Transformed Health with Daily 20-Minute Workouts

This article provides an insight into the fitness journey of Skye Mackintosh, a 29-year-old regional sales manager and father of two, who is based in Utah.

On October 15th, 2024, you saw a picture of yourself by the pool and did not recognize yourself. You felt like it was not really you, having been the biggest you’d ever been.

You decided to go a year without added sugar, and you lost some weight. You didn’t eat anything that even had one gram of added sugar for a full year.

Finding Consistency in Exercise

Though you’ve always been active — You grew up hunting and fishing on your family farm, played basketball once a week or so, and used to run a lot — you had a hard time working out consistently. You even ran a 50k ultramarathon with six weeks of training, but always reverted back to your old habits. So, you wanted to find a way of working out that you would consistently stick to.

The 20-Minute Workout Challenge

You decided to start posting evidence of your daily 20-minute workouts online. You knew that if you documented your fitness journey online, you wouldn’t be able to face the embarrassment of not following through on your commitment.

You chose 20 minutes because 30 isn’t always achievable, and 10 didn’t seem to be enough. You made this decision keeping in mind the future responsibilities and commitments in your life like having more kids, grandkids, and changes in your career. But regardless of what’s happening, you figured you’ll always have 20 minutes.

You started with push-ups and jump squats as they are simple exercises that hit the core muscle groups and can be done anywhere.
After some time, based on advice from people in your online community, you added one back exercise and one core exercise to your routine to target different parts of your body.

Adapting Your Exercise Routine

Over time, you adapted your exercise routine as you got stronger. You now do upper body exercises 3 days a week and lower body and core exercises 2 days a week. On Wednesdays, you either play basketball or do some stretching, and Sundays are full rest days.

As you have gotten stronger, you’ve added more reps in those 20 minutes and incorporated some simple equipment into your routine. You always opted for movements that anyone can do with bodyweight or really simple, cheap equipment. For example, you really like lunges with a kettlebell or ab rollouts.

The Benefits of Regular Exercise

Your main goal wasn’t necessarily to get jacked but to become the man you want to be through hard work and dedication. Between day 30 and day 40, you realized you were finding working out fun. You’ve also gotten a lot stronger and improved your form. You also sleep more deeply, dream more, and have more confidence and self-respect.

You’ve been inspiring people through your Instagram page with your journey. People have messaged you to say that they’ve worked out for the first time in years, or they are on day 50 of their own journeys.

Your main advice is just to start and keep it simple. You’ve discovered that even something small, stacked over time, is better than great spurts of effort. It’s all about consistency.

If 20 minutes seems overwhelming, start with 10, or even five. You don’t need to put pressure on yourself to work out for 100 days in a row; you just need to do it today.