The only workout I do now (takes 40 min)

Earlier this year, I set out to answer one question. How can I get better results in less time at the gym? As a busy dad, business owner, and someone who likes to explore new hobbies, I wanted to make progress without spending five days a week at the gym. That question brought me to Eugene Teo, a strength coach known for cutting through the noise and helping people train smarter. Over one week, he gave me a crash course in minimalist training and introduced me to a custom two-day program he built just for me. Each day is a full-body workout built around minimalist principles, intentional exercises, maximal effort, workouts that you can finish in less than 40 minutes. So we've got a 12 minute timer. Every two minutes on the minutes, we're gonna be doing five reps, five reps. Eugene's philosophy pulls inspiration from a range of disciplines, from bodybuilding to powerlifting and even CrossFit. Rather than focusing on just one outcome, like getting stronger, his method aims to develop five core areas. Hypertrophy, strength, power, mobility, and endurance. In this video, I'm gonna be sharing both full body workouts in their entirety the first time Eugene shared them with me. The workouts are broken up into four main sections. The warmup, which helps your body get moving. The main work, which is heavy focus lifts. Swole and flexi, which is targeted mobility and hypertrophy work. And accessories, finishing touches to strengthen weak links. If you wanna swipe these workouts for yourself, you can take a screenshot now. Our hope is to give you as much free content as possible to help you on your fitness journey. For those who wanna go deeper, Eugene and I teamed up to create an ebook and 12-week training program that builds on the free workouts you'll see today. And for the first two weeks of launch, we're offering a special bundle. You'll get access to four programs, a two-day, three-day, four-day, and five-day split, all for one price. That's 70% off until the launch period ends. These programs not only give you more training options based on how much time you have. They also introduce periodization, gradually layering in new movements and lifts to help you hit the key goals of the program over 12 weeks. I think one of the most helpful things about this program is that there are demo videos for every single exercise and alternative movements for each lift, which I found very helpful when the gym is busy and all the machines I want to use are taken. As a bonus, we're also sharing extended interviews, excerpts, and my eight-week follow-up after using the program where we talk about some of the specific challenges changes that have helped me to adapt this program for at home. When you purchase within the first week of launch, you get four programs for the price of one. After this, you can still get all the programs, but you'll have to purchase them separately at full price. So if you want to get started today, simply go to mattdiavella.com slash lift. That's mattdiavella.com slash lift. So excited to help you guys on your fitness journey. Most people are going to be skipping warmups because I say this is something you sort of do to get yourself ready for the workout. But So if you feel like I'm born ready, you just want to skip it. I look at it a little bit differently. I look at it as yes, you want to get your body just prepared for lifting, but we want to look at what's the actual workout going to be today. And how can we strategically use this five minute period to not just get you warm, but to prepare certain tissues. We want ankles today. We want your hips. We want your lower back prepared for squatting. So to start with, we're going to do some very, very basic plyometrics, some pogos. Hands on your hips and you're hopping up and down just on the spot. this does progress over time to things like split stance. You might be traveling and you might even start like bounding up with it as well. 20 up and down on this one. Good height. Really good. Nice. Easy. I'll come back to that in a sec, but for now, let's get you moving into some ab work. Abs, core, hip flexors, very neglected by a lot of people when it comes to improving hip mobility. But what we're going to do is lock yourself in here. The further back you lean, the higher this is going to be. So start pretty high, legs pointed, pull your knees in towards the chest as much as you can and stretch back out. Simple move. But again, there are layers that we'll work with over time. And then how slow am I going with this? I want slow. Okay. It's all about control and finding this deep range of hip flexion. If you can imagine now that position at the top where your knees are in, that's where you're going to be in the bottom of the squat. Yep. So we need to get you used to that. We've got to get your brain connecting with that and all these tissues used to pulling you into the bottom of the squat. Yeah, so breathe. We're doing about 10 to 15 reps here. Okay. Keep drawing your belly button down towards your spine. All right. We don't need much rest here, so we're gonna go straight back to the pogos. One small critique is when you were jumping, this isn't necessarily wrong, but when you came down, you were landing on your toes. Yeah. Okay, and sort of like having very slow, soft landings. i want a bit more aggression and snap behind them so imagine trying to slap your toes to the ground every time which gives you more of a rebound yeah which is going to give us give you that tendon stiffness okay top a little power transfer long term okay hands on my hips yes yes perfect nice nice done i can't help but think of somebody going to the gym for the first time doing a pogo like I've never done this at the gym and I've never seen anybody do it before is this something that's pretty common no it's not yeah it's not and that's why a lot of injuries are very common yeah a lot of people yeah power explosiveness specific tendon work like this it's seen a lot in our flag development so you'll see a lot of football teams in their off and preseason doing a lot of this kind of work to different levels and that's why they stay so powerful and for the most part given the sports of course injury free yeah but for the