Two Minute Workout For Free

Do you want to get stronger, lose fat, put on muscle, but don’t have time and seriously lack motivation?  

What if I told you that you can exercise for less than two minutes in total per day, using nothing but your body weight, without changing your diet, and you will gain strength and lose fat.  The best part is you can do this workout completely for free!  

Most people consider doing exercise, but don’t have time. Most advice is that you will regret it if you don’t make the time now, or that everyone can spare X amount of time a day. More often than not this demotivates people who really are time poor as X tends to be rather optimistic and considerably underestimated. 

Sadly most of those shorter workouts tend to focus on losing weight rather than getting stronger.  Skinny fat people like me need to focus on gaining strength and losing fat around their organs. When a skinny fat person gets stronger they lose visceral fat, focusing on losing weight is counterproductive as sometimes skinny fat people gain weight as they lose fat and put on muscle.  

Early in the year 2020 I started a 2 minute workout. This was less than two minutes (non-consecutive minutes) in total each day. This could be achieved in several sessions of less than a minute spread throughout the day, using no equipment, no getting into/out of gym clothes or desperately needing a shower afterwards, and the difference it made to me physically was impressive. 

What is the catch

The catch is that you have to do this every day for thirty consecutive days to see an improvement.  

The first few days will be difficult but the improvement you will see after 10 days will be impressive, the difference you will see after the full thirty days is something you will have to see to believe.   You may as well try this, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

12 year old son doing push ups

How this started for me

Early in the year 2020 we were stuck inside the house as there were bushfires everywhere and the smoke made the air quality horrendous. I was very unfit and in a lot of pain due to various injuries I sustained 20 or so years ago. I was watching youtube videos with my kids (mostly of Russian folk songs) and we somehow watched someone do 100 push ups a day for 30 days. I wrote another post on my attempt at this. 

This was the start of my 2 minutes of exercise 30 day challenges. 

I live in a climate that is hot over spring/summer and cold over autumn/winter. The few nice days we have are usually filled with doing chores, or relaxing, rather than wanting to exercise. I have a job that requires me to commute for about an hour each way. I have young children. I don’t have much time left over in which to exercise. 

All of the '15 minute workouts' I have seen require equipment, and I would need to get changed, and I need to have a shower afterwards, meaning it takes about an hour all up. I don’t have that much time, and I dare say neither do you. I am also in pain pretty much all the time due to some old injuries from a car accident years ago so I really don't want to exercise.  This made exercise that requires no equipment which takes less than two minutes a day and is completely free pretty ideal.

Some of the changes I noticed after completing my first 30 day challenge, apart from getting far stronger, was that my body appeared more toned and less ‘middle agey’, even though I was skinny I lost fat (I went down a belt notch in one month, and a second belt notch the second month), I put on muscle, my shoulders and arms didn’t get much bigger but they changed shape and were more defined, walking around didn’t hurt so much, sitting at my desk didn’t hurt so much, my heart stopped skipping beats as often, my blood sugars became more level, doing day to day things like getting dressed hurt less, playing with my kids became easier and more enjoyable, and somehow my blood cholesterol levels dropped.  

This was all from two non-consecutive minutes of strength exercise.  You should commit to doing this for thirty days and see the changes for yourself.  Also, did I mention that this requires no equipment and is free?  

There are some things to keep in mind to get the most out of your time.

No excuses

I know if I can find an excuse not to do exercise, then I won’t do any exercise ever. Perhaps you are the same. 

If I mow the lawn I don’t want to do any exercise that day because I will convince myself that I have already done exercise. If I stack firewood I don’t want to do any exercise that day. If it is cold or hot or windy or I had a rough day at work or it is Christmas or I did exercise yesterday or I need to wash my hair (the list goes on and on) then I convince myself that I don’t have to do any exercise that day. 

Thirty day challenges where I only exercise for two minutes in total (not necessarily consecutive minutes) helps me do away with my excuses.  It is less than two minutes, and I can do this in dribs and drabs throughout the day.  

You can commit to doing this for thirty days straight!  No excuses, just get it done.  Thirty days will be over before you know it, so be strong and just get it done.

Set minimum numbers

The first number I set was a ‘daily minimum’, this was the minimum number of push ups (or whatever) that I had to do each day. No excuses, no rest days, I had to reach this minimum. 

The second was a ‘set minimum’, this was the lowest number I could do in a set that would count towards my daily minimum. I had to reach these numbers, no excuses.

The best part of setting minimums is that you have to reach them but you can do extras. I know myself, I would convince myself to do double one day and have the next day off, defined minimums prevent me from cheating. 

I can do double or even more one day, but I still have to do my minimums the following day. Strangely enough I found that I always do extras, sometimes only 1 or 2, often I do considerably more. 

Setting minimums prevents me from cheating, and has meant that I keep striving to do better.  This helps me to get stronger faster.  Write your minimums down somewhere, it will help you keep motivated when doing exercise seems stupid and you really can't be bothered to do this anymore.

Struggling through my minimums

My first 30 day challenge

At the start I was unfit and struggled even getting down to or up from the floor. I had 100 push ups as my day minimum, and 25 as my set minimum. I was doing four sets of 25 push ups throughout the day, taking less than two minutes in total. 

At that time I was working from home, so between meetings if I had spare time I would push out a set. At the end of each set of 25 I was trembling and felt like I was going to vomit, so I needed considerable rest time between sets. I pushed through and usually did more than my minimums. 

I got a lot stronger pretty quickly because I did my challenge minimums each day, no exceptions.  The difference in my strength from doing less than two minutes of exercise per day for thirty days was almost unbelievable.  You need to try this, you have nothing to lose and it is only thirty days!

