How long do you lift?

How long do you lift? My routine takes at least 1 hour. The max I go is 1 hour and 15 minutes. If I'm doing cardio, I'm at the gym for 2 hours! Right now I'm doing morning cardio 40-45 minutes 5-6 times per week mostly intense with a really really really intense rountine at least twice a week. I lift at night 4 days a week for about 1 hour. Is this really too much or is 2 to 2.5 hours a day 4-6 times a week too much?
 
thats a pretty similair routine to mine , but mine has less cardio... u are taking a few breaks throughout the week so its not realy overworking , keep it up...
 
I don't go to the gym anymore for extended workouts, but I do have a weight training class at school. The class is suppsedly 50 min, but after dressing out, waiting for the teacher, and taking roll, we have >35 min to run 3/4 of a mile and work out. If I estimate it right, that's only about 20-15 min of working out. Enough to isolate maybe one or two muscle groups. But hey, it's a fun class, so I don't complain TOO much...
 
Try to keep your weight training below 60min. Some will say 45min or less which is usually how long my workouts last. If your workout for extended times you will need very good nutrition to take advantage of the extra volume.
 
i use to lift for 2 hours a day 5-6 days a week, never got anywhere. now it's no longer than 60 minutes, all i need. :)
 
i mostly focus on my upper body during my workouts (chest, biceps, triceps, abs etc..) i workout for an hour 5 times a week. is this overdoing it?
 
if you workout for more than 60 mins of weights, you should start drinking a whey shake about 45 mins into the workout to avoid catabolism.

training upper body 5 days a week, an hour at a time, sounds like over training to me, and pretty soon you'll be the joke of the gym because of your toothpick legs. add some squats in there, and I'd say no more than 3 upper body days a week.
 
Lifting is quality not quanity

I lift usuaally for about twenty to fourty minutes, I believe in quality not quanity. Some one can do the bench for three hours and someone can do it for ten minutes and get more results. at we believe one should just put a 110 percent effort into the weight and the rest will take care of itself.
 
nick savage said:
I believe in quality not quanity.

so true...so true. proper form, heavy weight, and squeezing all the right muscles at peak contraction...that's what you need to properly tear down muscle for repair/growth.
 
Time on lifting.

There is not such a phraze as not enough, what we are telling you is that the quality of the workout counts more then quanity.
Here are some examples,
Your twenty a male, Your testosterone is high and your in good shape with great genetics - it probally won't hurt you to lift for an hour or longer and you'll recover probally by the next day or two.
example two;
Your 40 and testosterone is declining with age, you've abused your body through the years and are heavy, I promise you if you work out for an hour that you will feed off your muscle and not your fat.
Now 2 different examples;
A man is in the gym and he works out for fourty minutes, he doesnt have a plan and skips from station to station, he does 20 sets for chest and 20 for legs, he says to himself, I got alot accomplished so thats good.
Another man walks in the gym and has every thing written down. He knows exactly where to go and what to do, his rest periods are timed and he counts on his lifts. He only does half the sets of number one with twice the weight. Thinks about the lifts, form he needs and weights to use.

Answer? you tell me who had the best workout.
 
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Exactly Nick. I show up with my routine already written down, with # of reps and sets in mind, as well as poundages.
I don't chat. I don't mack on the ladies. I go to the gym to lift heavy things, sweat, and walk away feeling like I accomplished something.


Bear with me, I'm going on a tangent here: I really haven't gone to the gym much (except for hte last 5-6 weeks) for about 2 years. Lots of personal and financial woes plagued me right when I hit the best shape I'd ever been in. So when I did go, it'd be for a week, adn then I'd slack off.

now that I'm back in full swing, I see the same people I saw two years ago. Several of those people look exactly how they looked t2 years ago...scrawy, no definition, and you can tell they maybe gained 1 lb of lean mass. Very sad.

So my 26%(estimated) bodyfat self walks in after 2 years, and at this point, I've surpassed what I used to bench, I'm doing deadlifts now, my biceps are FINALLY growign in size and strength (used to struggle with 25's, now I'm doing 32.5 after a couple weeks).

If that doesn't prove that quality of training and diet is FAR more important than quantity of training...then I don't know how else to prove it.
 
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