hey you should go to the gym i think if it's a great relationship and dad has fun and mom has modeled yeah it's awesome right it's awesome right you know which brings us the first thing which is there's a lot of kind like different kinds of workouts you could do at home and most of the at-home workout programs uh that get sold to you are focused on these kind of like cardio-based circuit-type workouts where you're bouncing from one exercise to another and doing all this different stuff, which is fine, but if you want the most bang for your buck, if you want the best visible aesthetic changes, if you want the best fat-burning changes through faster metabolism, if you want to sculpt shape your body, if you really want to take the time and have like the best results, and we talk about this all the time, whether you go to a gym or not, Make it strength training focused.

8:56So that's got to be the first point here is you're going to do your workouts at home. Make sure it's a strength training workout that you do at home. Not a cardio workout, not a, you know, whatever workout. Strength training builds muscle. It helps the metabolism move in a way that allows you to burn more calories all the time. This makes it easier for you to get leaner. Causes positive hormone changes. You can shape and sculpt your body depending on what you're working on. It benefits any pursuit. That's right. That's right. So make it strength-focused. So if you're doing at-home workouts, the at-home workout, the crux of it, the focus of it, the cornerstone strength training, do that because it's going to get you the best results.

9:35Do you guys have a theory on why most of them suck? I think it requires good programming and creativity. And I also think that when you're selling, of all the workout programs that are sold, the worst programming programs, for people listening, programming refers to the workout itself. What's in the workout? The exercises, the sets, reps, the movements, that's considered the programming. The more you're selling to the masses, the worse the programming gets. So if you get a strength training program for Olympic athletes, they're typically pretty good. Or powerlifters, pretty good. But when they're selling Mrs.

10:11Johnson, who's watching late night TV and you want to give her a, you make it flashy, you call it something fun. It's an experience, right? And it's also like completely based around fatigue. That's right. How sweaty. How sweaty, how much you feel exhausted, which, you know, you guys and I know specifically, it does nothing for building strength. but the person that's going through it feels like they got some kind of benefit because their body was very uh tired and exhausted and you know sweaty and yeah they felt they felt all the feelings but they're not getting the results and so a true strength training program to have like you know all of that figured out rest periods tempo you know uh very very specific types of exercises that move the needle the most in terms of strength like i think that just isn't considered as much yeah i think i think this has a lot to do with marketing and i think one of the things that obviously we've learned in marketing is is keeping it very simple right simple and to the point and it's harder to convince the masses that uh less is more it's less exciting most people think that the harder it is the more work i do the more exercises i fit in the hour or the time frame the more valuable it possibly is and so this thing i just did this at-home workout i just bought the kicked my ass that was insanity or it was all these things like must be good because it's more of it versus knowing what's probably better for 90 of the population if not all the population for an at-home workout which is a couple of really good exercises done stay there yeah and that's it and just focused on strength with good rest periods where you focus on strength you build muscle it's not a lot it's pretty basic you know i'm saying but that's like what it should look like but that requires then i have to explain that or convince or educate the masses much easier to just they think this and so we'll sell them what they think that's right and so that's my theory on why there's such crappy program do you think like it would be in the best interest of someone who writes these programs to write programs that give the best results but the truth is very few people will be educated enough to understand that this is what's better for them it'd be easier to give it to more people who are don't understand and who cares if they get results or not because there's so many more of those people the short game is to capture people when they're motivated as many as possible and not care if they're consistent that's the short game a lot of money uh and you just cycle through that the long game is what you're saying more education you're not capturing as many people during that motivation stage because you're not naming it you know cowboy urban hip-hop workout class or whatever.

12:52Or 30 Days to Shreds. Yeah, but you're going to get better results over time. And over time, over years, you build reputation and that kind of stuff. Buns, guns, and biceps. But things are starting to change. I think people are a little bit more educated. We're still far away from where we need to be. But it's not as bad as it used to be. Now, the equipment that you would use for strength training at home, it can be body weight. Okay, so good bodyweight exercises are resistance training. It could be bands, resistance bands, that's resistance. It could be a suspension trainer. And then, of course, weights, dumbbells, barbells, at-home weights.

13:29Those are the types of equipment. It doesn't have to be all of them. It doesn't have to be just – it could be any of those. But with good programming, you've got yourself a good strength training routine. And you can choose any of those to do it. Yeah, I mean, this has changed a lot over the years with options, and definitely you can do a lot with body weight. Obviously, there's kind of a cap to that in terms of creativity and really being able to progress a lot of these movements. But, I mean, the suspension trainer is amazing for that because of, you know, how you can easily just get closer to the anchor point or away from it to really, like, add in that extra element of intensity and progression.

