How Long Should a Workout Be: Expanding Your Fitness Journey
You’ll hear the numbers being thrown around that you shouldn’t work out for more than 45 minutes at a time. That is because the claim is that it will plummet your testosterone and spike your cortisol levels and you’ll be stuck in a catabolic state.
It’s a ridiculous claim that many people tend to believe, so we’re here to straighten out the facts. Some workouts may be longer than 90 minutes while some may only last 20 minutes and still show benefits. It depends on what your goals are and the level you’re at currently.
How Long Should a Workout Be?
When it comes to weightlifting and strength training, there isn’t a key to how long you should be working out. You should be more focused on your reps, sets, and completing them with the correct form. If you’re timing yourself, then that’s good for increasing your end goals and building endurance; otherwise, there’s no point if you’re trying to gain some bulk.
If you’re asking about how long you should stay at the gym, then it should at least be on minimum 20 to 30 minutes two to three times a week. However, you can adjust it to be more or less if you want to bulk up more.
You’ve probably seen those gym goers who start with a quick session of cardio for 10 to 15 minutes and then switch off to weights. Their weights sessions differ depending on what they are doing that day, which is why the time changes.
1. Full-Body Workouts
Full-body workouts should be limited to just 30 minutes because they work out all of your muscle groups. It’s essential to limit this time so that your body has enough time to recover and repair itself for your next session.
Overworking your body can lead to severe injuries which can hinder your growth. Always give yourself at least two days of rest.
2. Upper Body Workout
An upper body workout should last as long as you need it to take to exercise your upper body. This includes your chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Depending on how many reps and sets you have, this should take you at least 60 minutes in the gym.
We’ve seen beginners struggle to make just a 30-minute session for their upper body muscle groups and then observe experts take up to 90 minutes for one session. So, as you can see it’s profoundly different for each person. The goal is to make sure you’re hitting enough volume to make progress.
3. Lower Body Workout
The lower body may only take you 30 minutes to finish all reps which is why your workout will change each day. As long as you have done enough reps and sets for each muscle group on that specific leg day, then you should be ready to go.
But the game changes for your lower body if you’re adding in workouts that use both your upper body and lower body. You may be able to get away with just 30 minutes if you’re doing leg press and doing some of the machines. On the other hand, if you’re using weights for squats, deadlifts, and the like, then you may find your sessions lasting more than 45 minutes.
What’s the Average Typical Workout Length?
If we were to study others and time them on how long they were planning on working out, we could come up with a number. On average, the typical weight lifter will workout between 30 and 120 minutes at a time if they are a beginner. However, the expert to professionals will tend to work out for 45 to 90 minutes, and then some cardio added after that.
So, What Should I Do?
Come up with a workout that you’re comfortable with and that you’d feel motivated doing every week. After all, you’re going to be the one who’s stuck at the gym that whole time. Time yourself next time you’re working on your upper body and see how long it takes for you to complete.
As you keep practicing and growing to see how many minutes longer, you have to take a break through plateaus. This can give you a better idea of how long you’ll need to stay for future workouts or if you need to edit your workout in a specific way.
Our Extra Tips and eBook
If you don’t have a personal trainer, then it can be challenging to learn how to sculpt your body instead of making it bulky. So, the real task is learning how you can shape your body the way you want. The author Rusty Moore has worked hard trying to go from average body weight to beach bod.
He knows exactly what it takes to sculpt your muscles into a more sophisticated look. If you’ve ever seen a Marvel movie, all the actors are buff beyond compare, but their muscles all seem to be in the right place.
Rusty’s eBook can help give you multiple workouts that target specific muscle groups. And if you get bored with one, you can always switch to another because he provides numerous versions of one workout. This allows you to change up your routine if you’re getting bored or if you find that your body is starting to get used to the exercises.
Plus, you’ll get to learn about his story and how to change your body to the way you want. If you’re going to end up looking like celebrities or at least have an even upper body and lower body, rusty’s program can help.
So, What’s the Ideal Workout Length?
The truth is that there isn’t one. It may take you time to complete all of your workouts, but that’s honestly it. No particular workout length is exactly better than another in terms of gaining muscle or getting in shape. If we’re talking about cardio, maybe you should stop if you’ve hit an hour, but other than that, there’s no real key here.
As you can see, it’s a variable between each person and their workouts. But we do believe that there should be one element that you include in every workout which is to plan for a break. Take a good few minutes between each set so that you don’t overwork your body.
Hopefully, you’ve found our guide helpful and learned that there’s no key to how long should a workout be.
