Fitness Blog 1

Sep 30, 2025

I’m putting together a minimalist bodyweight gym. I’m not interested in becoming ripped like a body builder, but I would like to train for strength, flexibility and balance. There seems to be a link between reduced cognitive decline with age and strength training. At 63 that obviously holds interest for me. As we age we also lose muscle and bone density and strength training can help to ward that off.

During Covid, I lost just over 2 stone (I needed to). I discovered the follow-along HIIT (High intensity interval training) YouTube videos. They usually had press-ups, high stepping, jumping jacks, and squats, etc., of 4, 5 or 7 min. in length. I did them hard enough to make them as aerobic as possible. During Covid, I would do 3 a day. It was strangely easy. I followed my lesson schedule religiously with my students - which meant my usual break and lunch time down times were now not filled with grabbing a coffee or lunch, or talking to kids and colleagues, so instead I’d do a short HIIT routine and still have time for coffee and a protein shake (if it was lunch).

Then when we went back into the work place, I kept it at at least two a day. I would start with the 7 minute workout in the morning, and then add a one or two 4 or 5 minute routines in the day when I could. I also had two protein shakes a day (one for breakfast and one for lunch) and cut out sweet treats.

This all worked really well for me but over time the impact affected my right knee (in particular). As the arthritis in the right knee got worse, I stopped the HIIT, got out of the habit of having protein shakes for lunch and put the weight back on. I went to physio, stopped everything everything except the individual fortnightly Taekwon-Do training.

The physio therapist gave me all sorts of activities that needed a resistance band. I started them and just could not sustain the motivation to keep doing half an hour of all these reps and sets on an (almost) daily basis. It was mind numbingly tedious and I couldn’t feel any benefit.

I stated looking around at alternative ways to work out, and the next logical step was strength training as it doesn’t involve repeated impact. I found some beginners follow along callisthenics workouts. I’ve been doing them for probably much more than a year – usually 20 – 25 min, usually 3 or 4 times a week. I also started training front and side splits flexibility, using the Unity Gym (minimalist) system. I’m nowhere near either splits but I am more flexible (“minimalist” is in brackets because I don’t think he knows he’s a minimalist). So this would mean 3 or 4 of these routines a week plus up to four 15 - 20 minute flexibility routines (just two repeats each of both of the beginners side and front splits routines).

To check on what I was doing I booked another Physio appointment and was completely open about the fact that I hadn’t been doing the recommended exercises. I was told what I was doing was a step above (he actually used the term ‘The Gold Standard’). Anecdote is not evidence, however the diagnosis on one part of the knee is definitely a significant change for the better, and I generally use the knee straps a great deal less. All this has basically been done on the back of minimal Taekwon-Do training and mainly splits squats with progressive overload.

I am stuck though. Having made gains in strength, I noticed I started deviating from the follow-alongs’ timings to suit my body and substitute in moves to suit my aims and needs. For for all my strict adherence to form progress has become incredibly slow. (On a good day, I can really only manage 3 hyper slow press-ups (elbows tucked right in to body, hand as far back as you can manage), and I’m way to heavy/ weak for pull ups or chin ups - although I do still train in Taekwon-Do and am/ was approaching my 5th Dan grading). Also things like hollow hold, quad hold, reverse plank and very basic (Leo Moves) style flows are all improving slowly.

Between actual research and YouTube’s algorithm I found Jack Woods who claimed he’d made all of his gains on 40 minutes a week. Jack Woods is a callisthenics YouTuber, coach and entrepreneur. As I said, I don’t need to be ripped, but efficiently fighting the muscle and bone loss of age really does interest me. I was easily doing 40 minutes a week, so why not make them as efficient as possible?

Jack Woods and Phillip Chubb (of the Mindful Mover) have been pioneering low set high intensity training. There are also strength trainers (e.g. Bruce Simpson) making similar claims.

The Jack Woods System:

In essence the principles are as follows:

1) Anything is better than nothing

2) A set is 1 to 3 minutes and we’re not worried about numbers of reps.

3) The force required to do an exercise will vary throughout the range of movement in an exercise. (e.g. the top 1/3 of a squat is the easiest).

4) To maximise the growth stimulus the load on your muscles must be as close to the point of failure as possible throughout the whole range of movement. As Phil Chubb says: “It really should be a grind.”

5) We should be as close to failure as possible throughout the full range of motion in both the positive and negative phase of the motion.

6) By changing angles and distances, exercises can be scaled down until they reach zero effort. From this point, exercises can be continuously scaled up until you are as close to your maximum as possible. At this point maximum gains are made throughout the whole range of movement.

7) Overwhelmingly, Gym Rings are the most suitable piece of equipment to achieve continuous scaling of difficulty. This is because you can change the angle of your body and the position of your arms and legs to make the movement harder or easier. If needed you can hang rings from a cheap pull-up bar in a door.

