A short, daily strength training session is effective

Q: Thanks for the motivation to live a healthier life! For me, it takes a lot of willpower to build up a lifestyle where strength training is carried out a couple of times a week. It is easier to motivate me to jog 2-3 times a week. I wonder if Dr Torkil´s advice of 5 min daily strength every morning together with jogging 2-3 times a week will work as well as 2 longer strength sessions a week. I think a daily short strength session is easier to incorporate as a habit for me. At the same time, I do not want to motivate myself for that solution if it gives me a worse health benefit.

Answer: Hi! I am glad that you are motivated for strength training. And it is probably, as you say, much easier to implement a routine of 5 minutes of strength training every morning. The best workout is the one you get to do! I think most people, like me, are surprised at how much it is possible to achieve with just a little training. It can be an advantage to divide the training into different exercises every other day, for example alternating between exercises for the upper body and legs/stomach every other day. So you don’t have to do the same exercises every day. This way you can do 6 exercises with 1 series of each. At a minimum I would do push-ups, sit-ups and squats. Depending on the available equipment, I would also take various exercises with manuals. If you are strong enough and have equipment available, dips and pull-ups are effective exercises. Make it simple.

Another option is to do three completely different exercises every day. That way, you get to perform 21 different exercises a week. That’s what I do. I tend to spread them out over an entire working day at the office. Each exercise takes about 1/2 minute, a total of 10 minutes. It may be enough to carry out such a day every two weeks. The biggest step is from nothing to something!

Good luck! Muscles are important!

Regards, Dr. Torkil