general populace don't do it we're gonna add a weight this time yes sir it's in between your ankles okay I should do good really control that position that that's where it's gonna be the hardest we leave the longest breathe out there nice that's really gonna wake up hip flexors the core muscles and help you connect a lot of your breath as you're doing now which is perfect. Perfect. So there's warm up. One more round. Perfect. Turn it off here. The beauty of something like this though is it cuts down a lot of the warm time we'd need on the actual main movements. Now we're on to the real work. The real exciting part of the workout. So movements you'll be more familiar with but these are the financial building blocks. We're going with the squat. We're going with the overhead press. Today, we're going with the barbell squat and a seated on the floor Zed press. But these, again, can be exchanged. If you don't want to do a barbell squat or you like a certain position, like a front or a Zercher position, instead, ice pick whatever is suitable for you. Yeah, it's just like the movement is the squat. Yes. That's what we're looking. Yeah, could be dumbbell loaded as well. Instead of doing a traditional three, four sets of maybe eight to 10 reps, which would take quite a long time without necessarily giving us the most bang for our buck, We're gonna be putting you against the clock today. Okay. So we're gonna set the timer for 12 minutes. We're gonna start it straight away. Yeah. But every two minutes, we're gonna be doing a set of five here and a set of five on the overhead press. And we'll gradually warm up till maybe set three or four out of the six total, where you'll find a real working weight. Yeah. We'll err on the side of caution, like 70 to 80 kilos tops, just because of the incomplete rest you're going to have here and the accumulation of work, as opposed to just the one hard set, it'll feel very different. But also if we undershoot the nature of this set progression as you'll find, we can go heavier. And next week we'll go heavier and we'll find that limit for you anyway. It's never about the one session. It's more about the long-term roadmap we're building for ourselves. Okay. We're not gonna count this set because I just wanna first see how you move. Such focus. Oh, nice. what i'm just starting the timer okay let's do it starting the clock from there yeah i had a little bit of training before yeah i think you saw that i have a seat on the floor for me i'm only past a pair of these dumbbells yeah all right i've never done overhead press from a seated position yeah so i'll come into why we do it in a moment can i just bring up to your shoulders let's press overhead okay yeah it's quite uncomfortable isn't it yeah very much from a stability perspective you might even find like your lower back isn't as comfortable right now yeah or your hips cool all right let's load up more for the step two first set should feel very much like a warm-up yeah nice punch up strong perfect so this set i'd like you to face that way okay so your butts your butts up on the bench here or the platform but your legs are off the edge okay this will place less of a demand on your hip mobility yep make it more comfortable let's go ahead here as well It's good things. Oh, you're right into it too, right? Yeah, right into it. Okay. That's a better spot. Yeah, good. I think lift the chest crown of the head proud to the ceiling. I've done a lot of overhead press before but it just felt like my arms were like kind of popping and it was like moving in a bit of a position that I've never felt before. Often when you're doing an overhead press like seated on a bench or even standing you'll compensate by leaning back a lot and really arching your back. Oh, I mean sometimes I'm even like your leg back as well yeah the back which is awesome movement great for your shoulder great for your upper body strength yeah so is this though but this also challenges the mobility which will improve every time you got 10 seconds my friend oh my god okay do we need to add more weight on yeah let's just go to 80. so set three this is where it's going to start to get pretty close to your max of what we're going to be using for the next few sets sure we might do smaller jumps from here if we need to okay punch it yes good big breath perfect powerful easy oh super A superset, you will probably lose some weight in terms of performance, but not a lot. Not a lot. Because these are not conflicting muscle groups. I'm just buying time. You really are. But it doesn't matter because it means you get less rest of all the squats, so you're fucked either way. Starting to feel it. Starting to question life choices. Yeah. Nice one. Good. Heels down hard, punch up strong. Awesome, open your hips up as you come down. Knees out, up. Good work. Right into it. Try this for me, instead of being out here by sides, tuck your elbows in a bit more. Almost a neutral grip. Yeah, I think that's actually gonna be harder. Okay. But let me try. Yeah. Do I, am I rotating? If you want to, if it's a half bit, yeah. Push, good. Nice, have a good leg. Yeah, glad we went up. Yeah, yeah. That was a lot better. Yeah. Neutral grip, it's overhead mobility. When your palms face forwards, you're gonna be a little more restricted. The second you bring your arms out like that, it's easier to access overhead range. Yeah, okay. So that was where I was thinking, maybe we could open up a little bit more. Yep. But it can also be quite challenging if you're not used to it. This is probably the hardest part of the programming in terms of like intensity. Yes, you'll be lifting heavy. You see, this will be the most challenging thing to get through. Something like the squat is taking a little bit longer than it should because you've got a very elaborate Oh, do you know who trained me? Yeah, yeah. You've been trained by Bath too, haven't you? It's very familiar to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So is there, what's the alt route that you would take for that? Just don't do that. But yeah, but like- Or there are other exercises that require less of that setup, which creates your dumbbell lunge, something you just lock in, lift right away. Right. I mean, you have to step