7.5 Minute Per Day Bodybuilding Workout (And make more money)
Due to miscommunication, one of our Efficiency Is Everything creators thought I was doing a 5 Minute Per Day workout. When I corrected her, she mentioned: “A 5 minute per day workout would be really cool”. (Note from the Editor: I personally would want to warm up and cool down, but the purpose of this article is efficiency. Add a warm-up/cooldown and you can still get in a quicker strength workout).
I couldn’t get it down to 5 minutes, at least not with enough warmups. You might do better.
As a note, given the countless studies suggesting good looks = more confidence = more money, I will propose that exercise is profitable.
Goals
The goals are to be healthy, save time, get stronger, look good, and make more money.
On Being Healthy
Don’t get injured, the weights are heavy and typically done to failure. Two suggestions: Be conscious of form by ensuring the targeted muscles are getting hit rather than joints or unwanted muscles. Stop when you feel pain. (You already got stronger this week, come back next week)
On Saving Time
Be deliberate. If your goal is to get in your workout and save time, look at the biggest sources of waste. A 20 minute drive to the gym would justify doing 2 of the lifts in a single session. How long does it take to get dressed/ready for the gym? Can you do warmups more efficiently?
On Getting Stronger
Each week the goal is to move up in weight, or do more reps. You will get stronger if you do this. To ensure this happens, record your weights somehow. I use either pen and paper or Google Sheets on my phone.
On Looking Good/Make More Money
Muscle looks good. Combine this with eating right, higher protein diets, potentially alternating between bulking(excess calories) and cutting/losing weight.
Good looks will help you do better in interviews, performance reviews, and general conversations with everyone you encounter.
The Workout
The classically recommended Bench, Deadlift, Overhead Press, Squat. 1 per day, 1 heavy set, 4 times total per week. Each lift is done on a separate day, the advantage here is that you rest during your day, rather than between sets at the gym. This isnt significant and if you want to stack Bench and Deadlift on the same day, and Squat and Overhead Press another day to avoid traveling to the gym, it could be more efficient. With a home gym, the rest time is greater than the time it takes to travel to my weight set.
Lifts
I recommended the classic 4, but feel free to add and subtract as you see fit. The process/system is important. Although there is a reason these 4 are classic, they are good. For vanity reasons, I added bicep curls as an additional day.
Reps, Sets, Weights
Whatever you do, you want to keep close to 0 strength left in you. This means you will *always* need a spotter for bench; you cannot do this program without a spotter on bench, because you will be failing.
Sets: the less warmups the faster, the more warmups, the better your performance. You warm up to 1 final set, it’s the heaviest and you will do enough reps to fail or be close to failing.
For bodybuilding, I like eccentric/negative training. Where you do ~8 reps, but you count for 6 seconds doing negatives.
For strength, I like warming up to a single heavy set aiming for 2-5 reps.
Real Life Notes
The first time you do the routine, you may or may not get under 7.5 minutes. Maybe it’s due to having to create a brand new Weight/Reps sheet, or not finding the clips.
You will want to work fast, everything should be more upbeat than normal.
Find ways to reduce transportation time. Driving to the gym is never going to hit 5 minutes/day. This is nearly exclusive to the home gym crew. However, you can see there may be applications of a quick workout in a gym setting. Given the friends and connections I made at the gym, I frequently consider getting a membership for social rather than health reasons.
Efficiency Kandice insists on this: Disclaimer: Efficiency is Everything is not a physician or healthcare provider. This article is for general information purposes only. Follow this exercise regimen at your own risk.
Save Time With Fish Tanks
Our Efficiency Assistant had some ideas for saving time caring for fish tanks. When she mentioned plants, I personally could attest to how much time this saved.
Efficiency Abigail:
There’s something magical about watching colorful fish glide through the water, however I knew I didn’t want my tank to become an overwhelming time suck. I researched and researched, discovering a few tricks to save time, money, and stress.
