What is The Daily Fitness Solution?

What is The Daily Fitness Solution?


The Daily Fitness Solution is a general physical preparation program using bodyweight exercises and requiring just twenty minutes per day. It is a total fitness system, broad enough to be used as a stand alone exercise program but concise enough to be used as a complement to sports specific training. TDFS requires little or no equipment, and the exercises are simple to learn and perform safely. It is a fitness routine you can take with you anywhere, and with a daily commitment of only twenty minutes, even the busiest individual can find time to improve his health and fitness.


TDFS develops general physical preparedness (GPP), but GPP for what? TDFS won’t make you a world champion athlete, but it can help you develop real world strength and conditioning to meet the physical demands of life and sport. The system is oriented around functional fitness. Of course, functional fitness is a term being used frequently today, but it is rarely defined with precision. To develop functional fitness, one must first clarify what function he seeks to be fit enough to perform! Our use of the term functional fitness encompasses the general physical strength and endurance to meet the needs of daily life and advanced courses of athletic training.


TDFS is perfectly suited for busy people who need to improve their fitness level. These may include moms and dads, law enforcement and military personnel, firemen, mailmen, office workers, or individuals in a thousand similar situations. These people aren’t hoping to compete in the Olympic Games. They don’t need a training program designed for pro athletes or for celebrities who have hours every day to train for their next movie. What they need is a program that is simple to use, efficient and effective, and that will help them lose fat, build muscle, and improve their conditioning for the demands of everyday life. TDFS can help dads have the endurance to play soccer with their kids or take their family hiking. It can help moms have more energy for the demands of managing the house, the kids, and the dozen crises that appear every day. It can help the soldier, sailor, airman, or marine prepare for his next PFT without spending hours working out, and TDFS can give the blue collar worker the extra strength and conditioning he needs to finish his day with energy leftover for after work. TDFS is a perfect solution for the average guy (or gal) who wants to improve his life through physical exercise without making physical exercise his life.


TDFS is also designed to be useful for advanced trainees who have specific fitness demands at work or are aspiring or competitive athletes. TDFS will not make you a world-class powerlifter, or an All-State football player, or an elite marathoner, or a PGA golfer. To be a great athlete, you must train the specific skills of your chosen sport. What TDFS can do is make you a better athlete by improving your general fitness and conditioning. Unfortunately, GPP is often overlooked by athletes in preference to their sport specific skills. Just because a powerlifter is strong does not necessarily means that he is in shape. A golfer may nail every putt, but if he is too weak to drive the ball effectively or too winded to play eighteen holes, his lack of general fitness will hinder his success. TDFS can help athletes meet their general fitness needs in only twenty minutes a day, leaving them plenty of time to focus energy on improving their skills on the field of play.


How can TDFS be so broadly applicable? The answer is in the design of the daily workouts. Each day’s training is measured by time and intensity, not specific sets, reps, weights, or distances. Occasionally guidelines will be given for repetitions of a particular exercise, but each trainee decides how much he or she is capable of performing on any given day. The program works better than you might think. Since it is impossible to provide one (or two, or ten) rigid workout templates that would be applicable for every potential trainee, we have chosen to plan each day’s workout in such a way that both the obese beginner and the athletic veteran will be challenged. You won’t see “Run two miles” listed as the workout, but you will see “Run twenty minutes.” How far is twenty minutes? That depends on your current level of conditioning. This feature also helps prevent over-training since the participant is in control of his workout intensity. Each workout of the day contains instructions for adjusting the routine depending on a person’s present fitness level. Basic trainees will powerwalk instead of run, perform push-ups against a countertop or on their knees, and will adjust the more challenging strength exercises to a more suitable variation. You don’t have to wonder what to do if you can’t perform a particular exercise. The solution is right there waiting for you when you log on each day. It is the versatility of TDFS that makes it useful for people in such a wide variety of situations – from the obese to the Olympic!


So is TDFS the solution to every individual’s fitness needs? It would be rather presumptuous to think so. There are many good fitness programs available to the public, and even more bad ones. TDFS is the solution to many fitness issues, but it is not the only program that can address these needs. It may not even be the best program for your needs. Nevertheless, because of our program’s versatility, ease of use, accessibility, and effectiveness, we believe that it will be the fitness solution for many people. And because TDFS can be so easily combined with other programs, we hope you will at least consider giving our system a role in your personal fitness routine. Did we mention the best part? The Daily Fitness Solution is completely free.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is the best explanation of this fitness routine that I've heard. You hit the nail on the head. Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

hi from Mexico, first i would like to congratulate you for you site its great, second, i have a question, i do a lot of push ups and pullups but i dont see my muscles get hard. am i doing something wrong?

JME said...

If this were a math word problem, the answer would be "Incomplete Information."

How many are "a lot of pushups and pullups?" How often? Are you training consistently? What are you eating? How old are you?

Try our program for 4-6 weeks. Your muscles will get harder. Trust me.

Joel

Anonymous said...

hi sorry about that , well im able to do 200 push ups but folowing the format you recomend (doing 20 every minute for ten minutes) on pull ups im able to do 30 pull ups but using the kipping motion, abs i can do 100 in a single set (crunches), im 37 years old and i dont follow any special diet

Anonymous said...

Hey Joel:
Just wanted to say "Thanks" for a GREAT wbsite. I am a fellow BCIR alumnus from Ohio. I have been doing your program since the first of the year. I am also doing the Pushup challenge. I have lost 16# and seeing some definition. I look forward every day to seeing what my program is. Thanks again for the website!!

