2 Hours a Week: How to Get Results Without a Perfect Life.

John Pierson
May 28
3 min read

When people think about getting stronger, losing weight, or improving their sleep, they often imagine overhauling their entire lives: hours in the gym, cooking every meal from scratch, perfect sleep, no stress, no slip-ups.

Reality check: Most of us don’t live like that. My client doesn’t either.

She has a demanding full-time job in the City of London, regular work events, and a home life where her husband doesn’t cook.

When we started, she was not sleeping, working from home two days per week, and averaging 3,000–5,000 on those days.

This is a pretty standard setup: high stress, low time, inconsistent routines.

But here’s the thing: We have made serious progress even with just two hours of training a week.

Her Goals Were Simple:

When setting goals, you need to be specific. The old cliched SMART goals are helpful. But break them down into smaller, more manageable chunks, making each milestone a victory. Rather than losing 10kg, lose 1 kg 10 times.

Fat loss
Strength increase
Better sleep
Mental disconnect from work

And we’re hitting every single one, without needing a perfect routine.

What We Do in the Gym (In Just 2 Hours)

We train together twice a week. That’s it.

Session 1:

Squat
Sumo Deadlift
Hip thrust
Lat pulldown
Shoulder press

This session is her first of the week, we often try to push this session to capitalise on the rest from the weekend. We aim for 1-2 reps in reserve.

Session 2:

Cleans
Bent-over rows
Press-ups
Lunges
Good morning
"Arm bits"

This second session, we alter depending on the week, but we try to push when we can.

The sessions are intense but not overwhelming. She has been beaten up by the week, not by training, so our goal is to build her up, not break her down. Progress, not punishment.

Outside the Gym: Movement = Momentum

When we started, she was averaging 3–5k steps a day on her work-from-home days. This became one of our first focuses: daily movement.

Now she’s consistently walking 8,000–10,000 steps per day. That’s not a “plan”, it is a lifestyle alteration. No fancy gear. No 10k races. Just a simple, effective shift to move more.

Nutrition: No Guilt.

We use two calorie targets:

Training days: 1800 calories
Rest days: 1600 calories

We focus on three things:

Calories
Protein
Fibre

That’s it. There are no banned foods, no food guilt, and no “clean eating.”I’m her personal trainer, not her parent. We’re building consistent habits, not enforcing food rules.

Sleep, Alcohol & Real-Life Flexibility

She’s often at work events until late. That means no 6 a.m. workouts and no guilt when life gets in the way.

We focus on training around her schedule. Her sleep still isn’t perfect, but it’s better and more consistent. That i think is all we can hope for at the minute.

We’ve also had honest chats about alcohol. One of the best performance tools? Drinking less at work events. She still enjoys herself, we have built a plan for the work events, she does not go on a low-calorie diet for work drink days, it massively increased her level of drunkness, and anxiety around drinking. Eat more, stay sober more, feel less terrible.

And let’s be real: personal training in London is an investment. If you’re putting in time and money, you don’t want to undo your progress with five glasses of wine and late-night takeaways.