Here are my top three tips for creating a thriving, low-maintenance tank.
Choose the Right Tank Setup
A well-prepared tank makes everything easier. I started with a 10-gallon tank – it’s big enough to create a stable environment without being overwhelming to care for. I cycled my tank for almost three (3) months, prior to adding any aquatic life. This helped my tank to build up beneficial bacteria that will keep the water healthy. For filtration, I swear by sponge filters. They’re budget-friendly, easy to clean in between your water cycles and a deep clean of your filtration system.
Focus on a Self-Cleaning Ecosystem
What really saves me time is focusing on a natural setup. Live plants like Anubias and Java Fern have been game-changers for my tank. They improve water quality by absorbing toxins and reducing algae, which means fewer water changes for me. Combining these plants with natural cleaners like algae-eating fish and scavengers creates a balanced ecosystem.
Efficiency Michael Kirk: We have also added plants to our tank, we got some from friends who said their plants had grown too much.
Pick Hardy Species
My tetras, grouped as an all-female “Cheerleader Squad,” thrive as social creatures. African dwarf frogs delight me with their antics, while a Rubber Lip Plecostomus and my Nerite Snail handles cleaning the glass. There are two Albino Cory Catfish which love sifting through the gravel and sand for leftover food.
Easy on the budget and relaxing
Fishkeeping has become a relaxing, budget-friendly hobby for me. With the right setup, hardy species, and natural cleaning methods, my tank practically cares for itself.
60 second “French Toast”
It seemed my friend and the social media world was appalled, but they didn’t taste it.
Imagine doing the following first thing in the morning, upbeat and as quick as possible.
Or whenever.
The Process
Get a plate, a bowl and a fork, Eggs, Bread, Cinnamon, and nonstick spray. You should do this along the path of your kitchen in the most efficient way possible.
Crack 1 (or more) eggs into the bowl and whisk
Spray plate with nonstick spray
Dip both sides of bread in the egg. Place on plate. Repeat for all bread.
Shake cinnamon over top, put in microwave long enough for the egg to cook. Probably 75 seconds for 1 slice, 2 minutes for 4 slices. I don’t mind overcooking.
Go do something else while waiting
You have about 2 minutes of microwave time.
Grab the syrup, clean up, answer text messages.
Enjoy
Coat in syrup and eat. It might not be the exact texture you expected, but I am sure it tastes great.
What other corners can be cut in favorite recipes to have them prepared in 1 minute? Hard problem, but I’ve seen it work.
Thrift Store (Date Night) To Save Money on Clothes
I consider this quadruple-Efficient. You go on your date. You multitask and get clothes for the upcoming season. You save money on clothes. You get pleasure from the gambling aspect of randomly finding something good.
My credentials on this topic: I got into fashion for a minute, I can make my own clothes. I can afford any brand. Thrift store clothes do the role. Not only do they have brands for status-seeking people, but you can find nice fits which is most important. LPT: Think of the entire outfit.
How To
Go to a thrift store with your date, pick and try on clothes. I will explicitly mention here: you should be social with your date. But it’s tempting to divide when you see something cool.
Pick clothes that you need. I currently have enough dress shirts, but it seems every year I need new short sleeved shirts. Whatever you need, you shop for.
Efficiency Creator Kandice: Accessories – you could find some hidden gems here. Belts, gently worn shoes, bags for the ladies, and designer items too. It is worth finding designer items at these shops, when you can. Some people make a living off of thrifting and upselling. But besides the potential side-hustle, a designer bag is likely to last you more uses per-dollar than buying a dupe off Amazon or Temu. At a thrift store you’ll pay a fraction of the price if you can find the real stuff.
Tips
You might want to do research and make sure you are going to a Thrift store that gets nice clothes. It’s worth trying a few.
It might be worth putting a cap on the amount you want to spend, we usually set it at like $30 unless something crazy happens.
Look for stains. Try everything on.
