The Minimalist Approach That Transforms Men Over 30 in 60-90 Minutes A Week

Can you achieve a jaw-dropping transformation like Jeff Bezos?

The answer is YES, and the secret to your transformation may be in this newsletter.

Firstly, when the Bezonator gives you that stare, you know it's time to read my newsletter until the end.

Love him or hate him, he looks incredible.

In-case you haven't seen this transformation, it's one I personally love and unfortunately, wasn't responsible for...

Yes, he's worth $160bn, but he's 59, and he made a transformation that money cannot buy.

Now, hold up a sec.

You might be thinking, 'Sure, Jeff Bezos did it, but can someone like me really achieve a transformation like that?'

Well, I've got some good news for you. You don't need stacks of cash or a tech empire to pull off a transformation that'll have you feeling like a million bucks.

Anyway, enough about Jeff, let's talk about you and how you can make a similar transformation in 60-90 minutes a week. So, no matter how busy you are, there is a way!

Whether you're stuck behind a desk 12-14 hours a day, juggling family life, or just looking to level up after hitting the big 3-0, get ready to discover how you can create your own jaw-dropping change.

And here's the kicker: no crazy sacrifices or flashy tricks required.

Let's dive right in!

When you know how, everything changes.

A point to bear in mind is, when we are looking to improve our muscle tone/shape, mental health and want to be better at almost everything in life, resistance training is the answer.

Yes, being active, is going to improve our health regardless and I encourage all forms!

But, if you're looking for the absolute best ROI, nothing beats resistance training – if you're not convinced, I can send a truck full of scientific researchers your way to question.

It's the closest to a magic pill that, unfortunately, doesn't exist...yet, and likely still will not beat it.

In 8-12 weeks of resistance training, you'll know what I am talking about.

You of course need a diet and lifestyle to support your training, but the right training is a key part of the puzzle. It drives muscle growth and everything else, supports it.

The Minimalist Approach

There's a remarkable researcher named Dr Pak (Patroklos Androulakis-Korakakis for those of you that only deal in full names) out of Southampton University.

He has been researching the minimum effective dose for maximum strength. In conducting that research, he has arrived at some recommendations that go against what a LOT of folk will tell you.

At the same time, offer some valuable insights on the minimum you can do.

Remember, it's not necessarily that these folk are wrong, just that they are talking in ''optimizing'' or ''maximising'', which honestly, only applies to people that want to compete or really push their physique to the limits.

But, none of that is useful to you if you have next to no time, and you just want to look and feel great.

Fortunately, Dr Pak has given us some exciting framework to run with and see incredible results.

First, a few key definitions to make this article friendly to all levels:

Reps - how many you do of a given exercise. 20 push-ups is 20 reps.

Sets – how many times you do a specific exercise. If you do 20 push-ups and stop, that's a set.

Volume - when volume is mentioned, it refers to the total number of sets. Volume is, to a point, one of the key variables for muscle growth.

Supersets – when you perform a set followed by another with a short rest period in-between. The best way to do this is with muscles that do not impact each-other.

Intensity - this measures how hard a specific set is. There are two ways to refer to it:

RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) which is measured out of 10. 10 being very hard and 1 being super simple.

RIR (Reps In Reserve) this is my preferred method to measure intensity. The chart below will give you the best understanding. But essentially, it's how many more reps you could have done with a given weight.

Ok, so now we nose dive into the more groundbreaking stuff that most of you may not have known until now.

How much volume & at what intensity?

There will be debates about this for some time, as there are many camps. But, this article's core focus is the minimum effective dose for someone that wants to improve the way they look and feel.

In general, how much volume you do will depend on your intensity, recoverability, progress, goals, stress and general life.

A high level overview and practical takeaways from Dr Paks research findings:

80% of your overall muscle growth ever by doing 4-9 hard sets per muscle group per week.

60% of your overall muscle growth ever by doing 1-4 hard sets per muscle group per week.

Perspective: 80% of your overall muscle growth is life changing within itself, and even 60% will make a big difference to the way you look and feel.

Just for your reference, If you're looking at absolutely maximising your muscle growth, 100% of your overall muscle growth ever, it's somewhere between 12–20 sets per muscle group per week.

But, we are not talking optimising or maximising here.

The Plan

I am basing this plan on lifting weights to make it more general, but you can do something very similar with just your bodyweight and bands from home.

I promised 60-90 minutes a week, so that is what you will be getting, a plan as short as that. Full body sessions work the best for when you have 2-3 days a week to train.

This is a starting point and the minimum dose, you can increase the number of sets (volume) as you progress. The best time to increase volume is when you can have the time, and/or when you stop progressing for 2-3 weeks.

Warm-up before each session

Assault bike for 3 minutes at 50-60% intensity.

Lizard Lunge with Thoracic twist 10-12 reps x1 set

Band pull-apart 10-12 reps x1 set

Day 1

Legs

1 Warm-up set 10 reps of 50% of your planned weight

Hack Squats | 5-12 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR

Chest & Back

1 Warm-up set of each exercise, at 10 reps of 50% of your planned weight

Dumbbell Bench Press | 5-12 reps (rest 90 seconds) Dumbbell Standing Row | 5-12 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR - SUPERSET

Arms

Dumbbell Incline Curl | 12-15 reps (rest 90 seconds) Seated Dumbbell Tricep Extension | 12-15 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR - SUPERSET

Day 2

Legs

1 Warm-up set 10 reps of 50% of your planned weight

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift | 5-12 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR

Chest & Back

1 Warm-up set of each exercise, at 10 reps of 50% of your planned weight

Dumbbell Incline Bench Press | 5-12 reps (rest 90 seconds) Prone Incline Dumbbell Row | 5-12 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR - SUPERSET

Lower Traps (back of shoulder blade)

Prone Incline Dumbbell Y Raise | 12-15 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR

Day 3

Legs

1 Warm-up set 10 reps of 50% of your planned weight

Leg Press | 5-12 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR

Chest & Back

1 Warm-up set of each exercise, at 10 reps of 50% of your planned weight

Dumbbell Bench Press | 5-12 reps (rest 90 seconds) Dumbbell Standing Row | 5-12 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR - SUPERSET

Arms

Cable Straight Bar Curl | 12-15 reps (rest 90 seconds) Cable Rope Pushdowns | 12-15 reps x 2 sets | 0-1 RIR - SUPERSET

Rest 2 minutes between sets unless it's a superset, this resting a minimum of 2 minutes is ideal. In reality, you can just do 2 days a week and make it 3 sets of everything, that will cover you. That will likely take you 30 minutes each session.

Barbells are not bad by any means, but dumbbells give you more freedom of movement, reducing the stress on your shoulders, elbows, and wrists. Reducing your chances of getting injured.

This is just a general plan, if you want something more personalised, you can always send me a message. But, this is a fantastic starting point for most people that want to take the minimalist route.

Yes, diet is massively important, but this should tick off the training aspect of things. As with all my recommendations, I suggest taking action and if it's just the training for now, so be it!

As always, I hope you've found this useful and informative.

Any questions or thoughts, drop a comment below.

Have the best day ever!

Adam