14:10but now we have things like prx or we have these fold out racks or things are convenient so it's not like you have to devote the entire garage you know you could actually still use it as a functional garage but now we can have weights and and it's like it's it's liberating you know i don't nothing gets better than the ability for you to use barbells and dumbbells but if you can't use barbells and dumbbells then the suspension trainers may be one of the best tools totally invented in our at least our career oh it's great i mean a beginner can use it and someone who's really advanced can use it you just change the angle yeah with one tool with one tool that you hit the entire inexpensive you put it in a drawer doesn't take up much space yeah you can it's they're secure you get a long ways a long way you get a long ways with a client with one simple tool right there which is just makes the entry level so cool yep i mean this it no matter where you're at in the journey or where your budget is at it's something that i can get you going in the right direction and then if i get that momentum behind it's like okay the investment in like you're saying a prx or a you know a foldable rack type of deal where i can actually get some barbells and dumbbells i mean you're good you're good you can build sculpt and have well with barbells and if you add barbells and dumbbells you're good forever that's really all you never need anything else yeah but for for a lot of people you could go for a year of consistent that workouts with good progress or two with suspension trainer alone without ever having to touch weights.

15:37So the next thing, you know, this is just, we'd have to spend a lot of time here, but isometrics done properly require nothing. And they're remarkable at strengthening the body. They're unpopular because it's hard to sell isometric. If I were to show you an isometric right now, it would just look like I'm straining. Like I'd get into position and I'd look like I'm straining. It doesn't look sexy. I can't sell an exercise. guys. But isometrics are... There's no movement to it. Yeah. And they can be as simple as holding yourself in a position. They can be pushing against an immovable object. They can be just tensing a muscle really hard for 15 seconds.

16:12Isometrics incorporated into a traditional strength training routine are amazing. And they produce phenomenal. In fact, if you compare all the forms of strength training, and I was doing it over short term, I just said, okay, I'm with the most strength gains in three weeks, isometrics wins. You plateau quickly, but in the first three weeks, it's like crazy strength gains. But my point with this is don't sleep on them. Incorporate them in your routine. It doesn't have to be your entire workout. You can sprinkle them in to really add that variety as well because that is a bit of a challenge when you're working out at home is having that access to variety.

16:48So one good way to do that is to change up the tempo or whatever movement that is, turn it into isometric exercise. If you don't have barbells and dumbbells, then between suspension trainer bands and isometrics, this is your three go-to tools that you can do to get a long ways. Totally. Now, here's a really important point here. If the biggest problem is consistency, which it is, this is the best consistency-solving problem I've ever encountered, aside from changing mindset and working with a personal trainer and all that stuff. It's this. rather than doing two 45-minute workouts or three 45-minute workouts at home a week, doing daily short workouts for 15 minutes, way better.

17:36For consistency, way better. By the way, the results are gonna be the same, maybe even better if we throw in the consistency problem. But it's the same, it's the same volume. 15 minutes every day or three workouts, 45 minutes, you add up all the exercise sets, reps, it's the same thing. But the daily consistency, first off, it's easy. It's easier for me to carve out 15 minutes than it is to carve out 45. Even if it's two days a week, 45 minutes can be difficult for some people to carve out. Number two, the daily habit builds quickly. It's just something I do every morning when I wake up or whatever.

18:10Number three, you miss a workout, you only miss 15 minutes. You miss a 45 minute workout, you missed a whole workout you missed a lot of exercises this little thing right here is one of the best ways to take your programming and dramatically improve its improvement uh make it make it improve its success rate this right here i mean this is to the point i was making that why i got so sold on having the gym at my house too it's just it's much easier uh to get up for two movements yep versus like oh man i gotta go to the gym and i got an hour hard workout it's like I don't feel like doing it's like I can get in there for 15 20 minutes and move and then you know see how I feel and then you like your point of you start stacking four five six days two weeks in a row before you know it like this becomes a habit really quick versus like oh two days a week those days change I get busy I move them and stuff like that and there's not a lot of consistency there I find clients that have a little of something to do every single day are far more consistent than the clients where I'm like yeah just pick two days because those two days tend to move around or bounce around and they end up building the rest of their life or the rest of their, they build their workouts around the rest of their life versus you build this, like I do this into your life.

19:20Yeah. Into your life. A hundred percent. Uh, now this next one is really important to just kind of understand. Everybody messes this one up. It's the 80, 20 rule with intensity. So intensity is how hard the workout is. 80 % of the time your intensity is moderate. What does that mean? It means it's hard, but it's not really hard, but it's hard. Most of the time, this is how your workout should feel. 20 % of the time, get after it. Okay, most people, they flipped it. Flipped, usually. Most people, especially when they first get started, they go as hard as they can until they're forced to go easy or take time off.