Wash everything.
Final Thoughts
The “good problem” with thrift stores is that they have stuff that you will really like. The problem is they have one. You literally cannot buy two of the same shirts.
I hope you also can enjoy the phenomena of enjoying a thrift store purchase a bit too much. For that reason, I still buy many clothes at the regular store. This is a good first stop, and the randomness makes it fun.
Buy Nothing
Efficiency Michael Kirk: My wife, Mrs. Efficiency/Dr. Mandy Kirk on her own:
Save Money, Reduce Clutter, Meet Neighbors, Be Environmentally Friendly
Looking to save a decent amount of money? Want to clean out your house of the clutter that compiles with time? Want to meet your neighbors and save the landfill from being overloaded? Then Buy Nothing groups are for you.
If you haven’t heard of Buy Nothing, it is a community founded on gives, asks, and gratitude. It is organized by Facebook groups local to cities. There are some cities that don’t have them and are grouped into other cities, or if you’re in a rural area you may not have them at all. Most major cities have a Buy Nothing Facebook group associated with them. My city has 4 Buy Nothing groups, dividing the city into quadrants to keep things a bit more local – I’m in the Southwest group.
How It Works
On Buy Nothing Facebook groups people will post items that they are getting rid of for free (gives) so that others can pick them up from neighbor’s porches instead of the trash.
People can also post asks, things that they want or are looking for so that people who have extra can give them to them. All of these items are FREE, which leads to gratitude and increased community togetherness besides the money saving aspect.
My Non-Item Wins
Since I joined Buy Nothing, I’ve learned the geography of my city and met a lot of my neighbors and created friendships.
I’ve had the added perk of expanding my business and gaining new patients from the community, since they are more likely to go to a local physical therapist who they have met.
It’s made me appreciate my community more and restored my faith in humanity to a certain degree.
I’ve been able to clean out my basement and closet when I was nesting and know that my items were going to good homes.
Of course I’ve decorated my house and clinic with gives.
My Favorite Items
Some of my favorite items received:
- A coffee table and two beautiful matching side tables for the clinic
- A treadmill
- Plant clippings and planters
- Tomato and pea seedlings
- Halloween costumes
- Snacks for my kids lunches that I may not have spent the money to try
- Hands free breast pump to try to increase my supply while working
- A small bookshelf and storage area for toys, clothes for myself and my kids as they size up.
Sometimes even things that I thought no one would be interested in (half used lotions, leftover food from a party) gets snatched up pretty quickly! It’s nice to know anything can be put to good use.
The Only Negative: Transportation Waste
The only negative I can see of Buy Nothing is potential transportation waste. Driving all over the city and wasting up to 15 minutes each way on transportation time and gas can add up. There have been occasions when I make a drive out and then the person forgets to put the item out and I have to make a second trip.
My recommendation is to look at cross streets of items and judge for yourself if the value of the item is enough to you to make a trip out of the way. I am more likely to pick up small things in my neighborhood and on my way to work, and if I’m going out of my way I try to stack multiple pickups on one day or only get large or expensive items.
Try it
Low stakes, high reward. Go to Facebook, search “Buy Nothing *your city name here*”, join the group, and scroll to start. See what people are asking for and giving. Find something you like, comment on why you’d like it. The more personal the better odds you are selected, give a reason.
Wish you best luck on getting and getting rid of items.
Weight Loss Per Day – Fasting, Exercise, and more compared
I don’t think anyone will be surprised to see “Not Eating” + “Doing Exercise” is the fastest way to lose weight. However the noteworthy comparison is the Efficiency of weight loss. This can be used to limit the pain needed to lose weight.
There are plenty of websites about fasting for multiple days, look into those or the Electrolyte loss + Refeeding Syndrome can kill you.
Data and Findings
Fasting with exercise wins, this is easier said than done if you’ve fasted for a few days. I’ve been able to run ~1 mile and walk 2-3 miles during a 5 day fast. This is approx 300+ calories.