back. Yes. But I don't have to be pop, pop, pop. Yeah. It's just boom, boom, boom, go. kind of technique is very important when you're lifting your one rep max yeah when you're going towards like your five to eight ish rep max in a time limited setting it's not as relevant yeah but it may also just be different movements maybe better choices for you gotcha because of your experience okay yes good keep your heels down hips back up awesome range good one yes nice one awesome that will do one more round to go i'll give you a full minute before we go for that one when we were talking about this program before you mentioned how you are trying to incorporate some kind of conditioning into weight training which i never had heard of before never thought that you could kind of combine the two of them together yeah even if we're doing two separate kind of goals of endurance and weight training kind of at the same time you're going to make less strength gains and less cardio gains you're still making gains yeah i would never recommend this to a powerlifter yeah or if your goal was to get as big as possible this is a horrible idea for you big set perfect nice good one that was a tough set oh I think we timed it pretty well hey yeah this is good my shirt is changing color by the minute hear that yeah chest up chest up mmm here it is good perfect we're doing dumbbell press and an RDL we want to work up to one hard set of each and that's it yeah just one top set but we shouldn't need many warm sets because you're pretty warm by this point this is more just a skill making sure you're used to it you're not just getting a shock and like once we get into the actual like a daily pro or you know weekly program we wouldn't be doing these warm-ups or would you you might do one more upset just to feel it out just feel it okay yeah so our target for the work sets is around many as as many as 12 reps I want to do three okay because you don't need to warm up you just need to feel the movement slow it down a little slow down yeah cool okay that'll do that'll do didn't spend too much time there RDL's we've got some work to do my friend not my strength in here for a sec the weights yeah put them up here we're gonna play with that a little bit more okay there was a lot of room for for improvements. Okay. I gotta tell you like RDLs is something that I have very little experience doing. The fact that I even knew how to do an RDL is because I googled it before I came here. How did you get through a powerlifting meet without snapping every you? We did, we did do RDLs, but your interpretation of an item. My, my interpretation of it. It wasn't a core part of, yeah. All right. Just grab one for me. Just hold, hold like, just like that. Yeah, please. Because I don't care about the actual weight. I just want something your hands though. Okay. Now I'd like you to keep your legs as straight as possible, just poke your bum back and up. I want you to push your hips back as far behind you as you can, keeping your knees straight, knees straight the entire time. You should feel your hamstrings pulling a little bit. Yep, yep. Now soften these just slightly, a little bit more just there and now bend over as much as you can without bending the knees back. Good, now come back up. Oh that stretch felt nice. Yeah, that's what we're trying to go for here. Okay. So go kick that again, Arch your back. I do remember doing this now. Yeah, um, and I was very shit at it The goal is keep these knees back as much as possible see and imagine you pulling your shoulders behind you as well Yeah, yeah to really open to that stretch So one area that people do spend a lot of time in my opinion Unnecessarily is doing a lot of reps when they do warp sets I think warp sets like this are really important, but there's no reason why do you need to do 10 or 15? You're just trying to like feel your muscles like make sure doing body connection Exactly it could be like maybe this bench is too skinny for you're not used to it. So getting to let now We're gonna push our top sets today. We're just doing one Yeah, because you don't need to necessarily do more But you could add an extra one if you wanted to and you had the time for it as well To do two sets of your top. Yeah, if you had the time for it Yeah, like an extra what four minutes or five minutes or whatever. Yeah, which is not much, but you know, whatever you need to do So let's get to it. 80s. I'd like you to do some very subtle pause at the bottom of each rep okay in that transition point control stretch up yes good good and again control it slight pause up perfect good slight pause down there Matt yes good one give me two more yes feet planted I think that's all I got I learned my lesson after I tore my peck last time I was like smart once I get to that point I'm like okay but that was that was yeah true failure obviously for me because yeah I wasn't able to even do that last one obviously in what we talked about before complete failure isn't necessarily the goal for the day-to-day of this program you're saying sometimes we can go to that point but a lot of times we want to hold back a couple reps yeah totally I mean if we're going to get super super scientific nerdy there are some studies showing that keeping like three reps shorter failure gives you just as much of a hypertrophy muscle building response is going to failure like that yeah so you're gonna cut two reps short there and might have got the exact same results i don't believe that okay i think honestly just for insurance even the bro in me i think we need to have some sets that are hard but not every single set yeah and there's always room for next week yeah to push it i like leaving a little bit left on the table each time and absolute worst we can squeeze another set in if we had to right um because if we feel like we didn't go hard enough we can exactly do another one to get make up for the gains we lost yeah on the set exactly but honestly I just tell people keep track of your progress let's record what you're doing yeah and if it's going up over time over the next few months happy days before we hit our IDLs we're gonna do one active rest thing okay so we're gonna be in a push-up position on the floor I won't show you on the floor okay