19:53Which inevitably causes burnout. That's right. The 80-20 rule maintains progress, prevents injury, prevents burnout, and it feels good. You should feel more energy from your workouts. You should not feel like you're wasted. You should feel better from your workouts. You should not feel like you got beat up. This little remember this, like most of the time, moderate intensity. And then every once in a while, when the stars align, I get good sleep and I feel good and I ate well and I'm well hydrated. I'm going to get after it. If you do this right here, you'll avoid so many problems. I know this is still a new concept for people because it took me a long time to adopt this mentality of, you know, really kind of flipping that protocol.

20:33So you do less intense and then like occasionally you do like the full max intensity. And I'm still getting into arguments with my friends about this. But once they figure it out, it's so liberating and you see actual progress and change because your body needs that time to recover. I think this is this is so difficult for people to actually do that. I would even say to urge even further on the moderate intensity side to like just going through the movements and practicing. There's so much value in going to the gym and just, I know you made the point of like, it's hard. It's just not really hard.

21:08It's like, you know, sometimes it doesn't have to be that hard. It's like, go there and practice the movement. Get good at the stuff. Like that you're going to get lots of benefits. You follow the exercises and make them somewhat challenging to where it's like you're doing, like you're not just doing nothing, right? You're doing something and practicing the movement. That's got value. You can always scale up. You can always increase intensity. And it's far better that you're consistent with it and you get good at the movements than if it was 5 % more intense. So I'd always rather have a client like, hey, just be consistent and practice the movements.

21:39We can play with the intensity. And so I think most people get this part wrong and think that it has to be so intense, that they have to be so sore, they have to break a sweat. When it's like, no, getting in there and moving the body and getting good at those movements is so valuable in itself, even with moderate to no intensity, just doing it. So it's like practice that. We can ramp up intensity. And so I would urge most people to even lean in that direction. Yeah. And lastly, and this is just to give you that motivation to, or should I say, increase the odds that you'll be motivated. Increase the odds that you'll feel inspired to give you that energy that you're looking for.

22:18This is to break up the day with what are called trigger sessions or little mini breaks of exercise. It's what it could look like. You're at your home desk. You're working. You look at your watch. watch, oh, I've been sitting here for two minutes. Let me stand up and let me do one set of bodyweight squats. Or let me get down the floor and do a few reps. Nothing crazy. Let me just do some push-ups. Or let me do some band rows. You do this two or three times throughout the day. Number one, you've increased your activity. Number two, this pairs so perfectly with your workouts that you're doing. It actually amplifies your workout's effectiveness.

22:49It facilitates recovery. But most importantly, number three, it does make you feel good. You get more energy. You're more fitness-minded. Moving throughout the day tends to correlate with better eating habits because, oh, I just did some squats. Let me eat something healthy. So this is just something I like to recommend to people who are at home a lot, especially stay-at-home moms or people who have a home office. Break up the day with little bouts of activity and trigger sessions. I think of it like the value of how we talk about 10-minute walks, but you're doing it with bands. Yes. You know what I'm saying?

23:17It's the same concept of how valuable just taking two or three 10-minute walks throughout the day. It's like how valuable it is. like let's say it's raining outside is to just get up and do these 10 minute trigger sessions with some bands i mean i used to love to we you know put the bands and hanging in the doorway somewhere visible where i could see it where it's like near my living room where it's like before i sit on the couch i'm going to do that thing or it's like if i've been sitting on there for more than a half hour hour i'm going to get up and do that thing or if i'm passing by the kitchen i'm going to do that like doing that throughout the day uh just like 10 minute walks I mean, you feel so much better.

23:51Oh, big time. Totally. Totally. Look, we have at-home 15-minute workouts. So it's 15 minutes a day. We have a variety of them, and all of them that you'll see on our site, MAPS15 Programs. So it's maps15programs.com. What you'll see is all of them have an at-home version, and they also all have, or most of them have, a gym version. So there's quite a few on there. the ones that don't have the at-home version are Performance and Muscle Mommy is that what that is? The rest of them all have an at-home version so there's a bunch of MAPS 15 programs you can do from home and they're all 50 % off because of this episode so go to MAPS15programs.com use the code HOME and you'll get 50 % off by the way you can buy all of them that code works for all of them so go check them out thank you for listening to Mind Pump if your goal is to build and shape your body dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com.

24:52The RGB Super Bundle includes MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, and MAPS Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, The RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family.

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