Forget about long and exhausting workouts. You can get an athletic body with just 9 minutes of exercise a day, according to a former elite military trainer.

• According to a former elite military trainer, you only need nine minutes to do an effective workout.
• It is a mistake to try to do too much, learned Mark Lauren in the special forces.
• You can build “a strong, beautiful, athletic body” in just 0.3% of your week, Lauren told Insider.

The biggest mistake people make when trying to get in shape is overdoing it, according to a former US Special Operations Forces trainer.

All you need is nine minutes a day — or 0.3% of each week — to get in shape and build an athletic body, Mark Lauren tells Insider.

If you want to be fit for all aspects of life and reduce your risk of injury, you don’t need gym equipment or weights, all you need is your own body, he said. he declares.

In fact, many gym goers with the biggest muscles would struggle to take long walks because they never do them, according to Lauren.

Lauren joined the US Air Force and then the Special Ops community in the 90s and eventually became the physical trainer for nearly 1,000 elite Special Ops warriors including SEALs, Rangers, Green Berets , Force Reconnaissance Teams and Air Force Commandos. of September 11. His job was to make sure his recruits were ready for anything, whether it was climbing a wall or swimming underwater.

After realizing that long and grueling workouts didn’t necessarily lead to better results because they were an inefficient use of energy, Lauren developed her own bodyweight program for her squads.

Lauren’s training programs, detailed in his new book ‘Strong and Lean’, are inspired by how he trained the military, with an emphasis on efficiency.

The workouts are designed to help people “achieve your fitness goals with the least amount of effort,” Lauren said.

9 minutes is enough for an effective workout, said Lauren

A post shared by Mark Lauren (@mark_lauren_training)

In her early days in fitness, Lauren said it was a mistake to try to do too much because habits don’t become consistent behaviors if the cost outweighs the reward. For example, if you have to drive half an hour to the gym, spend an hour there, and drive back, and you try to do it five days a week, you might find it difficult to stick to it.

Instead, you can get a good workout in just nine minutes, at home, without equipment, he said.

“Especially in the beginning, or if you haven’t trained in a while, you need very little to progress,” Lauren said. “You don’t need an hour. You could do a set of push-ups and probably be in pain afterwards.”

Lauren’s workouts include a warm up followed by floor work, standing work and mobility drills, ensuring the body is trained up and down.

In nine minutes, you do three sets of one minute for each of the three exercises. In the beginning, you work for 40 seconds and rest 20 per minute, then gradually decrease the rest time.

“It’s the most effective method for providing enough progression, consistency, and variety to create full-body workouts that apply enough stress to make you stronger,” he said.

An example workout of three exercises:

• Buttock bridges: Lie on your back with your legs bent, feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Raise your hips as high as you can, making a straight line from your knees to the base of your neck. Squeeze your glutes and abs at the top, then lower and repeat.
• Starfish Twists: Start in a high plank/pushup position with your feet hip-width apart. Roll your heels to the left and reach your right arm skyward to form a side plank position. While keeping your right arm up, rotate your hips so they’re parallel to the floor and you’re on the balls of your feet again, then lower your arm back to the floor. Repeat on the other side.
• Bottom squats: Begin in a high double kneeling position with your arms extended in front of you. Step forward with the left leg in a single kneeling position. Bring your right leg forward so you are in a squat position with your hips low and your chest up. Reverse the movement then repeat with the other leg.

The workouts are designed to improve posture and build strong foundations, Lauren said.

“If you really want to have a strong, beautiful, athletic body, the first thing you need to do is build a foundation of fundamentals,” he said.