Length of workout and number of exercises

LoriLarson92614

Taking a survey of strength training programs:

How many exercises per body part do you do in a daily workout? (back, biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders, abs, legs, etc.)
How long does your "go to" lifting routine usually take?
Do you train specific areas together or do you have "days" (arm day, shoulder, legs, etc.)?

My objective is to incorporate more strength training into my workouts but am curious if a 20 minute lifting day is the norm or if I am going too fast?

If anyone has a good link to a solid routine please let me know!

Thanks!

rybo

There's nearly an infinite way of breaking things down. For me, most days are a push, pull, squat & hinge. Occasionally I'll split into an upper/lower. I don't follow a bodybuilding split anymore where individual groups were trained at a time.

cwolfman13

I lift 3x weekly...

A: Cleans/Vertical Pull/Vertical Push/Dead Lift Variations/Optional Isolation
B: Snatch/Horizontal Pull/Horizontal Push/Squat Variations/Optional Isolation

for example, Workout A...I'll do my Clean and Jerk, pull-ups, muscle ups, OH Pressing variations (OH Press or push press or military press), lat pulls, dead lift or RDLs, and if I have time and I feel like it I'll do some curls and lunges or something...

Basically I do 6 exercises per workout...takes me about 45 - 60 minutes depending.

I personally don't recommend split routines for beginners...I would recommend a full body routine of some kind.

My wife really liked New Rules of Lifting for Women and then went on to do Strong Curves...she now uses the templates in New Rules Supercharged as she has enough general knowledge to just use a template now to program her own routine.

Trying to program your own routine as a novice is not going to garner nearly the results that doing an actual program will...you simply don't have the requisite knowledge...it takes a lot of knowledge to program your own routine...without that knowledge, you miss muscles and whole groups of muscles which can often lead to muscular imbalances as well as injury.

colors_fade

I also lift 3x per week. Compound lifts followed by some selective isolation work.

Total workout time each day: 60-90 minutes.

I basically follow a DUP-style training program. Only I don't save the isolation work for Saturdays, but instead do it after my main workout (three compound lifts) each day.

For the most part, when it comes to the compound lifts, I do the following:

Squat 3x per week
Deadlift 2x per week
Bench Press 3x per week
Overhead Press 1x per week
Row 2x per week

I typically do 3 or 4 compound lifts every workout. Squat and bench every time (bench because it was my weakest lift, and I've really been working on form the last few months).

After that, I do isolation exercises: dips, assisted pullups, cable lats, and dumbbell presses (flat and inclined). The isolation work is where I try to "finish myself off" and lift to failure, especially the arms (after squats and deads, my legs are pretty well failed out).

I work the DUP philosophy into it: I listen to my body to determine what I can do that day and set the goal once I'm in the gym. Some days are more volume than others. Some days I focus on 2-3 reps at max weight for the compound lifts. Other days, it's a 5x5 or 4x6. Some days I just try to get as much volume in as possible. I try and set one PR every week on at least one lift.

Now, as to your question about a 20-minute lifting routine: What that tells me is you're not lifting enough weight. I could never do my workout in 20 minutes, because it's not enough rest between lifts. The weight is too heavy for that.

When I started StrongLifts 2 years ago, for the first 16 weeks, I could do the workout in 30 minutes. But then the weight finally got "really heavy", and I had to start resting 3-5 minutes between sets.

Nowadays, I am used to lifting heavy, but I still need some rest. For each compound lift, it typically takes me 15 minutes to do the full amount of sets I want to do that day. Deadlifts are the exception - I always ladder up to a bit 1-rep pull, and that takes time.

Then there's the isolation work at the end, and that's another 15 minutes typically, to try and get some muscles to fail out.

So... I'd say you're just not lifting heavy enough if you can do your workout in 20 minutes.

You have t lift heavy to see the full benefit.

DopeItUp

LoriLarson92614 wrote: »

Taking a survey of strength training programs:

How many exercises per body part do you do in a daily workout? (back, biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders, abs, legs, etc.)
How long does your "go to" lifting routine usually take?
Do you train specific areas together or do you have "days" (arm day, shoulder, legs, etc.)?

My objective is to incorporate more strength training into my workouts but am curious if a 20 minute lifting day is the norm or if I am going too fast?

If anyone has a good link to a solid routine please let me know!

Thanks!

I wouldn't worry about "exercises per body part", especially at your stage. Find a beginner program that you like and do it. It will generally involve full-body workouts, almost always 3x a week.

How long a session takes depends on a lot of things. I average 2.5-3 hours but that's inappropriate for a beginner. Most people I would say average in the 60-90 minute period. 20 minutes is probably way too short for most people, I'm lucky if I'm done with my warmup routine in just 20 minutes.