Eventually effort yields a diminishing return. This is true in fitness as in other areas of life. The faster and stronger you get, the harder or longer you have to train to continue to improve. There is a point at which, for are practical purposes, you are 'fit enough.' When this point occurs varies for each individual--essentially it is reached when you are able to accomplish your fitness related goals. Spending the time and energy to move beyond this point doesn't make much sense--getting stronger than you need to be to do everything that you want to do is pretty silly.

Some people never reach such a point (and the point itself often shifts as our goals shift) because of lofty goals and not consistent enough a commitment to the task. But if and when you do get there, the reward is the ability to maintain strength (and speed, endurance, etc) for a very low time investment. In fact, upper body strength, once attained, can be maintained with as little as five minutes a week of focused effort. These five minutes are split between two workouts, each of which entails a single set to failure. To keep things interesting and maintain motivation, I've provided three repetition schemes for each exercise--choose your favorite of use a different one each week

The exercises are chin-ups and push-ups.

• Chin-ups. These are perhaps the best upper body 'pulling' exercise out there and allow for maximal recruitment of muscles in the back, trunk, and biceps. Sets are done to failure in one of the schemes provided below. If you aren't able to perform chin-ups, you probably should be focusing on Gaining Strength, so check out the previous page. You don't need a gym to do chins! Chinning bars that don't require any drilling can be purchased at a variety of places for around $20 (see previous tip) or find a tree or a playground and get cranking without spending a dime.
• Push-ups are almost as great of an exercise for your pushing muscles. With endless variations to add difficulty or to change the specific focus of the exercise, they are all you'll ever need to keep strong shoulders, pecs, and triceps (once you've got em). Again, sets are done to failure, using one of the schemes below. Or, if you've got kids, make things interesting with a drop set as in the video at the bottom of the page.

Sounds simple, right? Well it is. All you need to do is do one set of chin-ups and one set of push-ups a week--to failure--using one of these schemes:

1. 10 second reps. Using a stop watch or timer, count to five for the first half of the motion and five for the second. NO resting at the bottom of the chins or on locked elbows for the push-ups. I'm still struggling to manage 10 of the chins but can hit 15 of the push-ups. How about you? Slow and controlled form throughout folks!
2. Perfect Form reps. This means doing full range of motion reps without rests until you collapse. Chest and stomach all the way to the floor on the push-ups and all the way down on the chins (but without releasing muscular tension in the lats!).
3. Power reps. Go like mad. Get a really big number in your head and crank out as many reps as you can. Do 'em however you want--Cross-fit style pseudo chins, kip swing, etc or 3/4 range of motion push-ups. See how much power you have--just go, go, go! But then when you think you can't go anymore, do at least ONE FULL REP--more if you can, and control the negative as long as possible.

Although it sounds easy and will only take up 2-3 minutes (max) of your day, remember that these sets are done to failure! Yep, you've got that gun to your head again. Better make sure it doesn't go off.

Now you can do both sets on the same day if you really want to, but my vast and tremendous experience is that this isn't the best option. It is pretty challenging (at least for me) to push as hard as I want to push for that second set, at least on a regular basis. If it's one set to failure, I'm all over it--time to make my muscles weep tears of lactic acid. But that second set...not so much.