There are a series of ‘North Star’ moves (in the incredibly distant future/ what the superstars do) which test the basic planes of the bodies movement:

Horizontal push - straddle planch

Horizontal pull-front lever
Vertical push - handstand push up
Vertical pull- one arm chin up
Squat- single leg squat + 75% of body weight
Knee flexion- Nordic curl

All of these movements are what young fit people can achieve in 5 – 10 years of training. However, all of these can be scaled to zero. Taking each in turn:

Horizontal Push - Start with a zero weight push up

Horizontal Pull - Horizontal row with feet down

Vertical Push – Pike push up – progress by raising the feet

Vertical Pull – start with both hands and support with feet/ resistance bands.

Squat – start with taking weight off working leg and arms that take the load.

Nordic curl – bend hips, assist with arms and remove support as necessary.

Once movements are scaled to zero, they can be scaled so they are close to the point of maximum effort/ close to failure throughout the full range of motion. [See 17:28 video above - on for how to manipulate the variables of angle and orientation to adjust difficulty.] Aim for 1 to 3 minutes of each exercise. Sondre Berg (calisthenics Youtuber) and others also use resistance bands to scale the force required down. You can start a difficult move supported by a strong resistance band and as you get stronger, swap it for one that’s weaker, and continue that process.

The Equipment:

Gym rings
Parallettes
Nordic Curl Bar
Resistance Bands

I went with the 28 mm diameter Gym Rings because Jack Woods recommends a 28mm diameter, which is the International Gymnastics Federation standard. The Gravity Fitness rings came with numbered straps, which helps in setting them up. Most rings are either 28 or 32 mm in diameter. Sondre Berg’s Gym Rings are 36 mm in diameter. By chance I found the Muscle Mountain minimal rings which are incredibly similar in design to, and the same 36 mm diameter of Sondre Bergs’ (but a fraction of the price on Amazon). Happy Fat Rings also do 36mm rings currently at 89 euros with no straps, so they go on some imaginary future present list. (Calisthenics Worldwide have positively reviewed the Happy Fat Rings.)

With regards to the parallettes, I went with the Kraken 5cm grip model because Sondre Berg’s are 5cm and I read in a review of them that said the wider grip is good for training grip strength. I didn’t buy Sondre Berg’s parallettes because they would have been 100 euros inc. delivery. Kraken don’t ship directly to UK (Brexit) – so I ordered them and asked family in Ireland to send to them on to me. Most Parallettes are thinner in grip diameter, typically 4 cm or quite a bit less. Sondre Berg’s gear is deliberately “fat grip”.

Time will tell whether Berg or Woods are right about the widths. However, I’m not planning on getting any more parallettes to compare. Sondre Berg’s minimal gym bundle seems perfectly designed and built in keeping with a minimalist aesthetic and minimal environmental impact. His stuff is just beautiful (and you definitely pay to support it).

Anyway, that leaves me with two sets of rings.. Yes. I did consider sending the Gravity fitness rings back, but the numbered straps and the fact I haven’t actually been able to use them yet saved them. Also seeing that numbered straps seem to start at around £25, I just don’t see the point of sending them back. And – I might hate the Muscle Mountain minimal rings.

The resistance bands are a random Amazon purchase. I needed something long and light for my rotator cuff physio exercises and I got the range because I wanted the stronger bands for training in the minimal gym later on when I can use both arms again.

So the basic plan is to give up on reps and sets and just try to apply the Minimal Training principles. 1 set of 1 – 3 minute of maximal effort as close to failure as possible in the negative and positive for the full range of motion.

Equipment Sources

I should say that I’ve already bought a cheap pull up bar from Aldi and I plan to hang the rings off that.

Gravity Fitness Wooden Gymnastic Rings (28mm)

https://gravity.fitness/collections/shop/products/gravity-fitness-wooden-gymnastic-rings

£37.95

Nature Care Ultra-Light 36mm Gym Rings, Minimalist Fitness Rings by MUSCLE MOUNTAIN

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nature-Care-Ultra-Light-Minimalist-MOUNTAIN%C2%AE/dp/B0DJRJ61VP

£14.95

Kraken Parallettes Wooden Grip; Push Up Bars 5 CM

https://krakensport.com/product/kraken-parallettes-wooden-grip-push-up-bars-5-cm/

29 euros

+ 23 euros shipping to Ireland

Nordic Curl Bar

https://amzn.eu/d/0EEc8n0

£9.99

Fokky resistance bands

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fokky-Resistance-Assistance-Handles-Exercise/dp/B0D1CK25B8/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?

£19.99

Work Outs

Jack woods - see planch lean press up progression also how to experience negative failure (8:54 ish). This is just an introduction:

Full Beginners Routine:

Planch style /leaning press up
Row
Pike push up
Pull up
Squat
Nordic curl

I’m going to add:

wall walk-ups
dips
(possibly) hamstring curls

Nordic Curl progression here:

The following beginner to advanced workout by Sondre Berg shows nice progressions from beginner to advanced:

Pike push up
Pull ups
Dips
Row
Squat
Hamstring curls

Reps and Sets

Reps – one rep (or repetition) is one complete movement of an exercise (e.g. the complete movement in one press-up, down and up).

Set: a group of those reps performed one after the other before resting

So one round of an exercise routine might consist of press-up, split squats, Cossack squats, hollow hold, single seated leg raises, followed by a rest period. There could then be several rounds.

References:
Jack Woods introduces his system: