Will strength training for twenty minutes be effective?

The answer is yes, but the size of the effect and whether it can match your expectations depends entirely on how you use these 20 minutes. You don't need to believe in the fitness PUA that "trains in vain for less than an hour", nor do you expect to develop a good figure with clear lines by just wandering for 20 minutes.

A trainee who worked as an e-commerce operator with me before was busy during Double Eleven last year. It was difficult to get off work on time every day, let alone go to the gym. He could only squeeze out 20 minutes before lunch to practice in the company's tea room. He only practiced three kettlebell swings, weighted push-ups, and Bulgarian split squats with a pair of adjustable dumbbells that had been stored in the company for half a year. During the exercise, I rested for 40 seconds in each group. I did each group to the point where I couldn't get up. I was so busy for a whole month that I didn't even enter the gym. Not only did I lose the muscles I had accumulated in the previous three months of training, my core strength also increased a lot. I used to do 10 weighted push-ups before my shoulders were sore. By the end of the month, I could finish 15 steadily and add two more standard push-ups to finish.

But if you look through the discussions in the fitness circle, you can see that many people categorically say that 20 minutes is a pure IQ tax. In fact, there is nothing wrong with this in their context. A few friends I know who compete in amateur bodybuilding competitions have to do 8 sets of formal shoulder exercises during the preparation period, plus 4 sets of rear beam isolation exercises at different angles. The total intervals between sets alone are more than 20 minutes. This amount of time is barely enough to even warm up and activate muscles, and it will definitely not meet their needs for fine muscle sculpting. There are more people who shout that it is useless. In fact, they have stepped on the pitfalls of training. It took 15 minutes to warm up slowly, and in the remaining 5 minutes, they lifted the lightest dumbbell and shook it twice. They couldn't help but watch two short videos between sets. The effective training time was not even 5 minutes, so naturally no changes were seen.

In fact, it’s like if you spend the same money to order takeout, a lunch box full of pre-made dishes, heavy oil and salt, and a fresh light meal full of protein, the nutrition you can provide to your body is very different. Training duration is just a container for content. Whether the content contained in it is dense enough and whether it meets your training needs is the core that determines the effect. If you really don’t have much time at ordinary times and want to achieve results by practicing in 20 minutes, try to choose compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and rowing that can mobilize multiple muscles at the same time. The interval between groups should be controlled at 30 to 60 seconds. The weight should be selected to the point where you will fail after doing 8 to 12 times in each group. Don’t fish and paddle. If you insist on it for two weeks, you will feel that your body’s strength has significantly improved, and it will be much easier to climb stairs and carry things every day.