but all you're going to do is open out and push your body away with straight arms okay scapular push-up I'm gonna come back down let your body sink and then push back out again okay okay so this is something that's getting us into what's called protraction which trains your serratus muscles on your back muscles as well to really open your body out and actually as much it looks like bad posture it's actually a really really cool thing to do for your posture okay so we can do ten reps on the floor like that imagine I've got a knife here I'm trying to stab you you don't want to stab you okay perfect good and then relax back down squeeze these together Push it back up again. That feels nice. Yeah push back up So if you were doing multiple sets like two sets, this would be the rest period right We're doing between before going to your IDL's and this is just pure mobility pure mobility We're just sneaking it in instead of you sitting there texting on your phone and thinking about your next YouTube video Let's go those 70s was it? Yeah 70s You look a bit apprehensive there. 70s seems like a lot. You need some straps. Your grip's okay Yeah, do you wanna do straps? Sure. Yeah, let's try it. Uh, this is a little left hand. Where did you get these from? These look amazing. These are hand made. There you go. Locked in. Let's try to hit eight. Eight really solid brackets. There's no way I'm gonna hit eight. You told me the weight, man. Oh yeah, but I wasn't doing it like you do it. Let's go for five then. Okay, let's go for a good number. All right, yeah, ready? Hey, good, good. Chest tall at the bottom as well. And I meant to pause on the last one, right? Yeah, I'd like that. I would like that. Up, perfect, good. Big breath, hips back and up. Stretch, yes. You got this. Stretch, up, good, control. Give me two more, let's get that six. Let's go away. Okay, let's go away, why not? Keep it strict, yes. And again, perfect, good. Last one. Last one, hold down here, hold down here. And when you're done, you can put them on the ground. Don't even try to get it back up. Keep breathing, arch your back, chest out, chest out, chest out. Four, three, two, down. Nice. There you go, the weight. Running away from me. They're retreating. They're terrified. That is this stage done. It's time for the gun show. All right, let's do it. All right, so we're going to do an incline Y-raise. We're choosing to use a bench today for a bit of support, but it could also just be done standing, just like this. But we're going to be lazy now. Oh, thank you. We're going to be face down. the position we're going to go for here is imagine you are one of the village people and you are going into the YMCA which is the Y okay so reaching the thumbs as far back as you can and squeezing your shoulder blades together as well this is going to be as much dealt shoulder here as it is through the upper mid back as well and then raise back down slow and up again let's shoot for about eight to ten reps here hey great good one perfect stop there don't swing it up lift it up with the shoulders good yes and again matt and again we get some partials here just get that range again partial reps yeah what's the science behind them is that just because it feels good just because it's fun to go to failure in that way or does that give us any significant gains every time that your brain senses very very very high effort which we can see there because you literally can't move beyond that partial range it's going to do whatever it can to activate as many muscles as it can in the target area of shoulders back or whatever it is so the partial range is just our litmus test of are you truly at that effortful point oh okay where there's no cheating if i said to you let's get to 10 reps or let's just stop when you feel like you're done you might have stopped five reps before that yeah but we know if you literally can't move an inch you've hit that point yeah now i wouldn't recommend that on all movements because of the fatigue it does create in your body yeah like your squats it's not a good idea But isolation using four kilos You're already feeling fine now. Yeah, so we can go for it and test your brain in terms of where the limit really is. Gotcha And normally is that when we're doing the program is it one Set of one set max. Yeah, we can do like it's written is one set But you know that they're a lot of movements. This is a bit of a fun bro thing now We just sort of burn as much as many rounds as we can. Yeah, it's basically as much time as you have you can Yeah, I like the idea of if all you have is one set. Yeah, that's it's that's honestly plenty yeah like you feel that it's like that's that's done its job yeah we can sort of call it there for that exercise and the thing is and i think a lot of people will relate to this is that like i love going to the gym like i like it for me it's mental health i feel really good when i go there if i could have one hour at the gym every day like 100 i would do it i just don't have that time this is like the minimalist routine is really more out of necessity than anything else curls to be honest with you any curl would do we just stand in front of a mirror and just flex our arms that'd be a great workout as well yeah but i'm always looking for opportunities to spend time in areas that we neglect in everyday life and in a lot of our workouts so instead of doing just a regular standing curl i'm gonna get you to sit down to a squat position here okay the cool thing is a lot of people can't access this easily like they're just like bang down having a load in front of your body makes it so much easier yeah to be able to squat to the bottom position let's do the exact same curl okay that's it yeah with do you think this would impact the amount of weight you could curl no i'd be really no because it's a curl you know you're not using a humongously amount of serious weight anyway it's a small muscle group yeah it's very stable but how am i supposed to swing my back and lift up my weight okay so i'm going to get essentially like we're doing like a preacher curl you know since you're on a preacher bench yeah this is a bro curl that's pretty much it oh because my my arms are against my legs are supported yeah okay yeah yeah