Why 20-30 Minute Training Sessions?
1. I know myself. I can only effectively focus – I mean, really focus – on a specific task for around 30-40 minutes at a time. There was a time when I used to go to the gym and lift for 1-2 hours. But the quality of my session always plummeted after the first 40 minutes. Once your mind fatigues or wanders, the quality of the work drops off a cliff and you realize you're just burning energy without stimulating any extra muscle growth.
2. I focus on quality over quantity. Always.
3. I enjoy training that fits into my day, rather than making my day fit around my training. Consistent sessions that don't add stress to my daily schedule are key to training and making gains for a lifetime. I'll take 1 million 20 minute sessions over 100,000 60+ minute sessions. And I reckon I'll make more gains from the million 20 minute sessions, too.
4. I'd rather train more frequently, for shorter periods of time than the other way around. I like to work pretty hard during my training, and the bigger your effort, the shorter you'll be able to sustain effort. So quick, focused, intense (near daily) sessions work for my body and my mindset. I don't care to piddle about just to piddle about for a dogmatic period of time.
Okay, that's the short and sweet, bottom line upfront, la-di-da.
Now let's dive into the rambling for those that like to read and dissect my thoughts. For those that stick around, there's TWO FREE 20 Minute, muscle building, body composition maximizing, program at the end of this writeup.
First and foremost, the idea and inspiration for 20-30 minute workouts came as a result of my job – personal training.
Everyone that's never worked as a personal trainer or has hired a personal trainer assumes that we trainers just hang out in the gym pumping iron all day. I remember when I was about 25 years old, some ignorant swine who was going through the typical 3 year gym bro phase (and then never lifted regularly again) commented on my job as a trainer, saying, "that's pretty awesome that you just get to get paid to work out all day."
I looked him in the eyes for a solid 5 seconds before punching him directly in the throat. He hasn't been able to speak a dumb word since, and for that, I think society owes me a great debt of gratitude. Ultra-violence for the win.
As trainers we don't get paid unless we're training clients. It's one of those very traditional, old school, pay-for-service transactions.
I eventually became a very busy personal trainer for one reason or another and my time and energy were limited between/around my long days of training clients. So I began – unintentionally at first – doing these micro workout sessions during gaps between clients. I discovered that these short, often fast-paced workouts worked really well. Not only that, but they energized me and boosted my mood. Cool!
I began playing around with this idea of brief, but frequent training sessions. I came up with a ridiculous amount of ways to accomplish these blitz-style workouts, but basically settled on the simple fact that 3-5 exercises done for 2-3 sets per exercise with 1-2 minutes of rest between each set was a winning recipe.
Sure, the volume wasn't super high, but I was making better progress, feeling better, and more motivated to train then ever!
I realized that cramming a bunch of volume into 1 session is overrated compared to prioritizing:
1. Frequent sessions (nearly every day of the week).
2. High quality execution (lifting with very good form).
3. High intensity (going close to failure).
4. Recovering well (lower volume sessions are easier to recover from, allowing for more frequent, high quality training sessions throughout the week).
5. Selecting the best bang for the buck exercises for my goals.
6. Enjoying my training.
7. Being able to squeeze my training anywhere into my day, which is often the key for people like personal trainers who have varying schedules.
I began looking into the old school lifting bros of the bronze, silver, and even golden era of bodybuilding, and while many trained for many hours, others, like Vince Gironda and his pupils, preferred training frequently but briefly. Vince used very short rest periods to get more volume in while keeping sessions around 30 minutes. Many of the bronze age lifters and old time strongmen built great physiques before the steroid era doing a handful of exercises, regularly, for 2 sets apiece.
Gym people think I'm weird for promoting this style of training and for training in this way (it's odd, I guess, these days, to train in the actual manner that you recommend online. Interesting times...). But, this works! Why not try it? Too many people train in a way that is not sustainable for the rest of their lives. Learning how to effectively train and build muscle with frequent 20-30 minute workouts allows you to make gains no matter what's going on in your life or how busy you are.
Many people waste lots of time in the gym. Going through the motions, doing random dogmatic exercises, just filling in the space of time until that 1 hour mark. That's not going to work very well for you, and it's definitely not a sustainable, lifelong fitness solution.
Next, I want to discuss the importance of habits.
The best way to form and maintain a habit is to do it every day. When it comes to working out, you only have so much time, energy, and recovery capability to lift weights. You can either:
1. Train long and infrequently but get more work done per session
Or
2. Train briefly and frequently with less work per session.
Long sessions take more energy out of you and require more time to recover. The time commitment and recovery demands make these long training sessions less fun and motivating. It also creates a habit of "rest days" which could lead some to create a habit of not training.
