Do less.
That probably sounds a little weird coming from me.
I’ve written quite a few posts about strength training, preparing your body for age, staying healthy, and why movement matters.
And now I’m telling you to do less?
Hear me out.
Some of my patients struggle with the fact that they simply can’t train three times a week.
They have children to take care of. They have jobs. They have a house or apartment to clean. They care for their parents. They have school meetings, appointments, social commitments, and all the other things that somehow need to fit into a normal week.
And then someone tells them:
You should exercise more.
Great. Another thing for the to-do list.
They already struggle with time, yet now they feel like they should train three times a week for an hour because that’s what a proper training routine is supposed to look like.
So they try.
For a while.
Until training starts feeling like another job.
And I see this especially often with women. Many already have their regular job plus a significant amount of unpaid work at home. And now training quietly becomes job number three.
No wonder it doesn’t last.
I recently had exactly this conversation with a patient. Training had become another shift she somehow had to squeeze into an already busy life.
So I told her to do less.
And I told her something I’ve told quite a few patients over the years:
You’re not a fitness influencer.
You don’t earn money with your body or with training. So don’t compare your schedule to people whose literal job includes going to the gym.
If three one-hour sessions per week don’t fit into your life, don’t do three one-hour sessions.
Do three 30-minute sessions.
Or two one-hour sessions.
Or one hour.
Or twenty minutes twice a week.
Whatever actually fits.
Because a theoretically perfect training plan that you can maintain for three weeks isn’t particularly useful.
A smaller plan that still exists six months from now probably is.
Working out shouldn’t feel like another job.
It should feel like something you do for your body—not another thing that drains you further.
So if doing more keeps making you quit:
Do less.
But keep doing it.
🧪 Let’s Experiment
Doing less isn’t the same as doing nothing.
Sometimes we make training unnecessarily binary.
Either we train properly—or it doesn’t count.
Either we do the full hour—or we might as well skip it.
But your body doesn’t know whether your workout looked impressive on paper.
🎯 Try This:
The next time you think:
I don’t have enough time to train today.
Ask yourself:
What would count as enough for today?
Ten minutes?
Twenty?
One exercise?
Then do that.
🧠 Final Thought:
Less doesn’t have to be your new maximum. Sometimes it’s simply the amount that keeps you going.