look at that perfect but it should feel actually very comfortable in that squat position because of where the load's placed yep so it helps us open up your hips yeah whilst getting the curl gains slow it down a bit for me okay making that stretch out what's the the significance of the speed of the rep just as long as you're under control of the weight that's it whether you did like that's perfect in control if you added five more seconds to the lowering it wouldn't do anything okay at all apart from just looking a bit cooler yeah it should be we can go a bit heavier on that yes um yeah it's very fashionable to go super super slow throughout the lift and it might look cool at times but there isn't really much in the way of it improving the muscle building response okay at all beyond basic injury prevention because you're not just throwing your whole body around yeah i have to say like watching your content like this is one of my favorite things about what you do it's just like how creative you get with everyday lifts right and the emphasis that you put on mobility i just don't think many people focus on that especially not in like the lifting space definitely yeah it's sort of cast start as a weird yogi kind of thing but i actually stole this movement from uh franco colombo who was arnold schwarzenegger's training partner oh really yeah he was doing it just squatting down barbell curl straight up just like that and that would do with hips higher yeah as he fatigued he would start to leverage himself up like that oh wow just to get those last yeah those last which i wouldn't necessarily recommend because it's a great way to tear a bicep now this is one exercise that i'm super proud of because i named it oh really yeah um just instagram things you know yeah the katana extension okay so it's an exercise where you imagine you are deadpool and you are unsheathing the katana oh that's cool behind your body that's that's the only reason why we do it yeah not for any gains whatsoever now traditionally i would do this exercise like this again you can imagine sword swing but recently i discovered that if you went the other hand we can lean here and use this another opportunity to really open to your shoulder mobility yeah so imagine you're trying to scratch your back or reach your fingertips behind your back right now okay i'm in that exact same position while i'm doing triceps just giving you an extra stretch yeah extra stretch and you get stability here we're looking at like trying to build muscle yeah the more we can find ways to stabilize your body and the moving joints the better because you can push harder okay cool let's go i can add sound effects in later um i need help okay so like this you're good perfect like that exactly right okay and then extend perfect that's it nice and slow yeah oh that feels good yeah it's a very you know extreme range of a stretch that you don't normally get for your triceps yep if you think about like a typical overhead extension you won't get that range of motion and the target again is are we going in the 8 to 12 range anything like this is like muscle building so yeah anything above six would be good as a target what's too high at what point is it not helping the limit does not exist the limit doesn't exist is that because as long as you're going to close to failure yeah but it seems like unnecessary time and effort probably past 20 reps it's like why not just go a little bit heavier yeah yeah to get 15 or so uh but you could get 30 40 50 reps if you wanted to which i'm yet to find an application for yeah so there's no other benefits of doing high reps that's interesting yeah because it seems counter to like everything that you were taught like when we grew up new more reps more volume more time on the tension yeah or builds endurance to go longer yeah not really if you want to build endurance you've got to build your heart blowing blood vessels doing cardio or doing what we did at the start of the workout yeah which builds it up as well On the program, I'd say we'd stop at just one set is plenty, but it's fucking fun, let's keep going. Yeah, let's just do another one. Yeah, let's do another round. That's it for day one of this two-day program. Oh, I just got a little cramped up in my leg. So with two-day programs, you'd normally want to take off at least two days in between sessions, but since I was only in Melbourne for a few days, we jumped straight into day two the very next morning, and as you'll see, I paid the price. Fight for it. Fight for it. I think that's it. Cool, that's it. That's a bicep curl like I've never done before. All right, we're on day two. What are we lifting today? Today, we're looking at all the things that we missed out on day one. So we're doing pulling as our main exercise. We're actually doing pressing. And instead of a squat motion, we're doing similar motion, more of a hinge, bending over, picking up something off the ground. Today's gonna be a deadlift. Before we get there, we're gonna prepare your shoulders and your lower back core area to make sure you can support all those things. We're gonna do that as part of our warmup. Yeah. size one we're going to be doing a very traditional movement from gymnastics called the scapula pull-up. Complete relaxation, very nice stretch, and without bending the elbows at all just shrugging. I know what I'm doing. Okay, I don't know what I'm doing. Back and forth. We can go as high as you can and over time can even add a little bit of motion to this as well. It's a very gentle movement but does get your grip going a fair bit as well. Try to stop that swinging by using your core and your upper back muscles to stabilize yourself. Perfect. I think lift the chest up and then completely relax down into it. We're thinking about squeezing some of these muscles in the back of your spine here, the mid-back muscles. That should be activating to pull your shoulder blades down towards the ground. I think proud chest, crown on the head towards the ceiling. If we had to, because grip was fatiguing, we might add in some wrist straps to support your grip because we don't need to be fatiguing that at this point. Yeah. Next move for our warm-up is looking at your trunk yeah stabilizing through here this is an extension on what we did yesterday we're a very similar variation yesterday you're doing hip flexors pulling yourself in now we're gonna find that hardest position and we're just gonna hold this and that's it it's a static hold which is engaging your core teaching how to stabilize and solidify this trunk section this is easy this is hard we can add weight to you on either end if we needed to okay and just trying and not to bow out. Got you buddy. Okay. 10 to 15 seconds. 