I Committed to 20 Minutes of Exercise a Day — It Worked

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Skye Mackintosh, a 29-year-old regional sales manager and father of two, based in Utah. It has been edited for length and clarity.

On October 15th, 2024, I saw a picture of myself sitting by the pool and didn’t recognize myself. It was the biggest I’d ever been, and I felt like it wasn’t really me.

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

Although I’ve never been particularly sedentary — I grew up hunting and fishing on my family farm, played basketball once a week or so, and used to run a lot — I had a hard time working out consistently. If I had days I didn’t want to exercise, I just didn’t. I’ve completed 75 hard a couple of times, and I even ran a 50k ultramarathon with six weeks of training, but I always just went back to how I was.

So, I wanted to find a way of working out that I would actually do forever.

I challenged myself to work out for 20 minutes a day

I decided to start posting evidence of my daily 20-minute workouts. I knew that if I put my fitness journey online, I wouldn’t be able to face the embarrassment of not following through on my word.

I chose 20 minutes because 30 isn’t always achievable, and 10 didn’t seem to be enough. My wife and I are going to have more kids, and then I’ll have grandkids, and who knows where my career will take me. But regardless of what’s going on, I figure I’ll always have 20 minutes.

I chose push-ups and jump squats to start with because I wanted to hit the core muscle groups while keeping it simple enough to do anywhere.

As my account grew, I started getting advice from people in my comments. They told me that I would mess up my posture or injure myself if I didn’t work different parts of my body, so around day 35, I added one back exercise and one core exercise.

The exercises I do have developed as I have gotten stronger

I felt like I was plateauing with a full-body workout every day, so now I do upper body 3 days a week and lower body and core 2 days a week. On Wednesdays, I either play basketball or do some stretching, and Sundays are full rest days.

As I have gotten stronger, I’ve added more reps in those 20 minutes and some equipment, so it isn’t too monotonous. Nothing crazy — just a kettlebell and pull-up bar, and some free equipment I have gotten from brands as my account got more popular.

I always do movements that anyone can do with bodyweight or really simple, cheap equipment. For example, I really like lunges with a kettlebell or ab rollouts.

A few commenters have said that my routine is getting too complicated and intimidating, and I get it; it would have been overwhelming if I had tried to jump straight into what I was doing on day 143 on day one. My whole point is to start where you are — don’t compare my day 143 with your day one.

I don’t want to overcomplicate my diet, either, so I just try to eat as many whole foods as I can and hit my goal of 185 grams of protein a day.

I now enjoy exercising and am feeling the benefits

Getting jacked wasn’t my main goal. It’s not about seeing the abs or the muscles in the mirror, but what that signifies — that I’m dedicated and I can do hard things to become the man I want to be.

It helps that somewhere between day 30 and day 40, I realised I was finding working out fun, too. I was travelling, but it didn’t feel like a pain to figure out how to fit in my workout. Instead, I was excited to do it.

I’ve also gotten a lot stronger and improved my form. On day 100, I recreated the workout I did on day one, and what took me about 15 minutes at the start only took me five minutes. And while I could only do two pull-ups at the start, I can now do 15 with a 10-lb weighted vest.

I sleep more deeply, too, and dream so much more. I also dream more when I’m awake — I have more confidence and self-respect, and feel able to take on more ambitious goals.

I want others to feel the way I’m feeling, so inspiring people through my Instagram page has been so special. People have been messaging me to say they’ve worked out for the first time in years, or they are on day 50 of their own journeys.

My main advice is just to start and keep it simple. I wanted to test whether even something small, stacked over time, is better than great spurts of effort, and I’ve found that it is — 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.