Thread: Hey, could you all clear something up for me?

You can totally get an amazingly tough workout in 30 minutes.

Hell, DOMS (a member here) used to do HIT and his workouts were less than 10 minutes and he was dead afterwards.

There are a few simple things you need to remember:

1 - Use mostly compound movements.
2 - Use mostly free-weights.
3 - Keep a balance between all the major areas of the body.

In the program you posted, most of the movements are isolation, there are too many machine exercises, and there is not a great balance. By balance i mean the same amount of upper body work as lower body work, and the same amount of pressing as pulling.

The reason so many people are in the gym for hours on end is that they miss these points.

Isolation exercises arent as taxing as compounds because they dont utilise as much muscle at one time as bigger, multi-jointed exercises do. Machine exercises dont invoke stabilizer muscles and dont take as much mental focus as their free-weight counterparts.

Add those two things up, and the only way youre going to feel you've done enough in your session is if you do a million exercises and a million sets.

My advice would be to scrap this and read the stickied threads at the top of the training section, they outline some great concepts for program design.

Welcome to IM!

Originally Posted by Gazhole

You can totally get an amazingly tough workout in 30 minutes.

Hell, DOMS (a member here) used to do HIT and his workouts were less than 10 minutes and he was dead afterwards.

There are a few simple things you need to remember:

1 - Use mostly compound movements.
2 - Use mostly free-weights.
3 - Keep a balance between all the major areas of the body.

In the program you posted, most of the movements are isolation, there are too many machine exercises, and there is not a great balance. By balance i mean the same amount of upper body work as lower body work, and the same amount of pressing as pulling.

The reason so many people are in the gym for hours on end is that they miss these points.

Isolation exercises arent as taxing as compounds because they dont utilise as much muscle at one time as bigger, multi-jointed exercises do. Machine exercises dont invoke stabilizer muscles and dont take as much mental focus as their free-weight counterparts.

Add those two things up, and the only way youre going to feel you've done enough in your session is if you do a million exercises and a million sets.

My advice would be to scrap this and read the stickied threads at the top of the training section, they outline some great concepts for program design.

Welcome to IM!

Thanks! I just read the first one in regards to designing a routine and it is going to be built around squats, deads, military press, bench press, and barbell rows on a 5x5 format.

As much as I don't want to acknowledge that I am a beginner, in truth I am a beginner when it comes to the specific goal I want.

We all been there bro, hell I learn something about BBing everyday on here

I'm usually in the gym for 45min to an hour. Typically closer to an hour

much longer than that and my take is that you're either overtraining or not utilizing your time well enough

Thanks for all of your help guys! I have enough programs to last me for at least 2 years that focus on goals ranging from strength and myrofibrillar hypertrophy to gaining mass and inducing sarcoplasmic hypertrophy :-D. I also have the Strength Training Anatomy book, which I absolutely LOVE! Here are my workout programs ranging from beginner to intermediate! The set/rep schemes of each workout will also change once I get a good solid base :-D.

The leg press on the A/B format is real light and taking the place of squats because of an injury I have. Normally I would squat 3x a week, but that is a no go this time D=. I tore my MCL and stretched out the PCL and ACL about a year ago doing mixed martial arts. The 3day split was derived from cowpimp's designing a training method, so props to him on that!

Strength/5x5

Workout A
Squats 5x5
Barbell Rows 5x5
Deadlift 3x5
Barbell Curls 3x8
Pullups 4xFailure
Calf-Raises 3x15

Workout B
Leg Press 3x5
Bench Press 5x5
Military Press 5x5
Dips 4xFailure
Tricep Extensions 3x8


3 Day

Tuesday Back/Bis
Barbell Row 3x8
Seated Row 3x8
Pullups 4xFailure
Upright Rows 3x8
Shrugs 3x8
Hammer Curls/Barbell Curls 3x8, 8, 10

Wednesday Chest/Tris/Shoulder
Incline Bench Press 3x8
Bench Press 3x8
Dips 4xFailure
Incline Flys 3x8
Military Press 3x8
Lying Lateral Raises 3x8
Tricep Extensions 3x8, 8, 10

Saturday Legs/Abs
Back Squats 3x8
Front Squats 3x8
Deadlift 3x5
Good Mornings 3x8
Calf-Raises 3x10
Cable Crunches
Wood Chops

