Three exercises got me in the best shape of my life. Here’s how I created my own minimalist workout plan, and how you can develop your own, too.

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When I was a stay at home dad, it was a constant struggle to get a decent workout.

One kid was chill and could handle playing with toys while I trained. But, the second kid needed my attention for … something.

I tried hiring coaches to help, and their advice was to “Work out when the kids were napping.”

Tell me you don’t have kids without telling me you don’t have kids.

Because if you had kids, you’d know that nap time was my time to actually get 20-30 minutes to myself for thinking clearly and maybe catching up on work.

Not to mention, the last thing I needed was to be grunting through a set and coming perilously close to waking up the sleeping kid.

Time was limited.

And because I trained at home, equipment was limited, too.

We won’t even get into the lack of space in my teeny, tiny, closet-sized Brooklyn apartment, either.

With so much working against me, my passion for fitness was more like a chore.

I hated my workouts.

They fell into three camps:

• Fast-paced metabolic resistance training style (think similar to CrossFit stuff);
• Repping out a bunch of exercises with adjustable dumbbells that didn’t challenge me enough;
• Or getting into high-skilled calisthenics training, like 1-arm chin ups, that would eventually wreck my wrists and elbows with tendonitis.

It was up to me to go to the lab and start figuring out a better solution for myself.

And the result was developing a system that allowed me to cut my workout time down to just 20-25 minutes tops.

• No fancy gym membership.
• No need for a ton of equipment.
• No more stressing over whether I can fit my workout into my day.

As a result, I’ve been more consistent than ever.

And that consistency has paid off into some of the best results that I’ve ever realized.

The secret was to simplify everything down to the variations of just three exercises:

• Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Squats

Here’s how I managed to simplify my workouts down to just three exercises and how those three exercises helped me get into the best shape of my life.

Let’s get into it.

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The advantage of creating your own

minimalist workout plan

Think about the total amount of time you spend on that gym workout.

• Getting dressed (and layering up if you’re in the winter months);
• Driving or commuting or walking;
• Getting settled at the gym, saying hi to your buddies, trainers, and the front desk crew;
• Hitting your workout;
• Reversing the commute and heading home (or straight to the office).

There’s at least 20-30 minutes in there of dead space that just eats into your day.

As a result, if work or parenting hits the fan, the first thing that’s falling off of your calendar is the session at the gym.

We haven’t even addressed the cost.

A decent gym membership will charge you a few hundred dollars per year (whether you are going consistently or not).

Here in Brooklyn, a decent gym membership runs upwards of $200 to $300 per month.

With minimalist training, all you need is to invest in a piece of equipment that allows you to hang.

I have a door frame pull-up bar that costs like $50 on Amazon.

Sure, I have some other toys (like adjustable dumbbells and a heavy kettlebell), but I hardly ever break those out.

And if you can’t do pull-ups, at least grab something like a set of gymnastic rings or a TRX suspension trainer so you can perform bodyweight rows.

That’s it.

No more costly memberships that require Congressional approval just to cancel.

Why start training with minimalist movements?

It’s all about cutting out the excess and maximizing the essential. The goal is to apply the minimum effective dose to your workouts so you are more efficient with the limited time you have available.

In his book, The 4 Hour Body, Tim Ferriss popularized this concept with the perfect analogy.

Think about a pot of boiling water:

“To boil water, the minimum effective dose is 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) at standard air pressure. Boiled is boiled. Higher temperatures will not make it ‘more boiled.’ Higher temperatures just consume more resources that could be used for something else more productive.”

This is the whole idea of why developing your own minimalist workout program is the future of fitness. Especially for the regular person that just wants to be a little healthier, a little less fat and little stronger.

But unfortunately, most fitness trainers and coaches are all about optimizing everything with their own nutrition and exercise regimes.

As a fellow coach, I get it. It’s really fascinating to us. So we’ve studied the research, read the text books, attended the conferences with other coaches and got sucked into the fitness bubble.

