I Disagree With Minimalist Training

Minimalist style training just doesn't work.

I often hear Youtube coaches claim that athletes should only do 3-4 exercises per session in order to increase the quality of work on those 3-4 motions. Others claim that athletes who spend more than X hours in the gym are wasting their time, and some say doing more than Y exercises means the athletes are not training hard. I disagree with this minimalist training philosophy.

Firstly, I understand what coaches mean when they say doing less exercises is more. And to some extent, I agree. I see people spending 3 hrs in the gym and think, wow, that is pretty unnecessary. However, I disagree with the claim that doing a handful (4-5) exercises per session is really optimal for most people. This is because training in such a way does not allow for enough accessory volume in the program, which both decreases the athlete's rate of progress and leaves athletes more susceptible to injuries. In the pursuit of quick and easy minimalist workouts, coaches often exclude calf work, arm work and various accessories. This is incredibly detrimental, as this type of work is still extremely important in an athlete's full development.

Secondly, I disagree with the idea that having more exercises in your workout means you are not training hard. This is false since the amount of stimulus provided by a lift does not scale linearly. For example, if an athlete is doing a big compound lift like a squat or snatch, then they will allocate more energy and mental resources into that lift. However, if they are doing an accessory like calf raises or leg curls, they can get an adequate stimulus without busting their ass off like they did on the squats or snatches. Therefore, an athlete can still train hard when they are on exercise 6 or 7 in a 2hr long session!

Also, skipping out on additional work just hinders progress. I have trained many blocks where my bench press would not go up simply because I was not doing enough chest work. And I have had periods of poor sprinting performance because I wasn't training my plyos and my calves as well as they should have been trained. Plus, almost all of the greatest strength athletes of all time have built their bases doing tons of hypertrophy work for large volumes and lighter weights. Bigger muscles = stronger muscles. So why would you sacrifice on bigger muscles in the name of 'minimalism'?

Minimalist workouts should only be used by those who are on a huge time crunch, or those who are trying to dissipate fatigue during something like a deload week. Apart from this minority, I usually advise that all trainees can do up to 7 exercises per session. This varies on a case by case basis, but this number of motions is what I have found to be productive and possible for most. Your workouts really shouldn't take more than 2 hrs even with these exercises, since the last few accessory exercises should be done in a quick manner. But if you train for something like strongman or weightlifting, later-block workouts can take up to 2.5hrs. Anything more than this is likely overkill. 

~ Prem