My second 30 day challenge

The next 30 day challenge (I do them back to back with no rest days in between) I was a lot stronger so decided on 150 as my daily minimum, and 50 as my set minimum. I had drastically increased my strength so was able to increase my minimums.

When you can't go on, do something else

At the end of my second 30 day challenge I had an injury to my wrist (not from push ups), which meant I should not do push ups. This made me add a ‘tweak’ where I could substitute one exercise for another if I was hurt or sick. 

The substitute exercise does not have to use the same muscle group, you could exchange push ups for squats if you hurt your elbow or something.  The numbers don't have to be the same, it only has to be as difficult for you to complete this.  The whole idea is to build strength.  If you give up you will lose strength, if you train a different muscle group you will gain strength in a different area.  Never give up, if you can't go on due to injury just train something else.

My next challenge was sit ups as I could not do push ups and I didn't want to do squats. My minimums were 50 per day or 25 per set. It really didn’t take long before I could do a whole lot more than this. 

My future challenges ether had one exercise or a combination of exercises, all of which could be completed with no equipment in under two minutes. I will provide some examples below.

Your progress will be astounding 

When I started these challenges a set of 25 push ups left me shaking and out of breath, and I struggled to do 100 across the day. After my first day I was hurting badly.  

Now I am able to do ten times that number (I am currently doing 250 per set and 1,000 in a day) and I feel fine the next day, this is taking me more than 2 minutes to do such high numbers but I that is a story for another time.  I am only mentioning this to show you much stronger you can get simply from these less than two minute workouts for thirty days.

The important part of 2 minute workout is that to make gains you need to do them every day for at least 30 days. To ensure that you do this you need to set rules otherwise you will convince yourself that you deserve a day off. These rules must be inflexible or when times are tough you will cheat. 

If you cheat you will be wasting your time and will make no progress.

Here are the rules that I follow.

My rules:

1) Never miss a day - this is thirty consecutive days, no lies, no excuses

2) Exercise can be done in one go or in small sets throughout the day - this can change from day to day as long as your minimums are always reached

3) Know the end date of the 30 day challenge - If you are like me your mind will always tell you to give up, it is easier to keep going if you are working towards an end date

4) Minimums can be as low as they need to be - this is not a competition, you are trying to gain strength

5) Write down your 'set minimums' before the challenge – this prevents you from cheating

6) If you collapse before reaching your set minimum it is not counted towards the day total

7) Write down the 'day minimums' before the challenge - aim to exceed this every day even if just by one

8) You can (and should) exceed your minimums, but they don’t count towards tomorrow’s minimums

9) Only one ‘tweak’ allowed per challenge – if your minimums are unachievable, or you get an injury, you are not cheating if you use the tweak. You only have one per challenge so try not to use it at all

Set whatever rules work for you, but the rules above work well for me so I have been using them since January 2020.  After more than two years of continuous 30 do challenges I am yet to use my 'tweak'.  No one is checking in on you, set your rules and get it done.  If you cheat you are wasting your time.

I like exercises that can be completed in under two minutes in total, and require no equipment.  If you have equipment that is great, but not using equipment means you can complete your exercise anywhere and any time that you have free throughout the day.  

If it is hot or cold or rainy or you go away on holidays or you go away on a work trip you can still complete your minimums if they require no equipment.  If you need free weights or a chin up bar there will be times where you can't use these, and that is often the beginning of an excuse to stop training.

Some ideas for your two minute exercise challenges include one or several of the following:

Push ups: a great strength exercise that is underrated. Aim for 100 or more per day, if you are really unfit you could start with low 'set minimum' of 10 and a 'daily minimum' of 40. Focus on correct form rather than striving for higher numbers. It will be hard at the start, but you can reach 30 days!

Push up variations: these come later and can work on various different muscle groups. Focus on regular push ups before even thinking about doing any variations.

Sit ups: another great exercise. Aim for 100 per day. If you are unfit try a set minimum of 5 and a day minimum of 20. Make it difficult but achievable for you, if your minimums are too low you can always do extras!

Forearm planks: these look easy but are really difficult. Start with something like 25 seconds per set and 1 minute total across the day. If you only do forearm planks for one challenge then it is only one minute per day, you can do that for thirty days!

Straight arm planks, or other plank variations: do whatever variation you feel up to, write your minimums and try to exceed them even by one second. There are endless planking variations and most build strength for more impressive strength exercises (like human flag).

Squats: these are great for legs. Do some beforehand to get a feel for where to set your minimums. Your legs will be like a cross between jelly and a sewing machine until you get more used to these.  Don't go too low or you may damage your knees.  You can even do these in the lift at work.

Star jumps: this is one of the few aerobic exercises you can do in a short amount of time.  I am not sure if I know anyone who can do two minutes of continuous star jumps.

Reverse Snow Angels: these are harder than you think.  You don't need to do many of these to gain strength in a wide range of muscle groups. Completing them every day for thirty days will give you huge benefits.

Shadow Boxing: another aerobic exercise. I know very few people who can honestly do 1 minute of continuous shadow boxing.  

 

Note: If you have access to weights or a chin up bar or whatever you have a lot of other options, but they were not the purpose of this post. I will also write future posts on using skinny fat people using weights to increase strength.

The takeaway message here is you need to decide on your minimums before your challenge begins, write them down so you can’t cheat, and push through them for 30 long days no matter what. 

Do this properly and you will get impressive results, do this half-heartedly and you won't.  It really is that simple.

If you only have 30 seconds here and there throughout the day you can still get a lot stronger. If you are skinny fat focus on gaining strength, ignore your weight, you will lose fat as you gain muscle and the difference after thirty days will be impressive.