Personal leadership · Every phase
Strength and fitness
You know why muscle strength and fitness matter so much, how much is enough, and how to start without a gym.
Worth reading first: Moving through the day
Does this sound familiar?
- Strength training isn't for me, I'm not a bodybuilder.
- I haven't got time to go to the gym four times a week.
- One flight of stairs and I'm out of breath.
- I've been running the same loop at the same pace for years.
- I only exercise at the weekend, so that doesn't really count.
Who it's for, and when
For anyone who does little or no exercise, and for anyone who's been doing the same loop for years. It applies in every phase. If you're forty and starting now, you'll get the most out of it: muscle strength and fitness decline with age if you do nothing.
Self-test
Three questions about an ordinary week. The result tells you whether strength and fitness are the thing to work on, and what your first step is.
How often do you do something that makes your muscles work really hard: weights, squats, press-ups, heavy lifting?
Has what you do got harder over the last few months: more weight, more reps, a tougher variation?
How often a week are you so out of breath that talking gets hard: running, hard cycling, a ball sport, running up the stairs?
The model
Twice a week, do something that makes your muscles work really hard, says the guideline. It doesn't have to be much: the biggest gain came from thirty to sixty minutes of strength training a week, with a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and dying early. Combined with aerobic exercise, the risk was lowest.
Fitness is one of the strongest predictors of how long you live and how healthy you stay. In a study of over 120,000 people, the difference between below-average and above-average fitness was as big as the difference between smoking and not smoking. And there was no upper limit: every step up counted.
You don't need a gym for it. Your own body weight, a resistance band or a few bottles of water will build muscle too, as long as you keep making the exercise a little harder. Building up is the heart of it: if you've done the same thing for years, you'll keep what you have, but you won't get stronger or fitter. People who only exercise at the weekend do almost as well as those who spread it over the week.
Short bursts count too. People who didn't exercise but breathed hard for a minute or two a few times a day (running up the stairs, carrying something heavy, walking briskly) had a clearly lower risk. That's one study, but it does say you can start with what you already do. If you get symptoms during exertion, such as chest pain or dizziness, or you have cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure that isn't under control, see your GP first. Without symptoms you don't need a medical check first: start gently and build up.
Health Council of the Netherlands, Physical Activity Guidelines 2017. Momma et al. on muscle-strengthening activity (British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2022). Kodama et al. (JAMA, 2009) and Mandsager et al. (JAMA Network Open, 2018) on fitness. O'Donovan et al. on weekend warriors (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2017). Stamatakis et al. on short bursts of vigorous activity (Nature Medicine, 2022). ACSM position stand on resistance training (2026).
Strength, twice a week
Two sessions of fifteen to thirty minutes. Squats or standing up from a chair, press-ups (against the wall or the kitchen worktop is fine), lunges, lifting something heavy. Stop a few reps before you really can't do any more.
Fitness
Twice a week for twenty minutes, hard enough that talking gets difficult: running, cycling hard, a ball sport. Or a few short one-minute bursts every day.
A little harder each time
One more rep, a slightly heavier weight, a harder variation. Write down what you did, so you know what to do next time.
Pitfalls
Starting too hard
If you go all out after years of doing nothing, two weeks later you've got sore muscles or an injury, and you stop. Start lighter than you think, and build up week by week.
Watch and read
In Dutch. Muscle physiologist Gül Turan (Wageningen University) on what happens to your muscles and your body when you don't use them.
Watch on YouTubeIn four minutes: why a muscle grows when you keep loading it a little more.
Watch on YouTubeNeuroscientist Wendy Suzuki (NYU) on what aerobic exercise does for your mood, attention and memory.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity
Peter Attia, met Bill Gifford · 2023 · ISBN 9781785044557
A doctor on strength, stability and fitness as the basis of a long and healthy life, with separate chapters on strength training and on fitness. He mixes research with his own practice: read it for the approach, not for the numbers.
View the bookApply it
- 1
1. Measure your starting point
How many times in a row can you stand up from a chair without your hands, and how many press-ups can you do against the wall or the kitchen worktop? Write it down. Do it again in six weeks.
- 2
2. Two fixed slots
Put fifteen minutes in your calendar twice a week, at a time you can stick to. A fixed time works better than a good intention.
- 3
3. Build up
A bit more every week: one more rep, one more round, a harder variation. Only make it harder once it feels easy.
- 4
4. Add the short bursts
Take the stairs at a brisk pace, carry the shopping, cycle a stretch as if you're running late. A minute of breathing hard, a few times a day.
Examples
Fifteen minutes at home, no kit
Three rounds, a minute's rest in between: Stand up from a chair 10 times 8 press-ups against the kitchen worktop 8 lunges per leg 30 seconds of plank on your knees If it feels easy, do two more reps or a harder variation.
A founder who never had the time
No time for the gym, so he never went. He put fifteen minutes in his calendar on Tuesday and Friday mornings, before his first meeting, in his own living room. After three months he'd gone from six press-ups to twenty, and he could walk up the stairs to his office on the third floor without getting out of breath.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.How much strength training do you need to get a health benefit from it?
2.You haven't got a gym or any weights. Can you still get stronger?
3.You only exercise on Saturdays, for an hour and a half. Does that count?
4.You run up the stairs a few times a day, a minute each time. Worth it or pointless?
5.You've been running the same five-kilometre loop at the same pace for five years. What happens?
6.You're 45, healthy and have no symptoms, but you haven't exercised for years. What do you do before you start?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Not sure where to start? Take the growth scan