How I Learned to Master my Fitness When Time Is Scarce
Primer Pt. 3: The SOMF approach to physical fitness
The time-poor athlete’s predicament
It's 9 pm on Thursday. The kids are finally in bed and their bags are ready for tomorrow. You’re finishing clearing up when your gym bag catches your eye. The same gym bag you packed on Sunday night. Four days later, it’s still sitting there, unused. A silent reminder of good intentions gone awry.
You know you should exercise. You want to exercise. You want to be fit, strong, and healthy. You want to be able to keep up with the kids as they grow up and you age. You want to be a good role model for them. But between back-to-back meetings, family commitments, and life's endless demands, where does fitness fit?
You’ve tried following Youtube workouts but never seem to make any real progress. You’ve tried a few training programmes but can never see them through - they demand time you don’t have. Your fitness is receding faster than your hairline and you don’t know how to stop it.
The fitness industry sells us two equally impractical extremes: quick-fix workouts that promise everything and deliver nothing, or demanding programmes that require the time commitment of a professional athlete. Neither works for those of us living in the real world of competing priorities and limited hours.
But what if there was a third way? A method that delivers real, measurable results without requiring you to reshape your entire life around training?
Overview
This is the third of three primer articles which explain the background and philosophical underpinnings of Strength of Mind Fitness (SOMF). You can read Pt. 1 (introduction and backstory) here and Pt. 2 (the SOMF approach to mental fitness) here.
Below I’ll lay out the SOMF approach to physical fitness: how to become a highly competent all-rounder with minimal time investment.
I’ll cover:
Who this is (and isn't) for.
A lesson I learned from US SOF operators on my final military deployment.
How I developed the SOMF approach.
The core principles of the SOMF approach.
Putting it all together.
Key takeaways
Being time-poor is a speed limit, not a stop sign.
You can achieve your goals even with minimal time.
Success requires focused training, not endless hours.
The time investment is less than you think.
Quality beats quantity: 10 focused minutes is better than an aimless hour.
Small time blocks, consistently applied, yield significant results.
A strategic approach matters.
Embrace the trade-offs.
Focus on movement patterns, not isolated muscles.
Measure progress, not effort.
Don’t sacrifice technique.
Choose structured training over random workouts.
Who this is (and isn’t) for
If you have ample time to train - if you're not juggling kids, work, and life's myriad commitments - this is not for you.
If your goals are confined to a single domain - you simply want to be jacked or run a 5K - this is not for you.
And while I'm not entirely immune to vanity's allure, if you're after ‘all show and no go’, this is not for you.
However, if you aspire to be a highly competent all-rounder with minimal time for training, you've come to the right place.
The all-rounder advantage: a lesson from US SOF operators
During my final military deployment, I was embedded with the US military and worked alongside various Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel - Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Green Berets, Rangers, and others. We shared our location with numerous US Air Force (USAF) personnel.
My Eureka moment
One morning at the gym, I experienced an Archimedes-like ‘Eureka moment.’ I noticed the weight machines and dumbbells room was packed with USAF personnel, while SOF operators gravitated towards the free weights, cardio machines, and outdoor running track.
The physical contrast between these groups was striking. Popular media often portrays SOF operators as tall and very muscular, akin to Alan Ritchson. This is reinforced by casting decisions like Ritchson playing the Second World War SAS legend Anders Lassen.
However, the reality diverges significantly. The SOF operators had lean, athletic builds - muscular, but not excessively so. It was the USAF personnel who resembled the media stereotype.
How SOF operators train
This distinction arose from their job requirements and training approaches:
USAF personnel trained like bodybuilders, and had the physiques to match. Their less physically demanding roles allowed them to focus on ‘getting jacked’ at the expense of other physical domains.
SOF operators trained across multiple physical domains. Their jobs demanded versatility: strength, speed, and endurance. They engaged in complex weightlifting, kettlebell exercises, HIIT (high-intensity interval training) sessions, and long-distance runs.
While this is a generalisation, it was clear that the SOF operators were highly competent all-rounders. They trained similarly to how I had for years, and for the same reasons. The results were evident.
Why this is a better approach
This approach offers several practical advantages:
You develop real-world strength.
You become capable across various physical domains.
