Do you really have to lift weights to exhaustion, climb stairs for hours, or end your routine with a marathon sit-up to burn fat and build healthy muscle? How long should you exercise?
The secret that strength athletes and martial artists know about training duration is this: with concentration, you hit the sweet spot much sooner than you think!
It doesn’t matter if you’re in the gym to increase your size, improve your athletic performance or sculpt a body that’s easy on the eyes, you have to accomplish three things to reach your goal. First, you must stimulate growth, whether it be the growth of new muscle mass or the replacement of damaged muscle fibers with strong, vital tissue. Second, you need to work hard enough to get your metabolism up to a level that triggers the production of growth hormone and the release of serotonin and dopamine (in sequence). These powerful substances help regulate physical stress and allow your muscles to work efficiently and recover afterwards. And lastly, you want to boost and promote your body’s ability to handle physical stress. That is, increase flexibility and resistance while reducing tension.
The good news is that you can do all of this in half an hour a day, plus ten minutes of post-workout stretching. That’s how:
Divide your entire workout into two exercises for each of the six muscle groups. Don’t worry about doing a full workout. You will change the exercises for each muscle group monthly. Do five sets of five repetitions for each exercise, with a minute of rest between sets. Rest for a full three minutes between exercises.
The resistance you use should be such that you can do five sets with perfect clean form, but not be able to complete a sixth set. Then adjust it a bit more so that the first two sets are only 80 percent of the resistance you’re using for the last three sets. Hit only one muscle group per day and allow a full week of recovery before working it again. Don’t train to failure!
Getting to that last impossible repeat is like running a victory lap at full throttle. You’ve already won the race, now you’re just getting burned. Instead of damaging your muscles, use that self-discipline to stretch your target area for ten minutes each day. This simple action will trigger the shift from the strong serotonin production that accompanied your training to a more focused dopamine release. This chemical shift will shift your body’s emphasis toward muscle relaxation and healing, but will allow your metabolism to remain brisk and gradually slow back to its base level.
Give this routine three months, changing the exercises for each muscle group each month. Then take stock of your strength, size, and stamina. You’ll be amazed at how much progress you can make without daily injuries or spending all your time in the gym.