Key Concept #8: Maximum Fitness Can Be Achieved in Minimal Time With High-Intensity Workouts

Hey all.

Did you know?

Study after study shows that the key to optimal health, aging, and fitness is muscle strength and mass.

The more lean mass we have, the better we’re able to handle what life can dish out, whether it’s carrying groceries, playing with our kids, saving our own lives in a life-or-death situation, or engaging in the time-tested essential activity known as love-making.

Luckily for those of us who relish our free time, the most effective, most efficient ways to build and maintain lean mass are through intense strength and sprint training.

Twice a week, spend 15-40 minutes lifting heavy things using functional, full-body compound movements – squats, pullups, pushups, planks.

Once every 7-10 days, spend 10-20 minutes doing 8-10 all-out sprints.

If you don’t want to move heavyweights, you don’t have to; bodyweight exercises are plenty of stimulus for most people.

And if you’re not ready to run sprints on a track, plenty of lower-impact alternatives exist, like cycling, swimming, rowing, or even uphill sprints.

Make your short, intense workouts shorter and more intense.

Round them out with lots of slow-moving – walks, hikes, and the like – throughout your everyday life, and you’ll be incredibly fit and well-rounded, in a fraction of the time most people presume is required.

This is Primal Blueprint Fitness.

Mark Sisson