The two-session rule

Ask what the minimum effective dose of strength training is after 40 and the research keeps landing on the same unglamorous answer: two sessions a week.

Not six. Not a program with a name and a hashtag. Two sessions — 20 minutes counts — of pushing, pulling, and standing up from things with intent.

The reason isn’t that more doesn’t help. It’s that two is where most of the benefit starts and where real schedules stop breaking. A program you keep for five years beats a perfect one you keep for five weeks, by a margin that isn’t close.

Today’s move: put two 20-minute blocks in next week’s calendar right now, attached to things that already happen — after Tuesday’s coffee, before Saturday’s shower. The workout matters less than the appointments existing.

— Sam