10 to 15 seconds. We want to find whatever variation has you hitting that limit. And I'm not using the support. Ideally no support. Yep, yep. Okay. Hold that in. Pull your belly button down. Go arms up to here. And breathe my friend. Breathe. If that's feeling pretty easy, let's open up. Easy? I'm shaking. Let's open up and just keep breathing, keep pulling down. Let's go. Four, three, two, one. Sure, good, relax. I can keep going. I know you could. Don't worry, we're gonna get there. It is wild though. Like that's just me not doing any core work, right? Yes. Yeah. And your brain's like, what muscles are I meant to contract? I don't know. I'll just contract all of them at once. Yes. And you start spasming like that. Yeah, that's exactly right. This time I want you to use that exact same intention there with your core, but you're hanging. Cause the first time you were kind of floppy a little bit. Yes. Lock yourself in tight and then just the shoulders move. Okay. Again, lock the abs and imagine your feet are in front of you and try not to let them splay around like a dead fish. Feet forwards more, feet forwards more. I want you to engage your core down more and point your toes in front of your body. There, that's it, that's it, good. You see so many people that do a lot of like back pulling, lap pull and chin up exercises, but they're always still rounded forwards a lot. Yeah. Because they don't have the control and strength in these lower back muscles to pull them up. Yeah. From that kind of articulation. That's what we're trying to introduce there. Jump in again. Good little pop or something. Yeah, you hear that? Yeah. So right there, arms back, arms back, arms back. Let's make it harder. Yep. There you go. There we are. Breathe. So we could add a little bit of resistance here if we wanted to. Yep, yep. And please don't. We'll work up to that. Please don't. The goal of this stuff is not fatigue. Yeah. It's like activation. That's it. It's feel good before we get to the serious work. Okay. But it's essential stuff still. Yes. Yes, sir. That'll do. That'll do. Yeah. I want you to just bend your knees into around here. Right now you can go for it. That's a bit easier. Bring your arms down a little bit. Torso a bit higher. Now arms down, this actually should be a bit easier. But now I want you to artificially rock yourself back and forth. Just there, little rocks. Little rocks. And this is a way that we could add complexity to the movement as well for you to overcome. Adding some motion. Let's go 10 of those, 10, nine. Fuck, you just started from 10 after I did 10. keep breathing and draw that down breathe breathe woosah woosah that's it i think that's it i was no longer walking to the gym now we're ready to lift in i want to say for the record this gym is 40 degrees inside so that adds a little bit does it really though today deadlifts and pull-ups one of my favorite pairings of movements one thing squishes you up really tight the one stretches you out yeah and way to work your back we can just do the same setup is day one so we've got a 12 minute timer every two minutes on the on the minutes we're gonna be doing five reps and five reps and we'll gradually build the weight up until set four ish where we should find your limit let's get to it with the first set of five okay perfect awesome full stretch engage those back muscles and get straight up to the bar explosive yes nice one slight pause at the bottom and power up perfect obviously a lot of people that are just getting into fitness their beginner level they can't do one pull-up yes what do those people do they give up routine and just go home no we have many regressions you can add dance to this a lot of gyms depending what you have available you might have machines that assist you we can also do what we showed with the scapular pull-ups we set a low bar up and you assist yourself with your feets yeah you can also use if you have it in your gym could be located a lap pull-down machine everything scales okay in a gym or at home as well what you might have already noticed with this thank you yep is moving much faster than the squats yesterday yes minimal setup time you're not walking a bar out you're not taking your setting breaths or anything like that and the pull-ups straight up and you go hit it when you're ready five reps full stretch when you're thinking about full range of motion hmm is that something you're trying to accomplish with everything that you do like every lift nine times out of 10 it'll be yeah use as much available range as you can but there'll be some movements that like a deadlift we're not getting full range of motion if you want to get you on a high deficit and you'd be reaching down here somewhere yes and that'll be true full range so we pick it based on the exercise but i make sure across the whole workout week or program there's no weak spots that we've missed yes good one big breath push the world away nice lock in lock in yes good one perfect awesome oh nice it's getting hard hey it's getting hard i like what you said earlier when we are when you're trying to take more rest period right now yeah get in there bro i'm doing it for the video all right let's go yes perfect perfect nice one let's hit it up excellent we were talking earlier about how minimalist programming doesn't mean minimal effort yes like you have to maximize every second at the gym if you're there for 45 minutes if anything it means more effort yeah because you've got no opportunity to go easy on yourself because you only have the one set or the one interval to go yeah you've got to send it yeah yeah i am starting to get a little bit of a headache so i'm gonna actually pop some i'm gonna pop some nerve and then i'll be right back i could get it for the