Your versatility breeds confidence, leaving you undaunted by physical challenges.
And you enhance your overall health and longevity.
These benefits extend beyond military applications to everyday life.
In the real world, having bulging muscles won't help much when you need to sprint to catch the last train. Conversely, being a marathon champion won't be particularly useful when moving furniture upstairs.
Training to become a highly competent all-rounder addresses these diverse needs. The SOMF approach distills the essential components of this training philosophy to accommodate the reality of life for the time-poor athlete.
How I developed the SOMF approach
Transitioning to civilian life
When I left full-time military service, life seemed great. I was earning more money, had more time with my family, and no longer experienced the ‘Sunday blues’ of counting down the hours until I needed to hit the road to get back to barracks.
Six months later, the honeymoon was over. I was lost.
This isn't uncommon for veterans. Beyond missing the camaraderie of the military, what hit me most acutely was that being physically fit was no longer part of my job description.
Whereas I had been accustomed to physical training being an accepted and expected part of my day, it was now up to me to make the time.
The Big 4 Consultancy I worked for didn't care how physically fit I was. Spending hours clicking away at a keyboard or on client calls didn't require me to run 10 miles or deadlift double my bodyweight.
I had also transitioned from working away during the week - where outside of working hours my time was my own - to living at home with my wife, son, and our two dogs. While this was overwhelmingly positive and what I wanted, it meant I had significantly less freedom over how I spent my time (something my wife had experienced for years, of course).
We were also expecting our second child (soon to be joined by a third). More time wasn't something I was going to be granted any time soon. I needed to find a solution - fast.
Searching for a solution
I had been writing my own training programmes for a few years to supplement the standard military PT schedule. But these required more time than I now had available. So I began searching, thinking surely there had to be a solution out there.
However, as I described in Pt. 1, I came up empty-handed:
Every training programme I came across was either too narrowly focused on a single modality (e.g., endurance, bodybuilding) or took more time than I had available. Or both.
I kept myself ticking over by taking a pair of kettlebells to work and training in the car park during my lunch break. After a while, a clipboard-wielding jobsworth told me I was ‘violating health and safety rules’ by using the car park to train. Biting my tongue, I took my kettlebells to a quiet side street and trained there. I got some funny looks, but it got the work done.
This worked okay for a while, but it wasn't a solution. Fitting in all the critical training components to be a highly competent all-rounder still seemed elusive.
Realisation dawns
After more research, I realised I was making four critical mistakes:
I was trying to do too much in each session.
I wasn't sufficiently separating different training goals, e.g. endurance and strength.
I was focusing on muscle groups rather than movement patterns.
I wasn't starting with my limiting factor - time - as the key principle.
Armed with this new knowledge, I went back to the drawing board and tested a new approach. I identified the essential components and separated training focused on different goals. I then structured each training session around time, with components in priority order in case things got cut short.
Several years later, the result is the SOMF approach and the SOMF training programmes.
Results from the SOMF approach
These programmes have led me to deadlift more than double my bodyweight (205 kg at 85 kg bodyweight), regularly complete over 20 pull-ups (overhand/pronated grip), and run 5 km (3 miles) in under 20 minutes (though admittedly, that was before I ruptured my Achilles tendon).
I also used this approach to complete the 100 mile challenge a few weeks ago. I walked the 100 miles of the South Downs Way, carrying a pack weighing a minimum of 25 kg (55 lbs), but which on average was around 30 kg (66 lbs).
This route typically takes 7-9 days to complete. I finished in 46 hours and 44 minutes. (A future article will expand on the lessons I learned.)
The core principles of SOMF training
Embrace trade-offs.
Focus on movement patterns, not muscle groups.
Training sessions, not workouts.
Measure what matters.
Don’t just go through the motions.
Remember that there’s more to life.
Embrace trade-offs
Every programme leaves something out. Which is inevitable - if you have limited time you can’t avoid trade-offs. You need to make strategic compromises.
In fact, that’s true of every effective training programme. If you try to include everything at once, unless you’re a total beginner, you’ll make no progress at all. And even then, you’ll run up against the limiting factor of time.
The economist Thomas Sowell captured this reality perfectly:
There are no solutions, only trade-offs.
