Micro-Dosed: 3 x 30-minute, Comprehensive Exercise Routines

“Simplicity is the new sophistication.”

One of the most impactful, beneficial outcomes of truly engaging with fitness and practicing exercise habits over the years is building proficiency with the skillsets of:

• mind-body awareness,

• movement,

• auto-regulation, and

• progression.

[I'm always learning the limits on the latter two myself!]

As we advance in fitness, we can safely become more efficient with the time we invest in developing or maintaining it. In some physiological respects, this means that when you use the will to develop the skill, it doesn’t take as long to swallow the pill. (Goofy, I know!) Once we’ve built up our conditioning levels, we may be able to achieve the desired outcomes with less time invested.

Typically, I would only share this type of insight with more advanced movers whom I am confident know their movement patterns and the needs specific to them as individuals in respect to their current conditioning level. The routine below was designed for a client I've worked with for nearly five years, who has invested meticulously in building their physical fitness and tremendous mental resilience. They're a practicing veterinarian, rescue center director, and vet. school professor who is months away from retirement at the time of this blog post. We came up with this strategy together to increase the chances they could maintain their exercise routines in a timely manner and sustain their fitness and performance levels to combat the stress of retirement.

The client this is built for had years of personal and general fitness industry experience, even before our paths crossed. They went through a breast cancer journey back in 2021 that included surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and they're still on hormone therapy, which has been adjusted a few times throughout the years to mitigate the side effects. They were left with a fibrotic region in a lobe of their lungs, debilitating fatigue, brain fog, deep bone pain, and have dealt with various neuropathies as a byproduct of their treatments. Additionally, they had a subtalar (ankle-to-foot) joint fusion earlier in life, resulting from a car crash that caused other soft and bony-tissue injuries throughout the hips and ipsilateral (same side) shoulder. They now have varying degrees of stenosis and use a spinal stimulator that was surgically implanted a few years before the cancer journey. Those are the big physical challenges we've worked through, but they pale in comparison to the victories.

Aside from being in remission, we've worked through some of life's toughest times and achieved some of its greatest accomplishments. They were there for me when my mom suddenly passed from kidney cancer, and then a year later, their spouse passed away suddenly from esophageal cancer. They traveled to Patagonia to work with the penguins and went on a two-week cruise in Australia. In the last year, they've rescued two Chihuahua mixes, and my wife and I also rescued one. Now, as they're at the peak of their careers and only months away from retirement, our work together is not just about training to maintain their strength for this final push, but also about getting a head start on their health and wellness goals after retirement.

So often, folks come to exercise professionals seeking the inspiration to get out of their comfort zones. Those who stick with it through the years, overcoming life's trials, become my inspiration.

The movements in this routine are not as simple as they seem, and, with the appropriate self-regulation and resistance training loads and doses, the routine is certainly not easy. [However, I can't help but think back to my early career days of personal training and think, "Man, this just looks like a routine that I would have written up for any average client." Sometimes, the beauty of progress is in the simplicity! Remember this version of the KISS Principle as you actively work to progress and build your strength and stamina for a healthier, more fulfilling quality of life. [It's not the KISS acronym you're thinking of!]

Keep It Simple & Strong

Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Warm-up (5 to 7 minutes)	Warm-up (5 to 7 minutes)	Warm-up (5 to 7 minutes)
Dynamic mobility, balance, footwork, and core activation	Dynamic mobility, balance, footwork, and core activation	Dynamic mobility, balance, footwork, and core activation
Strength (10 to 15 minutes)	Strength (10 to 15 minutes)	Strength (10 to 15 minutes)
1.        Dumbbell (DB) Squats 2 x 8 reps* 2.        Pull-downs 2 x 8 reps 3.        DB Squats 2 x 15 reps** 4.        Leaning Push-ups 2 x 15 reps	1.        Bent-over DB Row 2 x 8 reps 2.        DB Hip Hinges 2 x 8 reps 3.        Stading DB OH Presses 2 x 15 reps 4.        DB Hip Hinges 2 x 15 reps	1.        Split Squats 2 x 8 2.        Standing Horizontal Band Presses 2 x 8 3.        Split Squats 2 x 15 4.        Standing Horizontal Band Rows 2 x 15
Flexibility (8 to 10 minutes)	Flexibility (8 to 10 minutes)	Flexibility (8 to 10 minutes)
1.        OH reach w/elbow flexion on wall 2.        Door stretches for chest 3.        Seated Figure-4 4.        Knee flexion quadriceps on chair	1.        Single leg supported standing hamstring lean 2.        Seated Sumo forward lean 3.        Single arm crossbody shoulder pull 4.        Door stretches for chest	1.        Door stretches for chest 2.        Standing 2-way calf stretches 3.        OH reach w/elbow flexion on wall 4.        Single arm OH reach leaning on wall

*At 8 repetitions, use moderate-to-heavy resistance levels with ~2 minutes rest in between.

**At 15 repetitions, use light-to-moderate resistance levels with ~ 1 minute rest in between.