camera too if you guys want to film this get the shaky office camera style crash zoom now bring it in crushing and snorting pills here we go baby and people think minimal training is easy yeah sponsored by nerf no i think i can do it i think i can do it we don't have to it's never going to be about how much you can do in one workout yeah it's about you can accumulate across a week or i keep going back and forth in my head because this is like i think the perfectionist in me wants to smash it and do it the perfectionist in you has already screwed up because you've gone way over time so it's okay i'm good for one more yeah let's do it let's do it one more and then i can cut it off early before five if i don't feel it absolutely yes good one take your time down there big breath lock in yes excellent pull it go go go that's it partial high as you can love it room for more next time yes sir you're good yeah no i'm good so that was the hard part mostly right we're gonna be doing very similar movements to what we've just done yeah but now we're trying to look at opening up that range of motion okay okay so we're gonna do the exact same thing of now i'm not a deadlift we're going to be stepping back and getting the same muscles deeper range of motion okay ironing out whatever we've missed from the main work yeah so we'll start just with body weight get a feel for the coordination just five a side stepping back and up same leg again and we'll switch okay now we can progress this by increasing the height as well we can keep moving back that's fine to give you an even deeper stretch but this is totally fine for now i'm happy with the way that's looking okay feeling good yep balance is thrown a bit little unbalanced yeah we can make this a more stable movement but i like to use this as a a balance challenge as well yeah it naturally limits the weight but it's something that people aren't working a lot with coordination stability right have you ever done a copenhagen plank before i have not one of the greatest donations of the danish it looks like a core exercise for your abs and it definitely is but more than anything else we are working the inner thigh muscles here the adductors something that people just don't touch whatsoever in their training all we're doing is trying to squeeze our legs together and that will lift you up okay now this gets very challenging by coming out to say here yeah but we can make it very easy by having a leg to support you and we're just going to be squeezing down i'm still resting that leg on the ground okay i need to but we can over time lift off as well it feels like oddly put your knee up on this fair boy here keep that knee on the ground and that foot on the ground as well okay just like that so if you need to assist that with that bottom leg as much as you want to i see yeah right so i could just kind of give it a little bit of leverage yeah i'm not gonna be able to get out of bed tomorrow this is so awkward it is initially it is but you'll get used to very quickly right perfect great so this is a bit different yesterday for the superset we did chest for your presses yeah and we did legs yeah completely opposite non-related muscle groups this is now complementary where there could be some fatigue carrying over but i kind of want that i want to really challenge those inner thigh hip stabilizers a lot more so we're doing a paired super set of the same muscle group okay so we want to up the weight now yes now we want to find that challenge we felt the movement out now it's time to just send it you did 80 80 90 kilos there and you nearly died nearly emphasis on nearly so let's go maybe uh 45 pounds in the hands big step back body proud nice anytime we're moving up and down like this with your body you will find just your heart rate jacks up so much so much more and then the other leg no no that's 10 i know that was 10 that wasn't 15 now. Minimum effective dose. I asked for it. We're going to find that true fatigue point. Perfect. And down. Perfect. All right. Let's do the Copenhagen's on that side. Okay. Then we'll take a proper rest for the right side. Okay. You notice I'm getting more quiet. Yes. Yes. I am getting more concerned for your health and sanity at this point. Do we have triple zero on standby? Yeah, speed dial Excellent, it's just good. Yeah, this is all new tomorrow dude. I'm you're gonna feel new things in your hips tomorrow I don't think I'm gonna make it back to Sydney I'm gonna take an ambulance back Don't forget to breathe We control that lowering don't crash down with that knee. Yep. Yes. Good Lightest kiss on the ground and up. That's a better one. That's a good one. And again. Yes, I think that's it okay okay was that 14 I'll do one more okay because otherwise you know in your head you go flying home thinking one more I had one more had one more okay I can do it good one okay yeah one thing cardiovascularly yeah this is a big challenge yeah and it's revealing so much of a deficit for you where you're strong yeah but your heart your recovery ability between reps between sets is just not there yeah sorry oh that's so interesting I never really thought about about it like that where it's like it's not necessarily the physical strength but the endurance yeah like I'm fucking knackered sure it's time for the bro part of the workout this is the fun stuff my favorite part yeah so we're gonna be hitting some triceps a little bit of shoulders a little bit of back okay similar to day one we're gonna be doing these together as super set and some of the day one we're picking some very basic movements that you'd know from typical muscle building work but we're adding little elements for mobility and to explore different ranges of motions at the same time. A standard skull crusher, you're trying to crush your skull off the weights. Bang. Yep. There. Which is awesome for the triceps. We take it a step further by letting the dumbbells come behind your body here and also reaching back behind your body for a deeper stretch through your entire like front, chest, lats, rib cage area. Yep. Pulling over and then extending. Scrooge back a little bit more. You see your head is just off the edge of there so you've got some room for those dumbbells okay bend the elbows