This insight crystallises what it took me years to understand: you can’t chase everything all at once. I was trying to excel in too many physical domains concurrently whilst also being time-poor.
Now, I embrace strategic compromise. Every SOMF programme is ruthlessly built on the most effective components and tailored to specific goals. This ensures that every minute counts.
But this focus doesn’t mean tunnel vision. While every programme has an emphasis, they maintain a holistic foundation - specialisation with general competence. Because the SOMF approach is about being a highly competent all-rounder with minimal time investment.
It’s about solving the time-poor athlete’s predicament.
Focus on movement patterns, not muscle groups
This is something I owe to the work of Dan John, a legend in the field of strength training. He changed my thinking on building strength and muscle. Most importantly, it ties in directly to the time-limited approach.
By focusing on the body’s fundamental movement patterns, you can save time and train the body in the way it is meant to move. This also builds greater neuromuscular coordination and overall strength, via multi-joint, compound movements. Accessory exercises are programmed to supplement the main movements and fill in any gaps.
The seven movement patterns:
Hinge, hip dominant (e.g. deadlift, kettlebell swing).
Hinge, knee dominant (e.g. squat variations, step-ups).
Vertical press (e.g. overhead press variations, handstand push-up).
Vertical pull (e.g. pull-ups, chin-ups).
Horizontal press (e.g. bench press, push-ups).
Horizontal pull (e.g. row variations).
Loaded carries (e.g. farmer’s walk, rucking).
Training sessions, not workouts
Consider two people, Mike and John, who both want to improve their physical fitness:
Mike exercises several times a week using Youtube workout videos to guide him, picking the ones that feel right on the day or catch his eye. He works hard and is exhausted at the end of each workout. But after months of effort, he is frustrated to realise he’s made little progress toward his goals.
John also exercises several times a week. But John has a training programme, with structured training sessions that are designed to achieve his goals. Each training session builds on the last. He follows the programme and after the same amount of time, he has made significant progress, despite not always working as hard as Mike.
This illustrates the fundamental difference between working out and training:
A workout is a standalone exercise session that’s not linked to anything else. Think of them like random TV episodes - entertaining but disconnected.
A training session is structured to lead to the achievement of a goal via a training programme. It’s like a crafted series - every episode develops the plot and moves toward the finale.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with doing workouts. They have their place, whether it’s when you’re between training programmes or just want a bit of variety. I do them from time-to-time. And I will shortly be launching a section on the SOMF website with a list of challenging workouts.
But - and I see people making this mistake all the time - stringing together a series of workouts does not make a training programme. And as workouts are not optimised to achieve your goals, they don’t make the best use of your limited time.
This is because a training programme adheres to two key principles:
Progressive overload: gradually increasing the workload to generate adaptation.
Specific adaptation to imposed demand (SAID): focusing the training programme to produce the right adaptation for your goals.
Therefore, if you want to achieve your goals, follow a training programme that’s designed to achieve them. It’s a much better use of your time.
Measure what matters
If you scroll through any fitness-oriented social media feed you are bound to see the same mantras: “No pain, no gain!”, “Go hard or go home!” and “One more rep!”
According to this narrative, if you're not crawling out of the gym as a sweaty, exhausted mess, you're not training hard enough.
But let’s be clear, although they contain a grain of truth, these are playground taunts masquerading as toughness.
Yes, training hard has benefits, especially for mental fitness. And if your progress has stalled, it may be because you are not training hard enough.
But! What this ‘hardcore’ narrative gets wrong, is that not every training session should be a thrashing. I experienced this first-hand in the military, where every PT session seemed aimed to destroy us. The result was often an increase in the number of injuries than an increase in fitness.
The real measure of a training session isn't how knackered you feel afterwards. Yet this mindset is so deeply ingrained that it’s become a status symbol, and many feel short-changed if they're not sore for days after training.
Instead, ask yourself a simple question: "Am I moving closer to my goals?”
For the time-poor, this means:
Some training sessions should feel easier: especially if you are training multiple times a week.
Your recovery is crucial: progress will stall if you are consistently insufficiently recovered.
Progress is more important than punishment: if you’re getting stronger / faster / bigger then it’s working, even if you don’t feel like it is.
Training is a long-term investment strategy, not a get-rich-quick scheme.
And if you have extra energy, use it for other things in life.