Something interesting here. The extra exercise is gives you the same weight loss per day as if you never fasted, however the absolute when fasting is higher. Its easy to dismiss this as obvious, but if you ever found yourself buying an extra item because it was Buy One Get One Half Off and you ended up spending 50% more money than you expected. My point being: If you are going to be suffering during a fasting day anyway or its urgent to lose weight, you could add an extra 300+ calories in exercise.
This also highlights how insignificant some exercise is. 1 hour of causal walking burns ~300 calories max. It is quite time intensive to burn calories this way. Meanwhile if you could run 6 or 13 miles, you could be burning 800 or 1700 calories in a day. These stacked with a caloric deficit can get decently high in weight loss per day.
Personal Application
If you can handle fasting, it clearly shows to be the best. I will do this a few times a year for ~2-3 days to lose weight but not get into ketosis. Being obsessed with Efficiency, I admittedly will do sometimes a 1 mile run then take the kids ~2 miles round trip to the park.
More regularly, I’ll eat 1 large-ish meal and 0-1 smaller meal/snacks through the day. Then I’ll do some cardio, often 6 miles. 1500 calories eaten, ~800 calories burned. 1800 Caloric deficit! Lose a half pound in 1 day!
This is semi-reasonable to do this and similar all week. Swapping 6 mile runs for biking to let muscles rest won’t burn as many calories, but it will give you a break and still burn extra.
Final Thoughts and Long Term
I consider losing weight a temporary condition. I don’t plan to live like this forever. I plan to lose the weight and stay some-what around that weight.
If I gain 5-15lbs in a year, I can lose this weight in weeks. This can beat some of the mental difficulties with weight loss. We are often inspired for the first ~2 months of a new lifestyle before the excitement is gone.
Apply this law of nature and sprint at weight loss for 2 months before taking a break and eating normal. When you are excited to take on another round of weight loss, you are ready to begin.
1 Minute Races, Baby Time Tips, Fast Food Alternatives, Cardio Exercise Per Dollar
Huge Sale, $10 for our Speed Cooking book, down from $35. If the sale doesn’t show up, wait ~72 hours, I just posted the sale a moment ago.
I’m happy to say that we have lots of novel time saving ideas. Maybe that whole ‘be a master with 10 years of practice’ is real. I’ve been doing Industrial Engineering for 9 years now and I have a tool to present this release: 1 Minute Races. See below.
Save Time
(Feature) Stop Trying So Hard And Save Time By Eliminating Overprocessing Waste – Do you know what overprocessing waste is? If not, you are probably wasting and not realizing it. This goes around the home and looks at areas you may be wasting time.
(Feature) Save Time With 1 Minute Races– This is new technology! This tool can be used to drastically cut the time any activity takes. Since discovering this, I look decently presentable when picking up the kids from daycare despite being WFH. (Also, this might be rediscovered technology, the closest I could find was called Single-Minute Exchange of Die)
Create Time With A Baby– A few value added tips that not only improve your life after have a baby, but also give you more time.
Eliminate Baby Waste– Tons of tips on how to apply the 7 forms of waste to getting your baby to toddler.
Save Money
Faster Than Fast Food– Ideas to spend less than 5 minutes per day cooking. Featuring 2 exclusive recipes!
Cost of Exercise Per Year – Looking at various ways to get the heart rate up. I originally called this Exercise Per Dollar, but decided that a per year basis was easier to relate.
(Short)Save $200/yr on Library (audio) books– Don’t bother clicking the link, get a library card, sign up for their online services like Hoopla and Libby.
Final thoughts
Everyone is already using chatgpt right? If you aren’t, that is an easy way to save at least 1 hour per day. I will even recommend the paid ChatGPT4. Practice using it, there might not seem to be a learning curve since its so easy, but your skill with unlock new abilities.
