How Long Should A Workout Be?
You cannot ask questions such as; “How long should a workout last for?” or, “How long should a person workout for?”, without them becoming a gateway into a thousand other questions.
Unfortunately, working out is not a simple process. We cannot just, go for a run and magically expect to have lost a few pounds forever by the time we get back. We can’t start curling dumbbells every day for 30 minutes and expect to have biceps bigger than Belgium after a few weeks. We can’t keep performing the same exercises and expect to see results or, expect that sticking to everything we do will even help us accomplish our body goals in the end.
For some, the very thought of working out is an ordeal enough, let alone having to assess the mechanics of their own body and start thinking more in-depth about how they exercise. Fortunately, we love the science of the body as well as the science behind working out and we also, love, to make it easier reading for you.
How Long For A Full Body Workout?
What is meant by a full-body workout? Does it mean working out every single muscle in the body or, does it mean working out all the key parts of your body e.g. The back, legs, chest, arms, stomach etc? A bit of both would be the best way to answer that question. The goal for a full-body workout should be to exercise all the main muscle groups and keep them stimulated throughout. But you can go about this in very different ways, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. Are you looking to build muscle? Are you looking to lose weight? What your goals are will very much end up dictating how long you spend every time you commit to a full-body workout.
For instance, if you were looking to build muscle, taking a longer approach to your workout would allow you the appropriate amount of time to focus on individual muscles and movements. You want to spread the time you workout as much as possible to maintain energy so as a minimum, workout for 45 minutes and you can take your workout as far as 90 minutes if you keep the intensity at a moderate level.
On the other hand, a more intense and shorter full-body workout is a great way to burn a good number of calories quickly. A 20-30-minute HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) session is a great way to exercise all your core muscle groups relatively quickly. However, a high-intensity workout will cause your body to tire more quickly and limit your ability to exercise for the rest of the day, which may not workout for you if you’re trying to lose more weight
How Long Should A Weight Loss Workout Be?
Your body is a big factor in how much time you need to spend working out each week to lose weight. A study from the American College of Sports Medicine believes you need to exercise between 150 and 250 minutes each week, with a good balance between moderate and high-intensity exercise to lose weight. However, our bodies work differently to each other and we cannot all follow the same exercise plan and expect the same results. No method will work for everyone but, that doesn’t mean we cannot follow the same routine and adapt it accordingly to suit our needs.
The key thing to remember is focussing on balancing your workout or exercise pattern between moderate and high-intensity exercises. If you only exercise moderately throughout the week, you may not lose as much weight or, any at all if your body is not working enough. By the same token though, exercising only at a high intensity throughout the week will be very draining on your body and could lead to injury or even cause your body weight to yoyo up and down without appropriate time for recovery.
Instead, focus on building a balanced exercise plan with variations between high-intensity exercise such as running or, HIIT workouts that you don’t spend more than 30 minutes doing and combine that with more moderate weight training sessions and jogging or, walking for anything from 40 minutes upwards.
A Beginners Workout: How Long Should It Be?
Many personal trainers and body coaches agree that beginners should start with shorter length workouts to get their body to start adapting more gradually to exercising more intensely and frequently. Your body is not primed and ready to start lifting heavy weights or running a mile flat out in under 5 minutes from the word go. Building up strength and endurance takes time, as well as patience. You should limit your workouts to no longer than 30 minutes when you first start working out and try to have at least two rest days per week.
How long do you need to keep at this for? Well, that depends on how you adapt to your new workout regime. As you go on, you will start to feel stronger and have increased stamina. There isn’t a real hack for this, you’re going to have to take some time to get your body ready to kick things up a notch but, there are some steps you can take to speed things up. Varying your workout times even at a beginner’s level should help your body adapt better to working out harder. Take a good look at your schedule and the kind of workouts you’re performing. Allow for significant periods of rest after more intense exercise and start to adjust how long you exercise for both intensely and moderately after you establish a routine.
How long should I workout for a more effective workout?
The differences in time you spend working out all concern the effect a workout has on your body such as the impact on your muscles and joints, etc. If you workout for too long, you increase the strain of and impact your body suffers from working out excessively, which can lead to problems further down the line. This is also one of the reasons that you should look into adopting a post-workout routine that includes stretches and rest days, as well as knowing the best supplements for muscle cramps.
A single workout is not effective enough on its own. You should be looking at your weekly plan to make every workout as effective as possible. As our last point explained, varying the length of your workout is a great way to help yourself build up better strength and stamina. But you can go beyond that by focussing on specific types of workouts. How long you should workout depends very much on the type of workout you’re doing. For a HIIT workout, try working out for a minimum of 40 minutes and no more than 60. If you’re aiming for a cardio session, you should be looking at between 30 and 40 minutes. Weight training sessions, particularly heavy ones are all about what intensity you’re working out at. If you want to work at a more moderate pace and focus more on your form, spending more than 60 minutes working out isn’t out of the question.
To reiterate, you need to focus on your goals and what you want to accomplish in the long-term from working out. Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to get fitter, stronger, bulkier? Perhaps it is all of the above, either way, you can adapt your workout program throughout the week to workout more effectively if you pay attention to your timings.
