How Long Should My Workout Be?

Your weight lifting workout will ideally last somewhere around 50 70 minutes. How long you go really depends on you and how you feel, but from my experience and what I read on the web prior to writing this post, the general opinion is about an hour.

I thought DannySWO said something very insightful on the bodybuilding forums .  “Short work outs will keep you more focused.”

wikimedia

That is so true.  When I am up against the wall with a finite set of time, my workouts are usually very to the point and I move progressively faster.  However, when I go into the gym with an open range, I might lose some focus.  I don’t always but an open time frame leaves the possibility for a less straight forward workout.

With weight training, I feel I usually end up near an hour and 15 minutes.  I don’t recommend going much higher because you have to remember that your body is going to hit an apex and then come down from it.  If you’re working while your body descends, you’re not using your energy efficiently.

I’ll guarantee you if you go in and hit the weights hard, you won’t need any more than 70 minutes to get a tremendous workout that will have you building muscle at a fast rate.  Try giving all you got for as long as you can on the weights while keeping the rest to a minimum and you’ll get a good feel for how long your workout should be.

If you start at only 40 minutes, that’s ok.  Remember that weight training will not only develop strength but also endurance.