- pic: How to maximize weight training in a short time?
“Darrin, with my schedule, the only time I can lift is during lunch. I can do cardio in the mornings, but I don’t have a home gym so lunchtime is when I lift. The gym is 30 minutes away from home, but right across the street from my work. I only have 60 minutes for lunch, so I need to shower too. What should I do for my lifting routine?” - Mike
This is a common question. But it’s a good question and I’m psyched that you are going to make every effort to get in your lifts.
We can take cardio out of the mix, per your email. But what about lifting?
Most fitness experts say you need to keep your time in the gym to under an hour. I think this is a good target for most people, but it all depends on your current level of fitness and your goals. I’m not one of those guys who goes crazy when I hear someone spends 1.5 hours in the gym. The rule you may have heard about “45 minutes” is just a myth. No valid science supports that, because it varies based on too many variables to control in a scientific setting.
But in your case, you are tight on time with a hard deadline from your employer. You have only 60 minutes and you have to walk there, change into your gym clothes, warm up, workout, shower, and walk back.
[Side note: don't forget to actively participate in the free discussion forum - I give away a free ebook each month to the most active person! After you read this article, go to http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/forum/ and either ask a question or answer a question!]
Let’s assume you take 4 minutes to walk there, 3 minutes to throw on shorts and a t-shirt, and 4 minutes back. Then make sure you do 5 minutes of muscle-specific warm ups. And a 10 minute shower. That leaves you 35 minutes to workout. I’m going to round it down to 30 minutes to ensure you get back on time.
With Only 30 Minutes Available A Day, Go With A Split Routine
The key is to do a split routine, not a full-body routine. I don’t know if you are a beginner or not. I usually recommend beginners do full-body routines. But I don’t think anyone can make good, consistent, long term progress on only 30 minute full body routines. (Being full-body, you can only do them 2 or 3 times a week because you need recovery days. Newbies can make progress for several weeks in 30 minutes a shot, but they will plateau if they don’t add more volume.)
Under this scenario, which is not ideal, I would recommend lifting 5 days a week.
I want to point out that normally, I only recommend 5-day routines to more advanced lifters. I also include a 5-day routine in my annual intermediate routines, but only for a brief period. In your case, you are looking for a long-term consistent solution (unless you change employers and have more flexibility with your time).
Even if you are a beginner, in what I’m recommending you won’t be overtraining. At 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, that’s only 2.5 hrs a week lifting which is nowhere near over-training levels.
Day By Day Breakdown
Each day, pick a different major lift. I’ve talked about The Big 7 before. Pick one of those each day as your main lift. I know, you have only 5 days and there are 7 of The Big 7, so I suggest these: (more…)
Just starting out with weightlifting? Want to get bigger muscles this winter?
Get my full-body lifting routine here: FullBodyAttack!
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pic: Do exercise routines have to use a 7-day week?
Sounds like a silly question, right? I mean, a “real” week is 7 days, so shouldn’t our routines be based on “reality”?
Actually, after years of lifting and running, I’m starting to come to the conclusion that in many cases, our bodies don’t care about “real weeks”. Our bodies care about the balance between stimulation and recovery.
The goal for every serious fitness buff is to kick your own butt just enough to get progress, but not too much that your body can’t recover. This applies to lifting weights, running, skiing, biking, etc.
Why 7?
So we’re all stuck on “x days per week” and we assume that a week means 7 days. (And to be fair, it usually does mean 7 days.)
But what if the key to getting in the right amount of work means you have to shift your paradigm from 7 days a week to something different…?
What about a 6-day week?
What about an 8-day week? (Please, no Beatle quotes…)
In my newest lifting program, Hypertrofreak, I include two different programs.
And guess what? I’m using an 8-day week.
I have you working out 6 days a week, but there are 8 days in my week. That means you are getting 2 recovery days each cycle.
