How To Organize a Workout

Practical and Physiological Constraints

Whats up people,

Recently I published my updated guidelines for training.. For those that did not read them, you can refer back to them.

While the guidelines are simple, inevitably people had questions about them, too many to answer in a single post.  

Starting from the beginning, I wanted to explain the thinking behind each of them. Perhaps this exercise is pedantic, but I believe it will help all of you to make smarter training decisions, improve your "bullshit detection" when reading new fitness information, and increase your confidence in the gym with your workouts. 

Recommendation #1-Train 2-3 Muscles Each Workout

To make sense of this recommendation, there are both physiological Constraints to consider, as well as psychological factors at play. 

• Most people will allot 30-90 minutes at the gym, with the average being around 60 minutes. 
  

• While total body workouts can be effective, as someone becomes more advanced, it becomes more difficult to sufficiently challenge all muscles in a total body workout. You simply need to perform more exercises, typically around 8-10 if you want train all major muscles. While some people enjoy this training style, many do not. 
  
  Example: A beginner can do pushups, bodyweight squats, and pulldowns and get results. Someone thats been training for 4 years, that will not maximize results. 
  
  

• For this reason, bodypart "splits" tend to be popular. They can be done by any level of trainee. They teach someone practical anatomy. They are easy to mentally organize, easy to keep track of, and they allow for individual customization. They can be tailored for any kind of training schedule. 
  
  --This why "Push Pull Legs" style splits are so popular. 
  
  

• Based on current research, it takes about 4-8 sets to reach a maximum level on muscle building stimulus. As a Heuristic, do at least 4 sets per muscle per workout. 
  

• For most muscles, it will take about 2 exercises to train all of the muscles major functions. Example, leg extensions and hack squats for quads, leg curls and stiff leg deadlifts for hamstrings, chinups and seated rows for lats, supinated bicep curls and hammer curls for biceps and forearms
  
  

• If you follow the heuristic of doing 2 exercises per muscle, then an effective workout will consist of at least 4-6 exercises. 
  
  

• Assuming you do 4 total sets for a muscle (2 sets per exercise), with each set lasting 30-60 seconds, and rest 3 minutes in between, you will finish 4 sets in 16 minutes approximately. 6 sets would be 24 minutes.
  
  These are estimates, but you get the point: training a single muscle should not typically take more than 30 minutes maximum.
  

• Based on the approximate math above, an effective workout then should be anywhere from the 30 minute to 90 minute range (that would be doing close to 8 sets for 3 different muscles, which I don’t recommend), with the median being about 60 minutes. 
  
  

Any Questions on the Above? Feel Free to Comment