to about 90 degrees and then from the shoulder pull back behind your head cool now come back up pull over and then extend out excellent awesome dude what is wrong with you and stretch back stretch back stretch back open up through these lats triceps yeah it's been up was that even far enough uh no but you know we're good we're getting there we're getting there elbows 90 degrees keep them fixed there now in the shoulder open out open out open up it's almost like an overhead press there and that's what it's just like dropping it reach yeah dropping it back that's better that's better really really good yeah yeah awesome perfect come on out of that exercise two we're doing a dumbbell row very simple bent over pulling your weight towards your chest got it let's grab some 35s for that okay the only reason why I've chosen to do double arm yeah it's to save that little bit of time okay it's a challenge of stability a bit more yeah that's kind of it chest proud hips back that's it tip force more if you can't get to parallel that's it now pull in towards excellent excellent get a good stretch forwards but keep your chest proud if you can bend forwards more try that's it as long as that back stays straight which it's doing nice good final piece let's try set okay pretty pink kettlebell Beautiful. Yeah, so you might know it's a bit of a theme With what we're doing here. We're trying to work a lot with shoulder and thoracic spine mobility through all of today's workouts Yeah, okay, we're doing a little pulling work a lot of rotational work, and this is no difference so you're gonna grab the kettlebell by its horns and Bring it right behind your head and around in one direction Okay, and then back the other way. This isn't much a mobility thing Just gonna test your shoulder range of motion as it's a strengthening exercise. Okay, the shoulders so here yeah big circles with your arms clear the head around all the back and by the chest and it is a backyard right back the other way yeah now hold that cut about a little bit higher when you get to the finish around your chin just thought you obscure your face okay there perfect oh I see keep it ready yeah so it's just symmetrical exactly so let's go five aside for this this is a little bit of active rest but things are still definitely working in this movement yeah but it gives you opportunities to catch your breath again before we get into an actual work round of this tricep give you a quick breather and I'll take a proper set of all three okay cuz that was that was just like a warm-up but those are those a feel that was like make sure you know how to do moves at any time snapping out of your body cool then the elbows then reach back from there getting towards the ground that's it take a second there pull in from here go for it then extend awesome good really good position there nice body stays proud chest up but reach your arms forwards as you do it slow it down a little bit slow it down a little make yourself work for that if you feel comfortable start adding some speed to it flow with that bell yeah keeping my head yeah keep your head static and this reveals a lot here mobility I remember when you're doing your mobility challenge you found that when you raise your arm overhead your neck would kink to one side that's right you want to try to prevent any of those kinds of little discrepancies yeah great work thank you how you feeling man I feel fucking tired that was that was it that was two days two days right there short workouts having a time there yeah that's pretty good yeah we did okay yeah dude thank you for sharing all this with me the urgency is baked into this you've got now targets to hit each week yes to improve upon you've got time is keeping you accountable you've got ways you can scale things back if you need to you're not feeling that good on it on any exercise hours in your hands that's it it's a matter of just finding the sweet spot where I can maintain it every week yes rather than killing myself which I mean like what's nice I think today we found kind of not that limit no yeah not like that my outright limit but we've gotten pretty close with a lot of these exercises which will just help me start to program it do you have any advice for me as I take this program forward and I bring it into my day-to-day life and I don't have you there at my side coaching me through each of these exercises to be perfectly honest with you I program in a way that I'm I want you to have not to have to think about it follow blindly follow the system there and just show up and do the work yeah it's kind of built into the system itself as long as you can find that 30 to 45 minute window to work out and you're being honest with yourself on your intensity you're good to go all right a little bit more water product placement love it good stop sneaking your product placement into my video yeah check am I shredded yet did the program work hold my money back

Get the full 12-week program here: https://shop.ganbarumethod.com/products/minimalift


Video Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:07 2-Day Program Overview
02:46 DAY 1
06:47 Strength & Condition
14:21 Swole & Flexy
21:29 Accessories
29:29 DAY 2
34:00 Strength & Condition
38:48 Swole & Flexy
43:11 Accessories

Stuff that I use & love:
TeuxDeux (To-Do List App): https://teuxdeux.com/matt
Music for videos: https://share.epidemicsound.com/mattdavella (use code MD30)
How I edit social content: https://descript.1stcollab.com/mattdavella
How I do remote interviews: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=mattdavella
Squarespace: http://squarespace.com/mattdavella
My backpack (14L Travel Pack) & travel gear: http://shrsl.com/2qfpx-1mzf-o0n7

New here? I'm Matt 👋 I made an award-winning documentary called Minimalism a few years ago and now I make YouTube videos. Please subscribe so my mother-in-law thinks this is a better career than being a doctor.

Get more stuff from me:
My weekly 1 min pep talk newsletter:  http://mattdavella.com/newsletter
My podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@threerulespodcast
My YouTube course:  https://mattdavella.com/youtube
Instagram:  http://instagram.com/mattdavella
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mdavella