Here’s a cut and paste from part of the program:
Day 1 = Day 1
Day 2 = Day 2
Day 3 = Day 3
Day 4 = recovery
Day 5 = Day 5
Day 6 = Day 6
Day 7 = Day 7
Day 8 = recovery
Day 9 = Day 1
Day 10 = Day 2
Day 11 = Day 3
Day 12 = recovery
Day 13 = Day 5
Day 14 = Day 6
Day 15 = Day 7
Day 16 = recovery
At first, this is hard to get your head around and can be a little confusing. But if you learned to tie your own shoes, then you can learn this.
I’m also experimenting right now with (more…)
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below. - (1) PostsContinue reading about Why Do Lifting Routines Assume A 7 Day Week?
I get asked a lot about what my personal lifting routine is. I am pretty rigorously following a 12 month cycle with 4 smaller cycles. Each of the smaller cycles follows a 12 to 14 week program. It’s all about periodization (sticking with a program long enough to make progress but not so long that you plateau).
Below is what I do. I give all my routines a name (’cause it’s cooler and easier to remember).
There’s no way I can fully describe the details of each routine in one post, so I give a brief explanation of what each program is, at the end.
I’m sharing these so that hopefully you can see the logic behind the periodization. Sure you can always buy my routines, but you can also use this as a model for your own designs. Feel free to post questions/comments and I’ll try to get a good discussion going here about what makes a good year-long program.
I always start newbies and beginners with series A and then go to series B. After that, the series depends on the person’s goals. Likewise, intermediate or advanced lifters might start at different points and rotate the series’ differently. For example, I try to time things so that I’m doing my Fat Burn Furnace in the Spring to get ready for Summer.
Note that I have a basic routine (a “theme”) but within that 12 or 14 week cycle I circle back with 1 week every so often to a previous routine – but just for one week. And you can’t forget the importance of taking a week off once in a while.
Darrin’s Annual Routine:
| SERIES | WEEK | THEME | EXACT ROUTINE |
|
A |
1 |
Full Body Attack |
Full Body Attack |
The key to any beginner routine is to build a base of strength and to learn good training technique.
This is the World Fitness Network beginner through intermediate routine. This routine was designed to use the best exercises available to produce maximal results in the shortest time.
The beginner routine is meant to be adjusted progressively so that it helps you to smoothly transition into the intermediate routine. If you have prior experience and are already working out, you might be able to jump straight into the interemediate routine.
This routine will help you to do the following:
- Build a base of muscle and strength as quickly as possible
- Lose fat through an increased metabolism
- See results by training 3 times per week
- Avoid overtraining
- Learn proper technique on the most important exercises
- Transition smoothly into an intermediate routine
- Customize the routine as necessary (more…)
Continue reading about WFN Beginner to Intermediate Training Program
Trying to figure out the perfect routine can be tough. It’s especially tough when you consider the fact that there’s no such thing as a perfect routine.
Instead, you’re going to have to assess your personal needs and decide which muscles to work on which days. A number of factors will go into this decision, such as:
- What your current training level is, i.e. beginner, intermediate, or advanced
- What type of routine motivates you to work out in the gym
- Which muscle groups are lagging or will require special attention
- What type of routine your training partner is on
- How your body is responding to the workouts you have in place
There are many ways you can divide up your muscle groups to achieve the best workout for you. There are so many combinations, in fact, that I couldn’t possibly cover them all here. Instead, I’m going to point out a few principles that can be used as guidelines to help you choose the routine that’s best suited for you. (more…)
We will continue our series of Weight Lifting 101 posts here by introducing some new terms that you will have to become familiar with if you are going to succeed in changing the way you look. As you may have already guessed, working out with free weights is a little bit more complicated than doing steady cardio. It’s not as easy as just hopping on a treadmill for 30 minutes.
Since weight lifting is a form of anaerobic exercise, your muscles will not be able to maintain such a high level of intensity for long periods of time. Instead, you will break your exercises into a series of sets that comprise a certain number of repetitions. Let me explain what this means by defining the terms you’ll need to know. (more…)
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