“It doesn’t give me life. If I have to: go to the gym, change, warm up, make a training plan of an hour and a half, shower, get dressed again… It takes me more than two hours!”, admits Alicia, a 46-year-old woman, a worker. , mother of two children and divorced with shared custody. “I have a lot of respect for those who can arrange their agenda or have outside help, but that is not my case. I would love to train, but… How do I do it? I have left. I don’t have time,” she admits.
The success of a training plan comes from adapting it to the person’s context. Balancing work, family, leisure and self-care – and this is where physical exercise comes in – can be a complicated task, but it could be achieved.
“I would love not to give up. I know that it is important if I want to live many years and continue to be independent, but I see it as impossible,” says Alicia. Her case is not unique, lack of time is one of the most commonly reported barriers to abandoning exercise programs and research, such as one recently published by the journal sports medicine, is aware of it and addresses the problem. The studies admit that strength training provides many other positive health benefits, including improved functional capacity, cardiometabolic risk profile, and well-being. The question is: Can it be carried out in less time effectively and efficiently? Understanding how to design programs in ways that reduce time without significantly compromising results could encourage more people like Alicia to participate and stay away.
Including a warm-up and stretching, gym workouts often exceed an hour in duration for several sessions per week. According to American College of Sports Medicinea program for healthy untrained or intermediate adults involves training all major muscle groups with 2-4 sets of 8-10 exercises of 3 to 12 repetitions with 2 to 5 minutes of rest between sets, performed as follows: 2 to 4 times a week.
Frequency and volume
These are possibly the most important variables to consider when fitting exercise into a busy schedule. It is worth noting that weekly training volume seems to be a more crucial factor than frequency. According to studieswe understand by frequency, the number of days that you train per week (example: Monday and Wednesday), by volume, the amount of training, the total number of repetitions (series and repetitions) and as total volume load (series, repetitions and loads).
General guidelines recommend that people train 2 to 3 times per week. Unfortunately, this pattern can cause those who find it difficult to go to the gym several times a week to do nothing at all because they see this goal as unattainable. However, emerging research indicates that it is possible to achieve similar effects by training once a week compared to a higher frequency when equating total weekly volume. A meta-analysis recently published found no strong evidence that frequency has a significant impact on muscle hypertrophy when training volume is matched. For those looking to minimize time, it seems more important to focus on acquiring sufficient weekly training volume than to focus on a particular training frequency. This has a great practical application as it would allow you to choose a weekly training frequency based on your schedule. For example, some people may choose to do several short training sessions spread throughout the week, while others may need to do a single weekly training session of a longer duration.
As admitted by the review of Sports Medicine, gains in muscle mass can be achieved through a wide spectrum of intensities (loads), but if low loads (more than 15 repetitions) are used, training must be performed with a high degree of effort. This could be particularly relevant if the person does it at home. That said, each muscle group should be trained with at least four sets per week, preferably more, if you want to gain muscle mass and can dedicate the extra time necessary (10 sets or more).
Exercise selection
Squats, deadlifts, lunges, split squats…What gestures can you include in your training if the goal is to do it and get to work on time? Considering the current evidencebilateral exercises may be more efficient (since both sides of the body are trained simultaneously) and should therefore be prioritized unless activation of the core (middle zone) is essential for your training. That said, unilateral gestures (single leg) are a viable option to increase the difficulty of an exercise in spaces where there are fewer weights available, such as training at home.
As for rest intervals, the untrained can rest 1 to 2 minutes between sets, while the more experienced will probably require more than 2 minutes to maximize muscle gains. Shorter rest intervals should be used when performing exercises for small muscle groups, while longer rest intervals are recommended when performing more demanding exercises.
The warm ups They could be divided into two categories: the general one aimed at increasing the core temperature of the muscles and body (for example, 5 to 15 minutes of low-impact exercise, such as riding a bike at a moderate intensity), and the specific intended to provide neuromuscular activation of the exercise to be performed (for example, performing squats with light weights before progressing to heavier ones). When scheduling strength training for time efficiency the authors of this investigation They advise maintaining warm-ups that are specific to the exercise; Avoid prioritizing stretching unless a primary goal of your training is to increase mobility. In this sense, a specific warm-up could be performed in the first exercise for each muscle group, as they can be useful, particularly when working with heavy loads.
Time is the most important thing you have, and it has become your most precious treasure. We don’t have a time machine like in the movie. Return to the future, which allows us to go years forward and back to change the decisions we make. Society pushes us to produce, to live in an eternal rat wheel in which physical and mental health can be harmed. Taking care of yourself is a revolutionary act and self-love. We are our decisions. Choosing to reorganize your strength training, incorporating it into your schedule, no matter how busy it may be, may be the best choice if you want to gain health, avoid illness and dependency.
From the theory to the practice
These are, according to studies, the recommendations for carrying out strength and hypertrophy training programs whose objective is to save time:
- The importance of volume. Perform 4 weekly series per muscle group. If you can, increase volume when possible and with progression (up to 10+ sets per week).
- Play with the possibilities. If you can maintain weekly volume, explore your options. You can do several short training sessions spread throughout the week or a single weekly session with a longer duration.
- The weight… How much should I use? A load of 6-15 RM (maximum repetitions) for strength improvement and hypertrophy.
- Train at home. Lighter loads can be used if the training is done with a high degree of effort (very relevant for those who have a healthy corner in their home and train in it). Regarding materials, elastic bands and your own body weight can help you perform a sustainable workout.
- Multi-joint and bilateral exercises. Prioritize gestures that move large muscle groups. Perform at least one that works the lower body (squat, deadlift, jumping jacks…), one pulling exercise (for example: rowing or pulldown) and one pushing exercise (such as push ups either press bench) for the top.
- Heating. If saving time is essential for you, you could perform a specific warm-up on the first exercise for each muscle group. Strength training itself promotes improvements in mobility, as long as the gestures are executed with good technique.
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