A common question that is asked by many. I presume that you and others like yourself are not marveled by the idea of being in the gym for no more than what is required of you. By the way, if you like being in the gym for that long, kudos to you, but for most of us, forty-five minutes of strength training is more than enough to accomplish your fitness goal. Be it losing weight, building muscle or both.
I know with the media and it’s enticing headlines be it social or mainstream can make it difficult to know where or how to start.
If you want to lose weight and build muscle do this _______ exercise for _______ # of hours
The type of headline that brings eyeballs to their product and quick gimmick sale tactics to get you to buy. You know the one’s that never seem to work as advertised.
Strength training is important when losing weight and building muscle is your goal. I know it’s hard to believe that actual progress can be made in just forty-five minutes, but it’s true and you will understand how later in the article. As a side note, you’re not just relegated to lifting weights. If you enjoy other forms of activities as a complimentary then I would recommend that as well.
What I’ve come to realize is that most of us just want to look good naked and have some muscles along the way. Nothing too complicated. You aren’t looking to be a body builder; you just want to be relatively lean and strong enough for functional reasons:
Picking up your kids from the floor pain free
Getting off the toilet pain free
Walking up the stairs pain free
Moving furniture around the house
And so on and so forth. Lifting weights will help you do that.
Is Forty-Five Minutes Really Enough?
Yep
When you step in the gym, you want to have an idea of what you will be doing, otherwise you may be there longer than you had planned for. Aside from the basic warm-up and stretching prior to the lift. Here is how forty-five minutes of strength training is more than enough for you to make progress.
Compound Movements
You want to start your lift with a compound exercise. It’s any movement where you’re using more than one muscle group at a time. Bench press, rows, deadlift, squats and overhead press are a few of the most common one’s. Because compound exercises put a great deal of stress and energy from the body, you’re better of choosing it as your first few exercises.
If you’re doing lower body start off with squats and deadlifts and vice versa if you’re doing upper body start off with bench press, rows and overhead press.
Side note: you don’t need to do compound exercises every time you hit the gym. You will eventually overuse certain muscle groups, which can prone you to injuries, which can then prevent you from going to the gym altogether and therefore, halting any future progress. A cycle I am sure you want no part of. I would recommend doing compound exercises every three to four weeks. That will give your muscles ample time to recover, build, grow and be ready to get worked on again.
Isolated Movements
Your next sets of exercise should be focused on isolated movements. Movements that target a specific body area like a bicep curl or a lunge. These exercises should be done later in the workout because they’re less taxing to the body and require less energy. If you haven’t realized it yet, you will soon, as you progress throughout your workout, your energy level will begin to drop as well.
Sets
Next on our list is figuring out the number of sets to do. Because we want to be efficient with the allotted time we have, a set range of 2 to 3 per exercise is more than enough.
Reps
I know the common consensus you’ve heard is to keep your rep range between 8 to 12 for optimal muscle growth, which is true but not required. A rep range of 5 to 8 is just as efficient and optimal.
Rest Time
Rest time is all predicated on your level of training and just overall fitness. You maybe someone who has never worked out before or you could very well be someone who has. Those two extremes will dictate how much rest you would need per exercise. A general baseline rest time that I recommend to my online coaching clients are between 1:30 seconds to 2 minutes per exercise. I find that to be the “sweet spot,” and this might work for you as well.
Intensity
This is one of the most important components of strength training that is often overlooked. How much intensity you put in your workouts can be a determinant factor of getting stronger and making progress vs not. Intensity is how many repetitions you can perform within a particular exercise with maximal effort. For example, if you were to perform a repetition range between 5 to 8 and let’s say you were able to do that with ease, with very little effort or energy. Chances are that particular weight wasn’t intense enough. However, if you were to increase the weight and could only rep between 5 to 8 and felt exhausted after that particular lift, that would be categorized as intense. Keep that in mind the next time you’re lifting.
You might be thinking, sure these all sound great, but how exactly can I implement this in my schedule? That’s a fair question, so here is a basic strength training program you can use.
Basic Strength Training Program
Conclusion
The next time someone mentions that you need to be in the gym for several hours to make progress. Nod and continue doing you. Forty-five minutes of efficiency through proper sets, reps, rest time and intensity is more than enough to get lean, build muscle and get stronger.