Is 1 hour in the gym per workout enough?

[Radisrol]

So thanks to the forum members I have found out that my work out routine isn't very good. I've been going to the gym 7 days a week partly because I only have about one hour a day I can devote to the gym. As I'm redesigning my work out program I'm wondering how much of a problem only 1 hour is if you are trying to do a total body workout 3 times a week for example that seems impossible in an hour. I really want to give 100% of myself to this process. I see people at the gym who are there when I get there and still there when I leave.

[TAWS6]

It depends on how strong you are. Someone who squats 405 for reps is going to be in the gym a lot longer than someone squatting 275 for reps. Beginners are pretty weak and don’t need over an hour in the gym on a proper novice program.

[Radisrol]

Good to hear . I'm definitely weak. I leg press 210 with the depth set on 6 about 20 times. Imagine a real squat at 275 I might not be able to get off the ground once.

[fstep]

So thanks to the forum members I have found out that my work out routine isn't very good. I've been going to the gym 7 days a week partly because I only have about one hour a day I can devote to the gym. As I'm redesigning my work out program I'm wondering how much of a problem only 1 hour is if you are trying to do a total body workout 3 times a week for example that seems impossible in an hour. I really want to give 100% of myself to this process. I see people at the gym who are there when I get there and still there when I leave.

Completely depends on your workout. You can get a very solid workout in 45 minutes. Especially if it's calisthenics. Powerlifting if you're fairly novice as well. Full body workout, no.

[JoseGonzos]

It depends on many factors and what you want to get in the end as a result

[BB-Guy]

As long as you aren’t taking too much time to check out girls.

[GrouchyUSMC]

Absolutely. Quality over quantity. 45-60 minutes is all I typically have in a day. Just stay focused and disciplined on time. During my last strength cycle I had press, squat, and weighted pull ups with a burpee finisher and still finished in well under an hour. That’s with warm ups and 3-5 work sets of each.

[air2fakie]

Pick a program that has an appropriate amount of total volume for you per week, and don't focus on how much time each workout takes.

[SaulGuzman]

As I'm redesigning my work out program I'm wondering how much of a problem only 1 hour is if you are trying to do a total body workout 3 times a week for example that seems impossible in an hour.

Let's imagine this hypothetical program:

FB 3 days per week:
- BP 1x5-8
- DL 1x5-8
- OHP 1x5-8
- Pullups 1x5-8
- SQ 1x5-8

Add 1-2 warm-up sets and it probably takes around 30 minutes for most people.

Now the question is: does that workout work? I think it depends on your condition, your mindset and your goals but I also think that for most people something like that would be enough (maybe do 2 sets or even 3 depending on how much time you want to spend in the gym).

[sethd2005]

So thanks to the forum members I have found out that my work out routine isn't very good. I've been going to the gym 7 days a week partly because I only have about one hour a day I can devote to the gym. As I'm redesigning my work out program I'm wondering how much of a problem only 1 hour is if you are trying to do a total body workout 3 times a week for example that seems impossible in an hour. I really want to give 100% of myself to this process. I see people at the gym who are there when I get there and still there when I leave.

If you're going 7 days a week (most people like a rest day btw), I'd recommend not doing full body. Split it up so those muscles have time to rest, then you can spend your time being able to really focus on your lifts instead of thinking, "I need to be quick to get it all in."

[Radisrol]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm pretty much all business at the gym. No more than a minute rest between all sets. And the smaller muscles that I'm not improving my lifts on with rest I'm just doing 50 reps, doing reps till failure then just resting 5 to ten seconds and crank out 2 to 3 more rinse and repeat until I get to 50. Curls side lifts and front lifts.

[radrd]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm pretty much all business at the gym. No more than a minute rest between all sets. And the smaller muscles that I'm not improving my lifts on with rest I'm just doing 50 reps, doing reps till failure then just resting 5 to ten seconds and crank out 2 to 3 more rinse and repeat until I get to 50. Curls side lifts and front lifts.

If you want to get stronger, stop doing that and follow a novice program.

[BeginnerGainz]

If you want to get stronger, stop doing that and follow a novice program.

This.

How the hell do you progress super high rep sets with next to no rest?

[TAWS6]

Just going to add that literally no human needs to lift weights 7 days per week. Maybe an alien species could get away with that.

