How long is the appropriate length of strength training?

For the vast majority of ordinary fitness enthusiasts, the effective duration of a strength training session is 45-90 minutes, which is the most cost-effective option. However, there is no standard answer that suits everyone. The final duration must completely match your training goals, level, and even your physical condition that day.

We need to clarify a premise first: the training time we are talking about refers to the effective time for you to actually do sets and maintain muscle strength. The time spent warming up, surfing Douyin between sets, and taking photos in the mirror for half an hour after training are not included. When I first started working out, I always felt that the longer I practiced, the better the effect would be. I spent two hours in the gym after work, chatting with my buddies and checking Moments between sets, and the time slipped by unknowingly. As a result, my weight and circumference did not change at all after two months of training. Only later did I realize that at least half of my two hours were ineffective time, and the total time I spent lifting iron was less than 40 minutes.

Of course, if you have been in the fitness industry for a long time, you must have seen many people who disagree with this mainstream conclusion, and they all stand up. For example, friends who are into powerlifting, when sprinting for a heavy PR (personal maximum weight), the interval between sets often starts at 5 minutes. Sometimes, after squatting a few sets of heavy weights, the legs will become weak for a long time. It is common for a set of training to last two hours. People do not say that they will lose muscles and the effect will not be good. ； There is also the metabolic resistance training that has become popular in recent years. A set of movements is fully arranged, and the interval between sets is limited to less than 30 seconds. It takes more than 20 minutes to get soaked through the body, and the intensity is stretched to the throat. The effect is no worse than training for an hour.

The saying that "training for more than an hour will cause cortisol to soar and lose muscle mass" has been very popular on the Internet. In fact, there is really no need to be too anxious. Existing research has long confirmed that under normal training intensity, the increase in cortisol is only a temporary stress response. As long as you are not training for more than 2 hours at a time in a calorie deficit for a long time, the fluctuation of cortisol will not affect your muscles at all. Don’t be fooled by the anxious marketing of marketing accounts. Of course, if you don’t eat enough, don’t sleep well, and still practice for two hours every day, then you can’t blame the training time for losing muscle, right?

If you are a newbie, there is really no need to force the time. 40 minutes is enough. It is much more useful to understand the standards of compound movements such as bench press, deadlift, and squat, and do each group in place than to spend an hour practicing a bunch of isolation movements. If you have been practicing for a year or two and want to increase the weight or increase the volume, it is perfectly fine to increase the duration to one and a half hours. The only thing you need to pay attention to is not to lose concentration later in the training, and the movements are deformed and you still have to carry it, which can easily cause injury.

Many office workers around me who work from 9 to 5 take 40 minutes during their lunch break to go to the gym to train their upper limbs. They arrange 4 sets each of bench press, pull-ups, and shoulder presses, with intervals of 1 minute. After practicing, they go directly back to the company for dinner. The results after three months of persistence are much better than those who only go to the gym for two hours on weekends to work hard. The key is not to delay things. When I was preparing for competitions, I would occasionally do leg training for two and a half hours. After squatting heavy weights, I would also do sets of lunges and leg presses. After practicing, I would hold on to the wall and leave the gym. But my daily training was basically limited to about one hour. After all, I still have to go to work, so I don’t have so much energy to spend in the gym. One hour of high concentration is really much better than two hours of practicing while playing.

To put it bluntly, training duration has never been a KPI that needs to be stuck. There is no need to add a bunch of useless exercises just to make up for 1 hour, and there is no need to shorten the set interval too short to cause deformation of movements in a hurry. Concentrate during training, and you can feel the force of the target muscles in each group. After the training, you will feel sore but not so tired that you can't even walk up the stairs. The duration corresponding to this state is the most suitable for you. You really don’t have to worry about those so-called standards. Fitness is all about making yourself comfortable. Why should you be tied up by a number?