Short, brief sessions are like other daily habits – brushing your teeth, driving to work, cooking meals, doing the dishes. These daily habits take a little bit of time, but not a lot. And, more importantly, they get done every day (or so I hope).
When I was trying to create the habit of reading I didn't say, "okay, I'm going to read 3-4 days per week for 1 hour."
No, sir. I said, "alright, I'm going to read every day for 15-20 minutes."
The latter option was easier to chew on and it developed my reading muscle by consistent, repetitive action.
If you struggle with being consistent with the gym, I encourage you to go every day. Workout for 20-30 minutes every day. Lift weights 4-6 of those days and do cardio, active recovery/fun creative movement (like club swinging), and/or ab work the other 1-3 days. I guarantee if you do this for 3 months you'll continue to be consistent in the gym for the following year. Better yet, the momentum and gains you'll notice from a year of consistent, daily exercise (not daily lifting, but near daily lifting while doing low intensity exercise the other days) will teach you that more and longer is not the secret. Consistent and progressive is the secret for gains.
You won't be able to go to the gym or exercise every day if you're trying to do 60 minute workouts. It's not sustainable. You won't recover from those long, frequent workouts. You also won't have time to do that every single day.
But 20-30 minutes per day? Yeah, you'll be able to recover from that. Better yet, you'll have no problem fitting exercise into your daily schedule when you accept this more reasonable approach.
Maybe more importantly, again, you'll develop the habit of exercise, and that's the real secret to great health and beautiful body composition.
I challenge you to accept the 30 Minute Physique lifestyle.
Here's a couple sample routines for you to do for the next 12 weeks. Feel free to substitute exercises that fit your preferences or needs where you see fit. If you have questions, let me know by responding to this post.
Sample Program 1: PPL 4X
Pull Day
Ex 1: pullups (or lat pulldowns)-2x5-10
Ex 2: single arm rows-2x6-12
Ex 3: incline dumbbell curls or concentration curls (or whatever other curl you like)-2x6-12
Ex 4: incline hammer curls or secondary bicep curl or rear delt flyes-2x10-15
Push Day
Ex 1: clean & press or military press-2x5-10
Ex 2: incline or flat dumbbell bench press or floor press-2x6-12 or high rep pushups for 2 sets
Ex 3: cable/band pushdowns or cable/band overhead extensions or dumbbell/kettlebell Skull Presses-2x10-20
Ex 4: lateral raise or secondary tricep isolation exercise-2x10-15
Legs
Ex 1: Bulgarian split squats-2x8-12/15 (up to 12 or 15 reps. Try both and see what's better for your growth)
Ex 2: single leg RDL-2x10-15
Ex 3: single leg box squats or lateral squats or kettlebell swings or leg curls or hip thrusts/glute bridges or box step ups or leg extensions-2x10-15
Ex 4: calf raise variation-2x10-20
Sample Program 2: Upper/Lower 54X
Upper
Ex 1: overhead press or clean & press or lateral raise-2x5-10; 2x10-15 if lateral raise*
Ex 2: single arm rows or pullups/pulldowns-3x5-10
Ex 3: bench press variation-2x6-12
Ex 4: incline dumbbell curls or concentration curls (or whatever other curl you like)-2x6-12
Ex 5: cable/band pushdowns or cable/band overhead extensions or dumbbell/kettlebell Skull Presses-2x10-20
*If doing lateral raises, do bench press variation for exercise 1 and lateral raises for exercise 2. Always 3 sets on pullups or rows with this upper/lower plan
Legs
Ex 1: Bulgarian split squats-2x8-12/15 (up to 12 or 15 reps. Try both and see what's better for your groth)
Ex 2: single leg RDL-2x10-15
Ex 3: single leg box squats or lateral squats or kettlebell swings or leg curls or hip thrusts/glute bridges or box step ups or leg extensions-2x10-15
Ex 4: calf raise variation-2x10-20
Those sessions should take 20-30 minutes.
With either program, lift weights 4-6 days per week, alternating through each session in succession (pull then push then legs then pull then push then legs, etc OR, if program 2, upper, lower, upper, lower, upper, etc). Take a day, 2, or 3 off from lifting each week but do some other form of exercise for 20-30 minutes on those days that you don't lift.
Again, do it for 12 weeks and let me know your thoughts, results, and opinions after completing 12 weeks (3 months).