[BB-Guy]

Just going to add that literally no human needs to lift weights 7 days per week. Maybe an alien species could get away with that.

What if you balance the sets out throughout the week?

[Radisrol]

I'm not doing 7 days anymore. Also my 50 rep thing was based on what you said BeginnerGainz on another post that easy reps only do bad things for you. Or at least that's how I took it."They build up unnecessary peripheral fatigue, hamper recovery, and leads to wasted time in the gym." I figured doing 50 where 42 of them burned was better that hypothetical 5 sets of 10 where only 10 of them burned. 50 total in both cases but eliminating those do nothing easy reps,

[paulinkansas]

What if you balance the sets out throughout the week?

Not in the natural world.

[radrd]

I'm not doing 7 days anymore. Also my 50 rep thing was based on what you said BeginnerGainz on another post that easy reps only do bad things for you. Or at least that's how I took it."They build up unnecessary peripheral fatigue, hamper recovery, and leads to wasted time in the gym." I figured doing 50 where 42 of them burned was better that hypothetical 5 sets of 10 where only 10 of them burned. 50 total in both cases but eliminating those do nothing easy reps,

This sounds like a troll post. If you want to take a more effective approach, do your set of 8-10 (or whatever your program calls for) to form failure, then immediately drop down to a lower weight and crank out a few more reps to form failure. This is a drop set. I'll often do that on my last set. In general, you don't need to do 50 reps of anything and there's no chance 42 of 50 are "hard reps," so I'm pretty sure I just fed a troll.

[Radisrol]

Not a troll. When I take a 5 second rest (after initial set) I can only do 2 to 3 reps and they all burn. I figured what I was doing was kind of like a drop set just not changing weight. I use dumbbells for all 3 25s for curls 15s for side raises and 10s for front raises. I put the weights on a 24 inch box thingy so I can easily grab the weights and put them back down. I can definitely do the drop sets like your saying though. I Just figured dropping 10lbs. to 5lbs. 50% reduction is too much. Dropping 15lbs to 10lbs. 33% weight reduction is too low. Once you get to higher weights drop setting by 5 pounds less is much closer to an appropriate drop in weight I would imagine. I will do the drop set thing with the curls for sure.

[radrd]

Not a troll. When I take a 5 second rest I can only do 2 to 3 reps and they all burn. I figured what I was doing was kind of like a drop set just not changing weight. I use dumbbells for all 3 25s for curls 15s for side raises and 10s for front raises. Iput the weights on a 24 inch box thingy so I can easily grab the weights and put them back down. I can definitely do the drop sets like your saying though.

The big challenge with this approach or any "effective rep training" is progression. How do you know when it's time to increase from 25 lbs to 30 lbs? Maybe you can do it by feel, but for the most part it amounts to conditioning rather than strength training. You can mess around with it if you're goal is fatigue and intensity, but strength is going to come from following a solid routine.

[TAWS6]

Yeeeep. Get out of the novice phase as fast as possible. No one wants to be that 40 year old who’s been pissing away the last 20 years in the gym pumping and fluffing around with 10 lb weights. Get to a 225 bench in 6 months on a real program and forget all the non sense pump and burn.

[radrd]

Yeeeep. Get out of the novice phase as fast as possible. No one wants to be that 40 year old who’s been pissing away the last 20 years in the gym pumping and fluffing around with 10 lb weights. Get to a 225 bench in 6 months on a real program and forget all the non sense pump and burn.

This is basically me. I fukked around with p90x-style training for many years. I was in great shape but never got strong. It's fine if that's your goal, but I wish I'd started real strength training before I turned 35. I've made great gains, but I could have done so much more in my 20s and early 30s.

[Radisrol]

The big challenge with this approach or any "effective rep training" is progression. How do you know when it's time to increase from 25 lbs to 30 lbs?

Yeah I was wondering this to myself today. I was originally just seeing how much the initial set went up and figuring once it hit 12+ it was time to put on more weight. I was thinking of doing 5+ pounds on all 3 but wanted to see how my biceps responded as today was the 1st day I added them to this method. I'm getting better with all my other muscles lifts on traditional protocol. Quads-Hamstrings-Calves-Lats-Triceps-Chest. Biceps and delts have just been stagnant so I was trying to get their rep numbers up. Anyhoo. I know not to do that any more. I'll go back to traditional protocol and just add the drop set you use.