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Keep Your Workouts Short

Writer's picture: Jason QuinnJason Quinn

There's a saying, you can work out hard or you can work out long. I think it's true and it's good advice to follow when you're planning your training.


There are variables you can manipulate in your workouts that will affect your training. Time is an obvious one. A ten-minute workout is going to feel very different than a two-hour one.


Intensity is another one. How heavy is the resistance you're using? How close are you to the limits of your strength?


And of course, you get to decide the type of workout you're doing. There are countless choices.


Results come from pushing your capabilities close to the limit and allowing sufficient time and nutrition for recovery. The harder you push, the harder you have to recover. Still with me? Good.


Intuitively it makes sense that if you don't push, you're not going to get any stronger or fitter. And it's true.


You want to find a sweet spot where you're working hard enough to stimulate your body to adapt, but not so hard that you can't adequately recover in time for your next workout.


You can definitely accomplish this in a time frame of about 45-60 minutes per session. If you're going hard, after that point you'll be entering the point of diminishing returns. For each minute after that, you'll derive less added benefit.


Again, the objective of your training is to stimulate strength and muscle gain, not to annihilate your muscles.


Training is a stress (a positive one) on your body. Too little stress and your body won't have cause to adapt and improve. Too much stress and your body won't have time to recover before your next workout.


If your workouts are taking much longer than an hour (including the warm up and cool down time), that's a long time. You'll feel your body fatiguing. Most likely you'll feel some mental fatigue as well. This is a recipe for low quality sets and repetitions, and possibly for injury.


In that time frame you can hit 3-5 work sets for a main lift as well as 2-3 works sets for 2-5 accessory lifts. You can put in a really good amount of quality work in there.


But, if some is good, isn't more better? Yes, but only to a point.


Time is just one variable. Rather than extending the time of your workouts, you can increase the intensity instead. Add up the total volume of your sessions (sets x reps x resistance). Try to increase it over time while keeping the time the same.


You want to do this gradually to allow your body to adjust to the increased workload.


What if you don't have 45-60 minutes to work out?


A shorter workout is better than no workout. If you only have 20 minutes, you only have 20 minutes. Make the most of it. The principle remains the same. Gradually build up the volume you do within those 20 minutes, and you'll get stronger and more fit.


If you find your sessions drifting towards 90+ minutes, I'm fairly certain that your intensity level won't be very high. If you have the time to spare and that's something you enjoy, have at it. But you could be seeing the same -or better- results in shorter, more intense sessions.


It's only 45-60 minutes but you won't be chillin'. Get in, put in some work to get yourself better, then get on with your day.

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