Published April 17, 2026
Your workout has 14 exercises. It takes two hours. By exercise 10, you're just going through the motions, checking boxes, and hating every second of it. You skip the gym twice this week because the thought of spending two hours there makes you tired before you even start. Congratulations, your "perfect" routine is the reason you're inconsistent.
If you had to pick five exercises and could never do anything else, here's what they'd be: a squat, a bench press, a row, an overhead press, and a deadlift. That's it. Those five exercises hit every muscle in your body. Everything else is decoration.
Can you add bicep curls and lateral raises later? Sure. But if you're struggling to stay consistent, those five exercises done 3 times a week will build more muscle and strength than a 14-exercise routine you do once a week because you keep skipping it.
Here's what a simple workout looks like. Squat: 3 sets of 8. Bench press: 3 sets of 8. Barbell row: 3 sets of 10. Overhead press: 3 sets of 8. Deadlift: 2 sets of 5. That's 14 total sets. With 90-second rest periods and warm-ups, you're done in 45 minutes. In and out. Go live your life.
Do this 3 days a week. Add weight when you can. That's the whole program. It's not fancy. It won't get you Instagram likes. But it works better than most of the complicated nonsense people are doing.
Every exercise you add to your routine is another reason to skip the gym. "I don't have time for a 2-hour workout today" turns into "I'll go tomorrow" turns into "I'll start again Monday" turns into three weeks off. But "I can knock out 45 minutes" is hard to talk yourself out of.
The best lifters I know have simple routines. They do the basics, they do them well, they progressively overload, and they go home. They're not doing 6 variations of a curl. They're squatting, pressing, pulling, and leaving.
Squats hit your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core. Bench hits your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Rows hit your back and biceps. Overhead press hits your shoulders and triceps. Deadlifts hit your entire posterior chain. You're covered. If something is lagging after 3 months, add one accessory exercise for it. One. Not five.
I've been lifting for 25 years. My best progress has always come from simple programs. The times I've stalled were the times I was doing too much, trying to optimize everything, and burning myself out. Strip it back. Do the basics. Add weight over time. That's the entire formula.
Your workout doesn't need to be complicated to be effective. It needs to be consistent. And simple workouts are easier to be consistent with. Simplify, dumbass.