I have heard many times in the past about how pro bodybuilders go in the gym and work out for hours on end, but is that truly accurate? Many times when these pro athletes go to the gym to work out, much of that time can be tied up in cardio.
Today’s talk will be about how long should you work out with questions and answers to topics that are often raised.
If someone goes to the gym and works out for hours on end, that would result in overtraining, there is only so much that you can target in one workout without overtraining, which would eventually lead to fatigue, muscle loss, a loss of interest, and working out and many other symptoms.
The important thing is that you have your goals down in writing and you stay motivated to keep training. It is important to stay motivated and go into the gym motivated to push yourself as hard as you possibly can. How long you train isn’t necessarily so important, It’s more so that you are motivated and train hard to work your muscles till you get a good pump.
How many sets and reps should I do?
It isn’t necessary to pile on a huge amount of sets for each muscle group that you work and don’t make you’re training so long-winded that you are spending three, four, or even five hours at the gym a day training. If you train for such long hours at the gym, you will end up over-trained, and then you will see no results at all.
How many sets you do per body part depends on how much experience you have training. If you are new to training, anywhere between first starting out up to 6 months, I would suggest no more than 6 to 8 sets per body part.
If you are an intermediate to training, which would be anywhere between six months to a year under your belt, I would suggest between 6 to 12 sets per body part. For an experienced trainer, from a year on up of training under your belt. I would suggest between 12 to 20 sets per body part, all depending on the Muscle group.
In large muscle groups, you will naturally want to do more sets than smaller muscle groups. For example, if you are new to training, small muscle groups such as biceps, triceps, shoulders, abs, and calves, stick to doing six sets, for large muscle groups like chest, back and thighs do eight sets.
How long should I rest between sets?
Your length of recovery time between sets can vary also, it is all dependent on what you’re training style and goals are. If you are interested in losing weight and toning up, you will want to stay active and keep moving as much as possible, so it is a good idea to keep your rest periods between sets minimal.
For example, HIIT training and circuit training are both excellent ways to promote weight loss and both forms of training involve very little rest. Also, if you are new to starting on either one of these programs, you may have to rest a little longer until you build up the endurance to keep your rest periods as minimal as possible.
If your goal is to build muscle, your rest periods will be a bit longer and more frequent to promote the heavier workload that you are lifting. Your rest periods between sets should be a minimum of 45 seconds and no longer than 90 seconds except for exercises like squats and deadlifts should be no more than 2 minutes.
If your goal is to build strength in powerlifting, you will be lifting maximal weight that promotes shorter bursts of energy, so rest periods can range between 2-5 minutes.
Training frequency between muscle groups
Training frequency between body parts can vary between individuals. Some gym-goers only felt the need to train each body part once per week, but for the most part weight trainers work for each muscle group twice per week splitting their training into the upper body one day and the lower body the next.
Typically, the amount of rest required between muscle groups should be no less than 72 hours. The type of training split that I generally follow is the push-pull method, with the push-pull method, I will typically do chest, shoulders, and triceps on one day, thighs, calves, and abs on the second day and back, traps and biceps on the third day.
What should I do if I am overtrained?
If you find that you are overtrained, typical symptoms of that can be fatigue, loss of interest in working out, loss in muscle gains, and there can be various other symptoms as well. The best thing that you can do if you find yourself overtrained is taken a break from it for a while, such as a month, and work back into it slowly.
The best idea is to not find yourself overtrained in the first place, and the best way to do this is to avoid training for too long at a time and don’t push yourself beyond what is necessary. Typically, all that is necessary is to train each muscle group until you reach a full pump, which is outlined previously in this blog.
Follow a guideline as to how many sets and reps that you should do per workout and try not to go over that. It is best to follow a system and stick with it and don’t try to out-do the next guy by going in the gym and pumping iron for 4 or 5 hours a day, if you try doing that, you will definitely find yourself overtrained in no time.
Conclusion
The best guidance I can give you is to train smart and train hard but don’t kill yourself in the process of doing it. If you want to see decent results, you should build a solid foundation such as a good program to follow by, a good muscle-building diet, and get plenty of sleep each night.
When our muscles do the most growth is not when we are in the gym pumping iron but rather when we are in bed at night sleeping is when the muscles will grow, so it is necessary to get an adequate amount of sleep per night, typically at least 8 hours.
I hope that this blog post has given you an adequate amount of information to get you rolling safely with you’re training and not overdoing it. also to go with you’re training, you should have a good basis for a supplementation product to give you the proper fuel that you need to get through your workouts and for muscle growth.