I know I’ve done this stupid mistake before: I used to spend way too much time at a gym; sometimes up to 3 hours per session! At that point, I realized that I had to learn ways to condense the time I spend at the gym and make my workouts more efficient. While you may not have spent 3 hours there like I did, the following tips can still help reduce your time by about from about one hour to 40 minutes or so.
Note that this article that I’m writing is to make your weight lifting regimen more efficient. If you’re a cardio person, then I highly recommend that you start lifting weights (this advice applies to men and women!). If you haven’t already, take a look at my article “How Weight Training Can Provide Amazing Health Benefits”. Even if you’re an overweight person, try and add some time to do weight lifting.
1. You don’t need to be lifting more than is necessary! You only need to stress your muscles enough so that they tear and need to recover. You can do all the weight lifting you need to do for a muscle group in the time span of about 40 minutes. You should feel sore enough the next day.
2. Reduce your resting time. This will make your workouts tougher, but it will reduce your time and your body will become better conditioned overtime. I recommend that you cut your resting period down by 5-10 seconds each week (while increasing the weight only slightly, or not at all). For example, if you tend to rest for about 90 seconds, then next week you should drop it to 80-85. Then drop by another 5-10 the next week… and so on. Your minimum resting time should be 30 seconds, so try not to drop below that!
3. Pyramid sets are your best friend. A pyramid set is basically 3-4 sets in rapid succession (there’s only a 7 second resting period in between each set). You’re basically going to start high in weights, and then quickly drop down. Here’s a specific example:
a. Let us assume that the maximum weight you can do is 200 pounds. For your first set, you’ll do about 5-7 reps of that weight.
b. For your second set, you’re going to drop the weight by about 50-60%. So now your second set will be about 100-120 pounds. Do as many reps as you can until your muscles fail.
c. Now drop your weight by an additional 50% for the third set. In this example, you should now be doing about 50-60 pound weights. Do as many reps as possible.
d. If you still have enough strength, go for a fourth set. Drop it by an additional 50%, so now you’ll be doing 25-30 pounds. Do as many reps as you can.
Keep in mind that you only get about 7 seconds of resting time in between each set! If you can do this technique, you’ll notice that your regular regimen will be transformed into a whole new intensive session with amazing results.
Just give these 3 easy tips a try and you’ll see how your gym time is drastically reducing!