It’s our passion to learn and absorb and apply what we’ve learned to finally crack the proverbial nut and reveal the best physique imaginable.

Because we get so passionate about this stuff, we incorrectly assume that you want the same.

That you want the perfect exercise that hits all angles of your pectoral muscles while squeezing every ounce of potential hypertrophy out of it.

And that you want a specialized, science-backed meal plan that tells you the exact protein-to-carb ratio for the anabolic window after training.

This is not the case.

Most people just want to lose a few pounds, feel a little better and be able to keep up with their kids at the playground.

We don’t have time to think about the perfect workout split or macronutrient ratio.

You just want the very basics to finally get in shape and stay that way.

A workout program is something that you can do and then get on with your day.

To look pretty decent when you’re nekkid.

You want to have enough energy to play with your kids, and set a healthy example for them.

To feel better and just be able to function like a human and not some sedentary robot.

And to be able to unload groceries, haul suitcases up and down stairs, and bend over to put on your shoes well into your late stages.

Achieving those things is 100-percent possible without spending all day in the gym.

In reality, all you need is an exercise routine that’s simple. One that’s not flashy.

Skip the “most optimal way to train” and find a system that allows your workouts to be efficient and effective.

That’s what my minimalist strength training system is all about: efficiency and efficacy.

The gym is unnecessary.

Bodyweight training will finally lead to the results that have escaped you for so long

Minimalist, bodyweight workouts provide several unique advantages over the more traditional gym programming.

You’ll save time

Compound calisthenics and bodyweight movements hit the entire body so your workout can be short, yet still effective.

We’ve also covered the time spent commuting to/from the gym. That’s a thing of the past if you choose to train at home (which is exactly what I do).

Simplifies your training

There’s less variety. You don’t have 437 different exercises to choose from for just your chest day sessions.

No more second guessing and unnecessary fluff.

You’ll follow a few standard progressions that allow you to continue seeing results for a long time with just a few movement patterns per workout.

My training is now down to just three exercises per session. It’s all about the progressions on the push-up, pull-up/chin-up and the squat/lunge/hinge.

If I ever want to emphasize something a bit more, I’ll add another progression in my next workout phase (every 6-8 weeks).

Better intensity

Fewer exercises means more focus and maximum effort on the movement patterns you prioritize.

Saves money

Gym memberships can run hundreds, in some cases even thousands of dollars per year.

Some gyms here in NYC cost upwards of $300 per month.

Training at home? Free.

Less equipment

You’re not only saving money from gym memberships, but also on stuff.

All you need to get started with a minimalist approach to bodyweight training is something to hang from (for pull-ups).

If you cannot do a pull-up to start, then rings or a TRX suspension trainer (or something similar) is a great way to get started by emphasizing rows until you can execute a pull-up.

Improved recovery and mobility

Bodyweight training tends to promote better execution through deeper ranges of motion.

In other words, you’re more likely to learn how to get deeper and lower into your squat if it is bodyweight focused and you’re not loading a barbell on your back.

There’s less chance for injury with standard (“lower skill”) bodyweight calisthenics training as opposed to higher skill stuff (like the planche and handstand) and even with the heavy equipment in the gym.

Increased consistency

Workouts are shorter, there’s no need to travel to the gym, the equipment setup is minimal.

There are very few excuses keeping you from getting that workout in.

Motivation be damned when you have a system in place as foolproof as this approach to fitness.

How to develop your own minimalist strength training program

The beauty of training in this way is the simplicity and the flexibility.

Once you learn the general structure of things and understand the basic principles, you can then adapt your workouts to fit your schedule and lifestyle.

Structure promotes freedom.

As a general rule, you’ll want to stick to the big movement patterns. As human beings, we move in pretty basic, yet specific ways:

• We push things;
• We pull things;
• We squat down;
• We pick things up (hinge at the hips);
• We lunge;
• We carry things.

