Are You Wondering How Long Should My Workouts Be?
One question I get on a regular basis as a 22 year veteran Austin personal trainer and gym owner, is how long should my workouts be? As anyone who has ever read any of my numerous essays or blogs would know, I’m not a proponent of formulaic approaches to much of anything. Especially health and fitness. It’s OK, and even advisable to adhere to some certain guidelines, but to definitively adhere to a sweeping statement is not only silly, but it can be dangerous as well.
When I get asked how long should my workouts be, my answer will depend upon a variety of factors. What are you training for? What’s your experience level with working out? Are there any limiting factors in your workout, such as an inflammation in the supraspinatus from a previous tear, for example? Etc, etc. If you are simply looking to get in a bit better shape, I would advise most people to keep it within an hour. Exercising more is generally pointless, even if you find you are only able to hit the gym once or twice per week. If you related the I’m doing it all in 1 sitting approach to walking your dog, it would be rather ludicrous to take your dog for a walk for 7 straight hours so you won’t have to do it for the rest of the week. The same applies with fitness as well. You’re better served if you do it several times per week.
If you are doing any type of sport specific training, I would answer the long should my workouts be question quite differently. In these cases, it’s not a matter of just punching the clock and burning off a certain amount of calories, but rather the workouts are designed to add muscle wherever needed in order to bring greater stability, power, explosiveness, etc. Often times there is a good deal of corrective flexibility involved with sport specific training as well. For example, one of the PGA golfers I worked with extensively had a very tight levator scapulae. As you can imagine, having ones shoulder significantly jacked up towards the ear doesn’t help you sink putts or drive the ball for distance. As a result, our workouts would vary in length, depending upon what the focus was that particular day.
How long should my workouts be? It depends, as you can clearly see. As mentioned, there are definitely some guidelines put out by various agencies as well as private companies stating we need X amount of exercise and we need to eat X amount of this or that. Those should be taken as a general guideline, but by no means is it carved in stone. As a personal trainer, I wouldn’t be earning my pay if I simply adhered to those with my clients. Everyone is different, and as such, has different needs.
If you are just getting started with fitness and asked me how long should my workouts be, I would advise you to take it easy at first and start at the shallow end of the pool, so to speak. Perhaps start your day with a nice 15 minute walk, for example. On the other hand, if you are a veteran of fitness, or a professional athlete, barring any imbalances, we will start off in the deep end of the pool, so to speak, and the workouts will be significantly longer and more challenging. If you’re not in a position where you can employ me, I would wholeheartedly suggest ditching those fitness apps that tell you how much weight you need to lift incrementally, as well as tell you definitively how long your workouts need to be. That’s the quickest way to not only frustrate yourself, but to to hurt yourself as well.
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Andy
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