Don’t just go through the motions
I’ve lost count of the number of times I have seen someone approach training like they just want to get it over with. I can kind of see what they’re doing, but it’s not going to lead to the results they seek.
This is going through the motions. It’s adhering to the letter but not the spirit of the law. It’s treating training like a box-ticking exercise.
When time is your scarcest resource, you need to ensure you squeeze every last drop of benefit out of every training session. You need to do things on purpose and with purpose.
This means focusing - relentlessly - on technique.
Good technique is a force multiplier. Conversely, poor form is not just ineffective, it’s a foul throw.
It wastes your time (you won’t get the benefit from the training).
It stalls your progress (due to reduced adaptation stimulus).
It increases the risk of injury.
It’s tempting to compromise form to lift heavier weights or achieve higher numbers. I know, I’ve been there. But deep down, you know the progress is illusory.
Every component of a training session or a training programme is there for a reason. If you approach training with a “That will do” attitude you’re not just cutting corners, you’re undermining your progress. And you have just wasted your time.
Be intentional. Be ruthless with your technique. And don’t just go through the motions.
Remember, there’s more to life
Pour your finite time and energy into something infinitely more absorbing than trying to keep life under control, which is actually living it.
— Oliver Burkeman
A key component of the SOMF approach is that the pursuit of physical and mental performance should enhance your life, not take it over.
You don’t need to become a self-obsessed puritan. The person turns down every dinner invitation because it doesn't fit their macro calculations. Who sucks the life out of every social engagement because their routines and habits are so restrictive they can’t let their hair down.
Life isn't meant to be watched from the sidelines. Neither is it a game where you can get a perfect score.
As I said in Pt. 2, life is for living.
Don’t forget to have fun.
Putting it all together
The outcome you seek comes from the work you are avoiding.
— Paraphrased from another quotation
Time-poor, as always
As I’ve said before, SOMF is derived from my struggles with making enough time for training. This is something I still struggle with.
I’m not a self-styled guru. I’m not perfect and won’t pretend to be. I haven’t discovered a hack to magically create more time. Yesterday, a friend asked how things were going with SOMF. I responded that I was struggling to carve out the time to make the progress I wanted to achieve. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
Making the time…
It’s an inescapable truth that if you want to improve your physical and mental fitness you are going to have to make time somehow.
Whether that’s waking up slightly earlier (I’m not suggesting Jocko Willink-style 4am starts); stopping doing something else (embrace the trade-offs); or planning further in advance to carve out training time.
The alternative? Gradual decline and not living the life you want.
…then using it
However, I have created maximally effective training programmes that are as time limited as possible.
Photon is 10 minutes a day, six days a week. You’re not going to have arms like Arnold by the end of it, but you will make measurable progress.
Carbon (lite) is 30 minutes, three days a week.
All training programmes are time structured, prioritised and include a list of alternatives for especially hectic days.
A personal example
This week, refining a new programme, one of my training sessions called for three sets of bench press (horizontal push), followed by three sets of bent-over barbell row (horizontal pull). But something came up and I suddenly didn’t have the time required.
So I substituted these for dips and inverted row, performing them back-to-back for the required sets. It took less than half the time and maintained the same movement patterns.
Was it perfect? No. But it was an effective solution.
The bottom line
Yes, you are going to have to carve out the time somehow. But if you can do that, I promise you it will be time well spent.
The path forward
The best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.
— Unknown
Your physical fitness is either improving or declining. There is no standing still.
But you don't need to reshape your entire life to change this trajectory. You don't need to become a fitness zealot or abandon your other commitments. What you need is a practical approach that fits within the constraints of your life.
The antithesis of the SOMF approach is turning your life upside down in the pursuit of physical and mental performance. Becoming a slave to systems. Or hoodwinked by habits.
Instead, the SOMF approach is about consistent, intelligent progress through focused effort. Ten focused minutes can be worth more than an aimless hour.
The goal isn't to become an athlete who happens to have a career and family. It's to be a well-rounded, high-performer who maintains genuine physical competence. Someone juggling multiple commitments while staying physically capable to face life's challenges with confidence. Whether that's racing your children across the park or helping a friend move house.
The time will pass anyway.
Will you spend it moving forward or sliding back?