My original aim was to complete 13 sets of the 13 exercises that make up the 7 Minute Workout. This neatly square result appealed to me. I imagined a grid with ticks in all 169 boxes (I was determined to place a tick each time I completed an exercise). However, after the fifth set I realised that I had little chance of maintaining a consistent standard for the 8 notionally remaining sets. So I decided to complete just 7. That figure is square in the sense of being 7 sets of 7 minute workouts. Altogether I completed 91 x 30 second exercise intervals. Allowing for a 10 second rest between each exercise and a one minute rest between each session of 3 sets, the overall time was 61 minutes and 30 seconds – or roughly an hour. My performance deteriorated markedly in the pushups over the final two sets, so I think that an hour was enough. Despite its gruelling nature the experience produced no sense of illumination. It provided a sense of structure and purpose to a largely wasted day, but offered no broad prospect of redemption.
7 Minute Workout