One of the big questions is “just how long should my training sessions last?” While they are likely to vary based on individual factors, the intensity of the training and so on, there are a few good rules you can follow.
Am I working out enough? The problem is that all newbie’s are very enthusiastic about making progress fast. And this is sometimes the reason for over training, which has exactly the opposite effect to what you probably expect.
You’ll feel drained and your muscles won’t seem to grow at the rate you would like them to because you are burning yourself off. This is the top reason why beginners give up lifting weights – it’s hard and it takes a whole bunch of time and effort to see some results.
Start off easy and grow from there. Don’t go full on right from the start because your body doesn’t need all that intensity and this training regimen will not be sustainable in the long run.
The structure of a workout:
The time you spend in the gym is made up of what you’re actually doing inside the gym. This will vary a bit from a workout routine to another, but more or less, a typical muscle building training session is made up of:
- Warm-up session – usually a couple of light weight sets
- Exercises
- Sets
- of repetitions
- Rest periods length
- Cardio (if applicable)
That’s your typical weight lifting training structure. And that’s how you can easily estimate how much time you need to be in the gym in order to achieve your goals by doing the training regimen that is optimal for you.
Everybody’s different and everybody needs a certain amount of time in the gym in order to have an effective workout that is supporting their goals. A beginner doesn’t need to be in the gym as long as a pro-bodybuilder.
Based on training experience:
The general rule that applies in lifting weights is that the more advanced you are the more time (or volume) you need to put in your workouts. So if you are in your first 6 months of lifting weights, probably you are fine with spending as little as 40 minutes in the gym, maybe up that time to 50 minutes in your first year of training.
As a beginner, because your muscles are not used to lifting they require little volume to start adapting and grow.
The more advanced you get the more time you will need to spend in the gym. Once you muscles adapt to a certain workout volume you need to increase that volume and put the body under stress again until the muscles adapt (grow) again. And so on and so forth. Bodybuilding is a sport of repetition and constant adaptation.
It’s a constant game of stress and adaptation. Progressively overload your muscle with higher intensity workouts, higher volume and the muscles will constantly adapt to it. When it comes to workout volume there is no one size fits all kind off formula, but here are some general guidelines based on training experience.
- 6 months or less: 30-40 minutes
- 6 months – 1 year: 50 minutes
- 1-2 years: 60-70 minutes
- 3-5 years: 90 minutes
- 5+ years: 90-105 minutes
The increased amount of time over years pretty much comes from 2 main things – increased intensity and increased volume.
Higher volume:
You will need more time to fit in 5 sets than you need for just 3 sets or for 5 exercises instead of just 2 exercises per body part.
Higher intensity:
If you want to make your workouts more intense by lifting heavier weights you need to allow your body a longer time to recover between sets. Resting periods of up to 2-3 minutes are not something uncommon when using weights higher than 85% of your 1 RPM and this type of training is actually beneficial for muscle growth.
Apart from these 2 main things that will determine the length of your workout there are others that can influence it a bit. I am referring to things such as slow negatives, or rest/pause reps and generally to any type of advanced training technique that has to do with the time you spend on one single repetition of your exercise.
Ways of making workouts shorter:
Not everybody has a whole bunch of time to invest in their weight lifting. So, when time is a problem you can do two things: you can say hey, this is all I can do at the moment and settle with what you get out of your workouts, or you can start applying some advanced training techniques that will optimise the time you have.
Basically you will fit in more volume in the same amount of time. So, instead of training the traditional way you can start including some of these training styles:
- Super sets – Train different muscle groups one after another with no rest in between. For example do a set of dumbbell curls and the go straight to triceps, or do chest and back. There are numerous examples.
- Drop sets – Once you are done with your set, immediately lower the weight and do another set. This way you will get in more volume on the same muscle over a shorter period of time.
Both super sets and drop sets can be extended to triple or more sets, meaning that you to three or more sets in a row. These are just a couple of examples that can help you train twice as fast. You don’t need to do them every day but they are a true time saver when you are on a hurry but you don’t want to skip through your workout.
