There are numerous blogs that discuss nutrition and fitness. Many of which fall into the same camp as me, which is a lower carbohydrate mostly paleo approach. If I had to name one thing that was different about me is that I first and foremost take the Minimal Effort approach.
Minimal Effort means discovering what is the least effort, least time commitment and least cost one can invest to achieve their health goals. This is why I diss cardio and the “go big or go home” attitude. Can you get super healthy and lean training like a triathlete? Absolutely. But what happens when you get injured or you’re forced to work longer hours or family commitments increase? You know what happens. The walking population is full of once athletic young people that can no longer devote the time to getting healthy like they did when they were younger.
Hiking in San Diego (Mt. Woodson)
I am interested in discovering the minimal effort it takes to achieve optimal health goals. Most of the experts peddle too much complexity. Too much exercise, too much equipment and too many supplements. Instead of empowering people to make slow gradual permanent steps toward better health, the fitness industry attacks their insecurities and converts them into consumers of programs that just yield short term gains. Then they let them fail and then sell them again.
You can be lean and healthy with minimal exercise, gear and supplements. Moving toward simplicity will yield greater results than complexity. It may or may not take longer, but the results will be permanent. The is the core message of my fitness and nutrition posts.
Completely agree. It’s about a sustainable lifestyle rather than the quick results.
Awesome – I am not a big commentor but find your exercise and nutrition post really inspiring and realistic.
I always love to see a new post from you
This made me think of Why Good Programmers Are Lazy and Dumb.
It also reminds me of the aphorism “Work smarter, not harder.”
And, the KISS principle — “Keep it simple, stupid.”
Good stuff MAS.
[...] have the luxury of dialing in the weight across multiple sets. My training philosophy is the Minimal Effort Approach. As long as I feel I’m moving in the right direction, I wont try and complicate things. [...]
[...] Another straw man argument will be that Boot Camp training is better than nothing. This is pure silliness as it defines the world as having two options: extreme or nothing. A better discussion would be the sustainability of any training program. How realistic is it that someone continues the commitment in time and money to a given program? People tend to imagine that they will be highly committed to a program and then weeks later when life interrupts their plans or the results aren’t coming, they have to quit the program. At my core, I am a strong believer in The Minimal Effort Approach. [...]