4 Day Split

Back/Biceps:
Pullups 4x10
Barbell Rows 3x8
Seated Close Grip Rows 3x8
Barbell Shrugs 3x8
Barbell Curls 3x8
Hammer Curls 3x8

Chest/Triceps:
Incline Bench Press 3x8
Flat Bench Press 8/8/6/4
Dips 3x8
Incline Dumbbell Flys 3x8
Triceps Extensions 3x8
Triceps Pushdowns 3x8

Shoulders/Traps:
Military Press 3x8
Seated Shoulder Press 3x8
Lateral Dumbbell Raises 3x8
Upright Rows 3x8
Shrugs 3x10

Legs:
Squats 3x10
Front Squats 3x8
Leg Extensions 3x10
Leg Curls 3x10
Deadlifts 3x5
Seated Calf-raises 3x8
Standing Calf-raises 3xfailure

Originally Posted by Gazhole

You can totally get an amazingly tough workout in 30 minutes.

Hell, DOMS (a member here) used to do HIT and his workouts were less than 10 minutes and he was dead afterwards.

There are a few simple things you need to remember:

1 - Use mostly compound movements.
2 - Use mostly free-weights.
3 - Keep a balance between all the major areas of the body.

In the program you posted, most of the movements are isolation, there are too many machine exercises, and there is not a great balance. By balance i mean the same amount of upper body work as lower body work, and the same amount of pressing as pulling.

The reason so many people are in the gym for hours on end is that they miss these points.

Isolation exercises arent as taxing as compounds because they dont utilise as much muscle at one time as bigger, multi-jointed exercises do. Machine exercises dont invoke stabilizer muscles and dont take as much mental focus as their free-weight counterparts.

Add those two things up, and the only way youre going to feel you've done enough in your session is if you do a million exercises and a million sets.

My advice would be to scrap this and read the stickied threads at the top of the training section, they outline some great concepts for program design.

Welcome to IM!

Gazhole you give good advice.

'You can work hard or you can work long'

When I was a pure HIT trainer I remember doing leg-extensions to failure immediately followed by deep-breathing 20 rep squats. I could barely walk for a few minutes after - talk about jelly legs ! - and needed a good 5 mins rest before I could proceed and train the rest of my body. Doing just 2 hard working sets twice a week for my legs my squat went from 90 lbs for 10 reps initially to ~300 lbs for 20 reps at my best (before I stopped training). Modest poundage compared to some but for me, being primarily an ectomorph and hardgainer, it was a great achievement.

45-60 mins is more than adequate to train the entire body let alone just 1-2 bodyparts !

Originally Posted by Protheus

Gazhole you give good advice.

'You can work hard or you can work long'

When I was a pure HIT trainer I remember doing leg-extensions to failure immediately followed by deep-breathing 20 rep squats. I could barely walk for a few minutes after - talk about jelly legs ! - and needed a good 5 mins rest before I could proceed and train the rest of my body. Doing just 2 hard working sets twice a week for my legs my squat went from 90 lbs for 10 reps initially to ~300 lbs for 20 reps at my best (before I stopped training). Modest poundage compared to some but for me, being primarily an ectomorph and hardgainer, it was a great achievement.

45-60 mins is more than adequate to train the entire body let alone just 1-2 bodyparts !

Thanks man

It just occurs to me that, no matter how much you love working out, you want to do other things with your time aswell. If i spent 3 hours in the gym, 5 days a week...i think id get bored of it pretty quickly.

Originally Posted by Protheus

Gazhole you give good advice.

'You can work hard or you can work long'

When I was a pure HIT trainer I remember doing leg-extensions to failure immediately followed by deep-breathing 20 rep squats. I could barely walk for a few minutes after - talk about jelly legs ! - and needed a good 5 mins rest before I could proceed and train the rest of my body. Doing just 2 hard working sets twice a week for my legs my squat went from 90 lbs for 10 reps initially to ~300 lbs for 20 reps at my best (before I stopped training). Modest poundage compared to some but for me, being primarily an ectomorph and hardgainer, it was a great achievement.

45-60 mins is more than adequate to train the entire body let alone just 1-2 bodyparts !

How in the hell did you ever manage to do breathing squats AFTER doing extensions to failure? I can barely do 20 rep breathing squats when I'm fresh and warmed up, let alone when I'm tired.

Thanks for all of the input guys! Let me know if you all think I am on the right track!