Although I’ve never been particularly sedentary \u2014 I grew up hunting and fishing on my family farm, played basketball once a week or so, and used to run a lot \u2014 I had a hard time working out consistently. If I had days I didn’t want to exercise, I just didn’t. I’ve completed 75 hard a couple of times, and I even ran a 50k ultramarathon with six weeks of training<\/a>, but I always just went back to how I was.<\/p>\n So, I wanted to find a way of working out that I would actually do forever.<\/p>\n I challenged myself to work out for 20 minutes a day<\/p>\n I decided to start posting evidence of my daily 20-minute workouts<\/a>. I knew that if I put my fitness journey online, I wouldn’t be able to face the embarrassment of not following through on my word.<\/p>\n Skye Mackintosh started posting his workouts online to hold himself accountable.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Skye Mackintosh<\/p>\n I chose 20 minutes because 30 isn’t always achievable, and 10 didn’t seem to be enough. My wife and I are going to have more kids, and then I’ll have grandkids, and who knows where my career will take me. But regardless of what’s going on, I figure I’ll always have 20 minutes.<\/p>\n I chose push-ups and jump squats<\/a> to start with because I wanted to hit the core muscle groups while keeping it simple enough to do anywhere.<\/p>\n As my account grew, I started getting advice from people in my comments. They told me that I would mess up my posture or injure myself if I didn’t work different parts of my body, so around day 35, I added one back exercise and one core exercise<\/a>.<\/p>\n The exercises I do have developed as I have gotten stronger<\/p>\n I felt like I was plateauing with a full-body workout every day, so now I do upper body 3 days a week and lower body and core 2 days a week. On Wednesdays, I either play basketball or do some stretching, and Sundays are full rest days.<\/p>\n As I have gotten stronger, I’ve added more reps in those 20 minutes and some equipment, so it isn’t too monotonous. Nothing crazy \u2014 just a kettlebell and pull-up bar<\/a>, and some free equipment I have gotten from brands as my account got more popular.<\/p>\n I always do movements that anyone can do with bodyweight or really simple, cheap equipment. For example, I really like lunges with a kettlebell or ab rollouts.<\/p>\n Skye Mackintosh started adding core exercises.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Skye Mackintosh<\/p>\n A few commenters have said that my routine is getting too complicated and intimidating, and I get it; it would have been overwhelming if I had tried to jump straight into what I was doing on day 143 on day one. My whole point is to start where you are \u2014 don’t compare my day 143 with your day one.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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