I’ve started thinking about a metric Pleasure/Pain. While this might be able to be measured using neurochemicals and hormones, I think we also can make some sort of personal judgement on these as well. Exchanging rubs with someone costs only time, however adding extra salt to food might even have less pain related costs. I wanted to share this idea, so you can consider this in your own life.
Think throughout the day what tasks can be turned into 1 minute races, its been eye opening how much time you can save when you remove old routines.
Wishing you the best rest of the year. Hope you make goals that help you grow in 2024.
Lead Engineer
Michael Kirk
Save Money with Fast Recipes as an alternative to Fast Food / Restaurants
Given the ~$15 per person minimum cost to eat somewhere, I wanted to share the concept behind our 2 minute/day Speed Cooking book.
Concept: Faster than Fast Food
Fast food takes some transportation time, order time, waiting, and further transportation time. A re-order delivery is going to beat us, but we can beat a trip to a Fast Food Restaurant ~5 minutes.
We will only count active time as most Fast Recipes take 20+ minutes to cook. You are at home during this 20 minutes of passive time, I can’t think of a better location to use those 20 minutes. Grocery shopping is also not counted in the total time, if you need to bring this time down, I suggest a 4 week schedule of recipes, pick the week you like and it has all groceries needed for the week sorted by isle(See EIE 21$/week).
How To: Faster Than 1000 Calories/Minute.
Everything is throw and go. Meats, potatoes, vegetables, nothing is ever cut into smaller pieces. If you want a vegetable cut, you will need to pay the grocery store premium(We do this for baby carrots).
Nothing is measured. Spices are added fast. Do not pick recipes or spices where slightly too much or too little will ruin it. Fewer spices is faster, however, a motivated chef can put in a dozen spices in far less than a minute.
Typically store bought sauces are used to save time, but taste and cost varies greatly. We personally have 1 exception, and that is to make a ultra massive pot of red Italian sauce. The job is quite easy, open cans of tomato sauce, add herbs, salt, sugar, some baking soda(Life Pro Tip), maybe ground beef. Let it cook and stir every ~30 minutes until it gets to boil. After it boils, turn it off, let it cool, and freeze into ~40 containers.
The big deal: Passive cooking only. Slow cookers, ovens, rice cookers, air fryers, maybe a pot of water if the pot is tall enough that water wont boil over. Nothing can be flipped or touched. Remember that its Throw and Go.
Ideas and Examples
Here are two examples, one from Speed Cooking and another from an upcoming ‘This Time The Food Tastes Good’. Note how many servings these make. Leftovers are the goal to save you time.
Two Minute Broccoli/Chicken Sesame Rice
This is my wife’s favorite. Basically pick out some sauces from the Asian isle at the grocery store. If the sauce is the name of a dish you like, its a safe bet to try it. This is a summary from the book Speed Cooking.
Steps:
- In a rice cooker, add rice and water. Turn on the rice cooker.
- Put chicken or broccoli on a pan and place it in the oven. Turn the oven on to 325°F (163°C) for 45 minutes.
- On a plate, place the cooked rice, and your choice of either broccoli or chicken. Add your preferred sauce at the table.
You may have a gigantic chicken breast on your plate. Time to enjoy conversation with family or TV while you cut the chicken breast into manageable pieces. The goal is to save you time in the kitchen, and give you more time you actually enjoy.
5 Minute Biryani
This one was so good, my surprised Dad chased people around the house telling them to eat it.
Servings: 3300 Calories, ~6 servings
You have 2 minutes to put these ingredients in a slow cooker, if you can’t find a spice quickly, move on, it will taste fine. You also might want to double the spices if you prefer extra aroma. We do not.
In a slowcooker add:
- Chicken (or Potatoes) – 2-3 breasts, and any chicken scraps you’ve been saving.
- Water – ~1 cup, ensuring the slow cooker does not dry out. Excess water is beneficial as it mixes with the rice later.
