How long should your workouts be?

[Disciple X]

Originally Posted by Shadow

And that's balls to the walls, all out, 1 time kind of effort.

Thats every set for me

Everybody is different. I will say that for bodybuilding, which is what the op is asking about, it shouldnt take near as long. If you're doing more than an hour of "dense" training, with drop sets, supersets, etc. you're an animal.

I do mostly compound exercises. If i jump straight from bench to push presses without an "extended rest period" i'm not going to move as much weight as i possibly can. Thats my goal. It works for me...

Also, at a powerlifting competition, you do a total of 9 lifts that count over the course of several hours/ half a day... theres a lot of time between attempts, usually 10-20 min or more, depending on how many lifters are there. Its all about what your goal is and how your body reacts to different stimulus. I've done 1 hour body building sessions and i've done 2 hour powerlifting sessions. The longer sessions i've adopted have done so much more for my strength. I've put over 25 lb on my paused bench in the past few months and my upper sessions almost always take 2 hours+

I've adopted the mentality of give anything a try and see what happens... some things have been successes and some have been epic fails.

[BendtheBar]

My rule is this...if you can't destroy yourself in an hour, don't train longer.

[dmaipa]

there has been research that shows higher volume workouts in fact do increase serum testosterone but after a 45 -60 minutes of resistance training T-levels quickly decrease. But this is towards routines that are much higher in volume compared to strength programs which prescribe a much longer rest period in between sets.

[dmaipa]

so to continue and being a little more blunt...for all the young yahoos who are in the gym for 2hours scratching their balls and doing every exercise in the book..you are more just taking up space and wasting your time..get in and get out and you will grow!

[Jamesw]

I work out at home, but I have worked at a couple big box gyms. It reminds me of the bar. basically social hour, I could never work out in a gym. I never have and I never will.

The gym is strictly for clients not for me.

[Shadowschmadow]

Originally Posted by Disciple X

Thats every set for me

Everybody is different. I will say that for bodybuilding, which is what the op is asking about, it shouldnt take near as long. If you're doing more than an hour of "dense" training, with drop sets, supersets, etc. you're an animal.

I do mostly compound exercises. If i jump straight from bench to push presses without an "extended rest period" i'm not going to move as much weight as i possibly can. Thats my goal. It works for me...

I agree that everyone is different, and some of us require longer breaks than others. However, I'm not a bodybuilder and my workout doesn't consist of a ton of isolations, so you're not winning me over with the compound exercise bit. When I go to the gym, I don't go there to put in a half-assed effort, so I can relate to the all-out intensity of training.

And if you jump straight into PP after BP you're going to need an extended break because having those two exercises back to back causes fatigue carry-over. Poorly thought out IMHO, and I don't mean that offensively, but if you want to go all out then you need to give those muscles some down time. And down time doesn't mean sitting, but choosing other exercises that don't utilize relatively the same muscle groups.

Honestly man, I can't see any possible reason why it should take anyone 3 hours to workout. But to each his own I guess, so if that's what works for you and you're seeing the results you want from it, then by all means.

[Disciple X]

I'm obviously the lone ranger on this topic. Lol. But my poor programing and entirely too long rest periods have done me well... i hitt a 205x2 push press 325 x 3 paused bench, and a 405 raw squat within the last two weeks or so, all of which were huge PRs. All my workouts are 2 hr+ Not saying these numbers are anything impressive, but they are great progress from where i was, and progress is what its all about...

[Shadowschmadow]

Originally Posted by Disciple X

I'm obviously the lone ranger on this topic. Lol. But my poor programing and entirely too long rest periods have done me well... i hitt a 205x2 push press 325 x 3 paused bench, and a 405 raw squat within the last two weeks or so, all of which were huge PRs. All my workouts are 2 hr+ Not saying these numbers are anything impressive, but they are great progress from where i was, and progress is what its all about...

Your numbers are good numbers, and another perfect example that multiple methods work. If you want to train for 3 hours than that's your prerogative, and I'm not going to hold that against you.

[Disciple X]

2-2.5 most days lol. thats all i wanted to get across is that its not a set in stone rule that can not be broken... i'm finding more and more that the unbreakable rules work, but so does other stuff. I eat twice a day, the six meal nazis think i should be wasting away! I squat 5-6 days a week, i should be overtrained and getting weaker, i'm setting all time PRs. The list goes on and on... "passion trumps everything" - dave tate.

[Hazzard]

As long as it takes baby.