What's the Minimum I can do?

I suppose the easy answer is...nothing. You could just lay around all day, alternating between naps and bingeing on Netflix. For the sake of argument, let's look at this question in the sense of, "What is the minimum I can do and actually make gains?"

Let's say that you have access to a gym, or at least a barbell and squat rack with some plates. If you have access to those things and are severely limited on time and want to make the most of it, you really can still do something positive. You're looking for the very least program that takes the minimum amount of time.

In this case, the most obvious thing is that you are going to want to focus entirely on "compound" movements. All that means is that every movement (i.e. "exercise") you perform uses multiple muscle groups. As a contrast, a dumbbell curl is considered an "isolation" movement because the only muscles that it trains are the biceps. If you have to train each muscle individually, it will take a lot more time, a lot more energy and will prevent you from using your body as an integrated system like it is designed to be.

Compound movements will train multiple muscle groups simultaneously, thereby reducing the amount of time required to train the entire body as well as training your body as though it were a single, integrated, multi-functional system...which it is. So, whether you have one day per week and can get into the gym for a little over an hour, or you have 20 minutes every weekday, you can work the entire body every week and continue to get stronger.

First and foremost, if you only ever had time to perform a single movement, once per week, and you just can not fit anything else in, I would recommend the barbell deadlift. At the absolute minimum, you should be doing that movement for no less than three sets of five no less than once per week. This is one of the most basic movements you can do and it translates, perhaps the most out of all the things you can do in the gym, directly to things that most people do in every day life.

It is far less common for the average person to randomly find themselves in a situation in which they have to stand on an unstable surface and lift a relatively small amount of weight over their head like many trainers have people do when they stand them on a BOSU ball and do dumbbell presses. I don't know exactly what they think they are training for, but I know that I have very rarely ever been in a situation in which I felt such training would have been helpful before I was in that situation.

If you are able to fit in doing at least 3 sets of 5 heavy deadlifts once per week and find that you can add something else in, the next recommendation is the squat. There are many variations of the squat, but for our purposes we are going to focus on the conventional, barbell, low-back squat. While the deadlift will train the entire back-side of the body (referred to as "posterior chain"), the squat focuses more on the legs and the glutes (your butt).

Why is this an important movement? Because as you get older, and your kids get older, and you end up with grand-kids, by doing this movement you will have the strength, balance, coordination and mobility to be able to get down on the floor with those grand-kids and play with them and make wonderful memories. Plus, you'll live longer (barring any other issues). So, even if you don't have kids or grand-kids, living longer and maintaining your independence as you age should be a good enough reason to squat.

If you've gotten these two things down, we will continue down the list of things that you can do that translate into every day activities. Picking things up is pretty common, hence the deadlift. Sitting down and standing up are also common, hence the squat. Reaching overhead (to get the good China from the upper shelf, for example) is another common movement. Therefore, the next thing to include in your arsenal given the time is the overhead press (sometimes call the "shoulder press" or "military press").

Some people do this while sitting on an inclined bench. Others do it while standing. I prefer the latter. First of all, doing this while seated, your weight is mostly on your butt and adding load to that can start to cause issues in the hips and such. Standing is more athletic and keeps the load distributed over the entire body...almost like the body is an "integrated system" of muscles that all work together. Plus, it adds your core muscles and a balance component to the movement.

The last main component to add, with this minimalist mind-set, is the good old bench press. You may be surprised to see this so far down the list of priorities, but the fact is, of all the different movements we've covered, laying on your back and pushing something away from you is perhaps the least common of the everyday movements most humans find themselves having to do.

On could argue that pull-ups could take precedence over the bench press. I suppose there is some merit to that. In fact, if you decide to swap the bench press for pull-ups, I promise that I will not be angry with you. It is definitely a worthy movement and an important one, if you can fit it into your schedule.

Beyond that, some other great things to work into your routines are the barbell row, barbell curls, close-grip bench press (for the triceps) and dumbbell side raises (to work the outside portion of the shoulder). Anything you add to your routine after all that is pretty much up to you, as long as it's not like the people standing with 5lb dumbbells and just rotating them from in front of you and out to the sides without ever actually raising them up against gravity...not sure what that's supposed to do, but I've seen people do it.

Hopefully, this gives you a good primer for the time-encumbered person who wants to do something but can't fit in an hour a day at the gym. Perhaps we'll take a look at some bodyweight stuff you can do if the gym (or equipment in general) is not an option. Keep on the lookout for that later.