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp onion powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2-3 tbsp sugar, depending on your desired sweetness
In a rice cooker:
- 4 cups basmati rice – It’s quite important to use this type of rice for the intended flavor. Other types of rice can be used, but the taste experience may vary.
- 6 cardamom pods
- 1 star anise
- 10 cloves
- 2 tsp salt
Final steps moments before serving in the slow cooker:
- (deliciously optional) 8 tbsp ghee/butter/veg oil/veg shortening/peanut oil
- Cooked basmati rice, you can optionally take the cardamon pods, star of anise, and cloves out. Or just avoid eating it later. To save time, you can basically skim the top layer of rice, depends on how much waste you are okay with.
Now stir everything really good, you have less than 1 minute left. Serve and Enjoy.
By the way I never seem to get the salt right, I always salt a second time at the table.
Math:
8 cups cooked rice * 200 calories/cup = 1600 calories
3 chicken breasts * 250 calories = 750 calories
8 tbsp oils * 120 = 960 calories
Enjoy The Freedom
Save money, save time. These low effort meals are my personal favorite. Get excited about a future speed cooking style book, we figured out how to make Chicken Pot Pie in under 5 minutes of active time. For now, our even faster, but not as tasty Speed Cooking book.
Save $200/yr with Library Apps
Paying for Audible still? With Libby and Hoopla apps and your local library card, you can get both audiobooks and ebooks for free.
That is the entire article, instead of me filling this page with filler, go to your library or their website and see if you can get a library card.
Wish you the best.
Cost of Exercise Per Year
This is probably one of the weakest sources of data in the history of the website, however I think it served its purpose and I wanted to share. The data was made up by chatGPT, it was not collected in the real world. This seems bad, but it could also be advantageous. If I collect prices across the nation(or even between stores in the same city), differences in labor/cost of living prices can make two identical activites cost different prices. This is some ultra aggregate of data, and as long as we can learn from it, its good right?
My 5 second hypothesis was that running is the cheapest. I was wrong.
Data
Conclusions
We can somewhat generalize different categories of costs.
Free
These are home workouts that you can literally do naked. The most I can imagine paying is for internet so you can follow along to a video or buying some supplementary equipment like bands or a yoga mat. However, the moment you buy anything, you have plenty of clothed non-home options.
Regarding my hypothesis, I had forgotten shoe costs.
Less than $200/yr
These mostly involve buying a few pieces of equipment once. Buying a football/soccer ball, shoes, light safety equipment. These mainline sports can give you opportunities to play in public and meet new people, which could have its own positive value.
The biggest bummer here is that shoes do not seem to last. My shoes go from “New Running Shoes” to “Worn Weight Lifting Shoes” to “Grass Cutting Shoes” over their lifetime. I suppose I’m not counting these later lifespans. I personally don’t notice the difference between cheap($60) and expensive shoes($100+) unless there is something weird about the expensive shoes.
Less than $500/yr
These are your sports that require someone to be paid and real estate to be occupied. There are some exceptions like buying a gym membership to do weight lifting or buying an elliptical.
Greater than $1000/yr
These appear to be classes that require an instructor that are a bit more hands on or require equipment/expertise.
Application
Your exercise and social goals may dictate these. However you may find that you can make the choice between a yoga class and a yoga video. You will lose out on potential social benefits.
I have two personal goals, have good cardio and grow muscle. Cardio is low cost between running, $50 stationary bike, hula hooping, and jump roping. To grow muscle, you require weights, the lowest cost solution for us was to buy a home gym once for $1000. The quality requirements for exercise can be more complex than a mere ‘yes this is exercise’.
Thoughts?
Did you forget chatGPT generated this data? I did. If fake/mathmatically reasonable data bothered you, let me know. The conclusions of this study seemed reasonable, however with fake data, I worry we are missing some edge case. On the flip side, there would be no study this week if I had to collect this data myself. Email me at michaelkirk@efficiencyiseverything.com