Minimalist fitness – a lost art is an accurate description of our current fitness and society. I have been into fitness since I was a teenager. Even in high school I competed in Olympic lifting and won every time for my weight class. I too fell into the idea that to be fit I had to be in the gym lifting weights. It was what I was taught. It was all around me, I had no idea I was wrong until later in life.
Minimalist Fitness – A Lost Art
Now I have experience in Olympic lifting, Crossfit, calisthenics, bodyweight movements, and regular training for overall fitness and fat loss. I decided at the beginning of 2020 to test out can I stay fit, lean, and have muscle with a minimalist approach to fitness. This was for a few personal reasons that I will dive right into.
Reason one Minimalist Fitness – A Lost Art
My first reason is I live full-time in an RV so I wanted to test out how my fitness routine would look once I hit FIRE. I’m currently FI but won’t retire until 2024, and as of now, I do have free gym access on base. Yet I have learned it’s better to test out new lifestyles ahead of time to see just how they play out.
Living in an RV full-time means I have less room for stuff than most people. So a traditional home gym in the garage or a room is out of the question. I knew I had to be creative and think about this approach from not only a space-saving ideal but also a performance and optimization standpoint as well. How could I get the most bang for my dollar, space, and time?
Living full-time in an RV means I could be anywhere. I might be hours away from a gym or even a store in general. We love to do as much off-grid living as possible. I can already see that we will be doing a lot more when I don’t have to go to work anymore.
Recap, reason one I live in an RV full-time so I had to test out how my fitness routine could look when I am anywhere.
Reason two Minimalist Fitness – A Lost Art
My second reason is sustainability. I want my body to stay young, healthy, and mobile as I get older. I don’t want to be what I would consider most average Americans where I can barely walk and have a ton of health issues due to my lifestyle. Of course, not all health issues are due to poor lifestyle choices. Yet doctors and study after study have shown most are due to poor lifestyle choices and lack of activity.
I have seen many people lift weights and as they age they have knee, back, and hip issues. You will even see it in younger women and men that I know who train. I started to see a trend that even lifting weights might not be the most optimized approach for mobility as I age. It did not seem like it would create a sustainable routine.
This made me look into bodyweight, running, and calisthenics more. This is a sustainable routine that can help you as you age and keep you mobile and fit.
Recap, reason two I want a fitness routine that is sustainable for my whole life.
Reason three Minimalist Fitness – A Lost Art
Buy third reason is I wanted to see if I could find a fitness routine that anyone can do from anywhere in the world. I plan to do a lot more traveling once I pull the trigger on FIRE. So I wanted a routine that could match my nomad plans for the future. I also think about all the people in other countries and even our own country that don’t have gyms, fancy equipment or weights.
Could I come up with a routine that could meet and possibly exceed all of these things? I feel now after doing this routine for over 1.5 years I can say without a shred of a doubt yes. This minimalist fitness approach exceeds all of my goals and it will probably exceed yours as well.
Recap, reason three I wanted a routine that I could do from anywhere in the world.
What is Minimalist Fitness?
I’m sure a lot of people know or have an idea of what minimalism is. Yet probably have never heard of minimalist fitness. I’m very much a minimalist at heart and feel it truly brings peace and joy into my life. So minimalist fitness is using the concept of minimalism with fitness.
I don’t know why it took me so many years to figure this one out! I should have been doing this in my early twenties. It’s a lot like finding the FIRE community in a sense, once you find it you wish you would have found it earlier and it’s pretty life-changing in many parts of your life.
That is one thing I love about minimalist fitness is it’s FI or FIRE friendly and I truly believe it works well with anyone on the path to either of these goals.
A Lost Art?
It’s 100% a lost art in this day and age. Every fitness, health, or mobility advertisement is always aiming at expensive memberships, fancy expensive equipment, or some routine that is not sustainable let alone can be done from any location in the world. Fitness, body, health, and mobility are a form of art. Our society has lost the basic art for these crucial parts of our lives that have such a huge impact on us.
Ages ago people would use body weight, and minimal equipment to achieve top levels of fitness, health, and mobility.
Somewhere along the line, we forgot to pass this down to our kids. Next thing you know people are fooled into thinking they need all the crazy stuff I mentioned above to be fit, healthy, and mobile. It was simply a tactic to make money off of people. Fitness and health are one of those touchy subjects for most people. Yet it should not be and we should talk about it and money more often.
Just like money, fitness gets a lot of bad myths surrounding it. You get “experts” that charge money to do nothing that you couldn’t do yourself very simply, efficiently, and anywhere. The fitness market is a billion-dollar industry and will only keep growing as time goes on.
Time For Change
We change not only our understanding of fitness, health, and mobility but the stories we tell ourselves about them. These stories become true even when they are not. I have seen so many people tell me I can’t afford to get in shape because the gym membership is $200 a month. Or I can’t afford a trainer they want to charge me $50 an hour.
We create these stories because we don’t know any better. I want more people to get passionate about their health and wealth.
It’s time we use our body weight, minimal equipment, and dedication to get into the fitness level and mobility level that we can sustain as we get older or as we travel the world.
My YouTube Channel
I post my workouts on Youtube and on here as well. If you want to check out my YouTube channel click HERE!
Below is one of my recent minimalist workouts that can be done anywhere.
Follow along for my workouts or just get ideas for workouts you might want to do as well. I’m also going to start posting more running workouts as I am running a 50K race in September 2021.
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