Fast Full-Body Workout Routines: Fitness Coach’s Unique 2-Day, 30-Minute Strength Plan

Among the most common, yet understandable, reasons that many people don’t go to the gym is a lack of time. Whether you have a family, work, or anything else that makes a consistent workout schedule tough, it’s far from an easy thing to navigate. While there are many great three or four-day workout regimens worth considering, an interesting option was provided by longtime fitness expert Mike Israetel.

During an interview on Peter Attia’s The Drive podcast, Israetel laid out a two-day workout routine that includes just 30 minutes in the gym for each session. After initially referencing this as the “best return on investment” one can get in terms of health, longevity and even strength benefits, he dove deeper by providing specifics of how to approach the two 30-minute sessions.

How to Utilize the 2-Day, Full-Body Workout Routine: Upper Body

Before diving into the specifics of the workout and what type of exercises to consider, Israetel laid out how the week could potentially look and also explained how to scale your workload over time.

“So I’ll describe to you what week one could look like and then I’ll tell you how to scale that afterward, because it’s not just the same every single week,” Israetel explained to Attia. “So, what you want to do is, if you’re training twice a week, we’ll call it Monday and Thursday for simplicity...if you only train twice a week, you want it to be evenly spread, so Monday/Thursday, Wednesday/Friday, that sort of thing.”

“Because your muscles don’t take usually a whole week to recover, if you push them hard, maybe at most half a week, you can train every major muscle group of your body in every single session that you do.”

When working out on Monday and Thursday, the focus is on ensuring you hit every major muscle group over the two days. This is noteworthy because, as Israetel explains, this approach is beneficial for those focusing on the health and longevity returns that exercise can provide.

However, as he highlights, the workouts you choose should target more than one specific muscle at a time. This is how you’re going to maximize your return while minimizing time in the gym.

“So both Monday and Thursday will have every major muscle group being trained...whole body training is probably best for almost everyone who’s trying to get the health, longevity, aesthetic benefits,” he said. “You want to conserve time, but you want a high degree of effect. That’s going to impose some recommendations on us that do both of those things.”

“One recommendation is to choose lifts, choose exercises that involve two components: One is large muscle masses... you’re going to be training muscles like the quadriceps, the glutes, the hamstrings, the musculature of the back, the chest, the shoulders, the arms, etc.”

The first breakdown of exercises highlights upper-body options to consider, and we’ll break down the list mentioned below.

“Choosing exercises that train those muscles, preferably not just one muscle at a time,” Israetel says. “So, then we’re using muscles very efficiently because we’re pushing multiple muscles to their limits in one exercise. This is generally going to be compound movements, multi-joint movements, things like pull-ups, pull-downs, barbell and dumbbell bent-over rows.”

“Bench presses, push-ups, overhead presses, upright rows, squats, deadlifts, etc. These are the kind of movements that train multiple muscles at the same time. Thus, they are insanely time-efficient.”

Here’s a look at a few noteworthy potential upper-body options, including one or two additional exercises Israetel suggests:

• Pull-ups
• Pull-downs
• Barbell and dumbbell bent-over rows
• Bench press
• Push-ups
• Overhead press
• Upright rows
• Rowing machine

“If you do some kind of rowing machine, some kind of machine or barbell/dumbbell that’s a close-grip press [and] upright row, then you’ve technically trained every single muscle in your upper body to a substantial extent,” Israetel states.

Related: Fitness Researcher Reveals the Forgotten Fat-Burning Exercise We Were ‘Born to Do’

Lower Body Exercises: Maximizing Day 2 of the Workout Routine

The second day of the two-day workout routine focuses on the lower body. If you've worked out before, you may have some knowledge of these types of exercises, but if they’re new to you, most can be picked up quickly.

It’s worth pointing out that Israetel highlights later in response to a question from Attia that starting these exercises with no weight or even while holding onto something is a great approach if it’s new to you. The form behind many of these workouts (and upper body, as well) is extremely important, especially since you’re putting such a significant focus on each exercise.

“Same idea [for the lower body]...Stiff-legged deadlift, or good morning, RDLs [Romanian deadlifts] are the same category of movement that trains your entire back,” he said. “...Then it trains your glutes, your hamstrings, your sartorius...and it actually trains your calves, too.”

“You integrate some kind of lunging pattern or squatting pattern into that (barbell squat, for example)...and all of a sudden, you’ve run out of muscles to train in your lower body, because everything has been done to a high degree of diligence.”

Here’s a quick rundown of a few lower-body exercises mentioned:

• Romanian deadlifts
• Stiff-legged deadlifts
• Lunges
• Squats (barbell squats as an example to consider)

He explains that many people who go to the gym perform exercises focusing on a very specific part of a muscle, and for most, it’s essentially a waste of time since there are better options that will work on a broader range of muscles.

As Attia correctly cites, there’s extreme importance in doing these workouts safely (especially the lower body). This is when Israetel explains that starting with only your body weight or less is ideal. He recommended either having a trainer guide you while perfecting your form or researching the motions beforehand as a good starting point.

Having excellent form is pivotal to the workout, as mastering it allows you to start at a basic level and then gradually increase the weight on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. In turn, you’ll continue to build muscle and get stronger from these workouts across the board.

Israetel also adds that if you’re tight on time and continue to get comfortable with the workouts, after a few weeks, you can start mixing in other workouts during breaks in sets from what you’re working on that day. It’s a great way to increase your cardio and overall workout if you choose to.

Related: Fitness Expert Explains a Unique Workout to Train Less and Build Muscle Faster