Your workout doesn’t have to be any more complicated than something that mimics those core movements.

Start by picking your variations.

Keep things as simple and basic as possible. You’ll pick a pull-up, a push-up and a squat variation that works for you.

If you cannot execute at least 5 reps of a variation with good, clean form, then you’ll want to find an easier progression.

For example: Alex can hit 3-4 pretty decent chin-ups.

Before programming sets of chin-ups, I’d advise starting with an easier progression, like a bodyweight row for a couple of weeks.

Alex can practice chin-ups as a finisher or an accessory, but the rows will provide a bit more bang for Alex’s buck to start.

After a few weeks, Alex should test his chin-ups again. If there’s an improvement to five or more reps, then Alex can start including the chin-up in the next phase.

Maybe you can’t quite get deep enough in your squat.

No worries, start with a box squat for a few weeks with the goal of lowering the box you’re squatting on.

How many sets per workout?

I like to think of total sets per week instead of per workout.

You’ll want to aim for at least 10 sets per movement pattern (so 10 sets of a pull variation, 10 sets of a push variation, 10 sets of a squat/leg exercise variation per week).

Note: per week means you can perform all 10 in one day (yikes) or two sets per weekday or however you’d like to do it as long as you get to the 10 total per push, pull and legs.

If you prefer a bit more volume and your body is handling it well in terms of injury prevention and overall energy levels, perform more sets.

But, there’s no need to advance to more than 20 sets per movement pattern per week. That leads to overkill, overtraining and eventual injury.

The choice is yours and doesn’t matter as long as you are executing with good form and getting close to your failure point.

Test your max reps

Test how many reps you can do of each movement variation. Write this down.

Now execute your daily/weekly sets and reps with good form, trying to aim for a rep target pretty close to that rep max.

• Most days you’ll be around 2-3 reps shy of that max goal;
• Some days you’ll be more like 1 rep shy of that max;
• Try not to go more than 4-5 reps shy of it to make sure you’re still actively recruiting the muscle;
• After about 3-4 weeks, test your max again.

As you improve and get stronger, you can slowly start adding variety to your movements in terms of progressions:

• Pull-ups can turn to Chin-ups or you can change your grip (wide grip, narrow grip, etc);
• Push-ups can turn to Dips and Pike or Handstand Push-up progressions (if you’re so inclined);
• Squats can lead to lunges, step-ups, hip thrusts.

Once you get around 15 good quality reps, think about adding resistance with a backpack full of books or even invest in a weighted vest.

If this sounds super simple, it’s because it is. That’s the whole freakin’ point.

Traditional trainers pack your sessions with fluff because they’ve been brought up in a system that requires filling an entire hour for clients.

Most trainers lack the skills to remove the excess and whittle these routines down to the absolute necessities.

When your schedule is jam packed with work, parenting, creating content and everything in between, the last thing you need is a training schedule that adds more filler to your day.

That’s why it’s time to adopt a more minimalist strength training approach. Get in. Get it done. Get back to your busy schedule knowing you still handled your business and improved your fitness.

My minimalist workout plan change my life, my hope is that it can change yours, too … 

I put together a guide to get started with minimalist training in a unique system that I call “Microworkouts.” It’s a concept of performing bouts of exercise throughout your day instead of all at once in a longer session.

It’s time efficient and perfect if you’ve got a packed schedule causing anxiety over when you can consistently train.

You can grab that download for free by simply clicking on this link.

Of course, this is not personalized to you.

For that, you’d want to work with me where I develop your own personal bodyweight minimalist strength training routine along with added nutritional support and accountability.

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I hope you found this helpful. If you’ve been on the fence about training at home and getting into bodyweight style workouts, let this be the guide that finally gets you taking action.

If you know anyone who’d find this interesting, make sure to send them here.

And of course, I always value your feedback, so hit me up with any comments, questions or just stories about your own training experience.

I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Minimalist workout plan” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Until next time,
Pete