Anonymous said...

Hey Joel

I have just discovered your site and it looks amazing. I have one question though, what kind of timer do you use so that you can keep track of 5 sec, 10 sec, 20 sec, 1 min etc.. intervals. I find it hard to use a watch. Any suggestions.

JME said...

I use a Timex Ironman watch. They have many different Ironman models, and most (if not all) have interval timers. Mine has ten that you can preset (200 lap model).

You might also try a Gym Boss interval timer (google it). I have not used them, but they sound like they would work.

When I do not have a watch, I simply count seconds. You can also guess-timate distances instead of using time.

Joel

Anonymous said...

What stretches do you recommend for the typical middle-aged guy who hates stretching (but suspects he needs it)?

Thank you.
Dan

JME said...

I still need to post this routine with photos on the blog. I am not a big fan of stretching (particularly pre-workout), but I do believe in the value of joint mobility work.

1) 4-way Neck Loosening
a. Left/Right
b. Up/Down
c. Side/Side (ear to shoulder)
d. Circles

2) Shoulder Circles
a. Big Circles
b. Little Circles

3) Torso Twists

4) Bend and Stretch
Reach over your head and bend backwards, then bend forwards and touch your toes or place your palms on the ground.

5) Hip Circles

6) Knee Circles

7) Ankle Circles

I like to add a set of Push-ups, Squats, and Bridging to provide a nice round number of exercises that hits the entire body. You can also do the Sun Salute in place of the final three calisthenics.

I generally recommend 5-10 reps of each of the seven joint mobility exercises.

Joel

Anonymous said...

Joel,

Fantastic. Thank you for the routine. When do you recommend we do it, in relation to the 20 minute fitness solution?

Best,
Dan

JME said...

Dan,

The joint mobility exercises are great for warming up, cooling down, waking up, calming down, or simply moving the body at breaks during the day.

Bottomline, whenever and wherever you feel the need for easy movement and increased blood flow.

Joel

Anonymous said...

Hi Joel:

I love the workouts here. Thank you for providing such a great free service.

On your recommendation, I tried the S-diet, and I'm hooked. I couldn't get into the Shovelglove---didn't feel like I was hitting legs and chest enough---so I continued doing the workouts here.

However, I did find the 14 minute rule a good psychological ploy to keep me from ever skipping a workout. I've just turned the 20 Minute Fitness Solution into the 14 Minute Fitness Solution. Am I way off, and ruining your intent, or is this okay?

Satisfied customer,
Leo

JME said...

Leo,

There are no "rules" here. (That's probably not true. There are no rules violations that would rile me, but there may be some natural rules that will bite you if violated.) Just as trainees adjust the WODs for time, reps, and intensity, so some have also modified the workouts to include other implements or adjusted them for time, as you have done.

I am glad to know that the Fitness Solution is useful to you. Use it insofar as you find it meets your needs, and adjust it as you find necessary and/or helpful.

Thanks for your kind words.

Joel

Anonymous said...

Joel great article! How would you recomend this routine for someone who does 3 full body workouts geared for size. Would you recomend doing this routine after each weight workout or on off days?

JME said...

Good question. You can do the TMFS program either way; it depends on the intensity of your full body workouts.

Try two-a-days, doing the blog WODs as conditioning work on your full body days. Keep your rest days for rest, for now. That would seem most in line with your goal to gain size.

Joel

Anonymous said...

I agree with the post and appreciate the conception as well. Also, Fitness Equipment helps more in achieving and maintaining the health along with keeping weight gain in control.

Joakim Waern said...

As you value joint mobility work, do you think yoga is a good thing to do?

Joel Ellis said...

Yes, I think a good yoga routine can be an excellent addition to almost any fitness routine.

Joel Ellis said...

Yes, I think a good yoga routine can be an excellent addition to almost any fitness routine.

Unknown said...

And what do you consider as a 'good' yoga routine?

Joel Ellis said...

I've never focused on yoga, so my knowledge it is somewhat limited. Personally I think a few basic positions covering the major planes of motion and/or static strength are a nice complement to a general fitness program. Even the Sun Salutation complex is, by itself, a nice yoga routine that is easily learned and applied.

Rebounding Enthusiast said...

Have you ever considered incorporating rebounding as a Daily Fitness Solution activity? I began rebounding about 3 years ago to assist me with me weak knee (running causes knee pain for me) and to assist with my poor circulation. But I never expected that it would become more than just something to help me with those two problems - because now I use it for 15-20 minutes everyday and in conjuntion with some weight training basically it keeps me in good shape.

Anonymous said...

Hi from Ontario Canada...

Male 51, in pretty good shape. I am a Police Officer, and have been for 30 years, so I need to be on my game at all times, especially now that I am fighting with guys half my age! Been working out for many years mostly with weights. I have been looking for a site EXACTLY like this. Workouts are great and the change I have been looking for. After hammering my joints for years, the abuse was starting to catch up with me. After following your WOD's for the past month, I feel better, have more energy, my cardio has improved and I have lost 5 lbs as a BONUS!! Including showering, my workouts are done in 30 minutes compared to the 60 min plus workouts I was previously doing. Keep up the good work...ever consider an IPAD App !!?? I'd buy it!

Aldi Found Fitness Location said...

I agree with the post and appreciate the conception as well. I think a good yoga routine can be an excellent addition to almost any fitness routine.