Resistance Exercise Misconceptions: Exercise Duration

When it comes to resistance exercise, it is easy to get the wrong idea. A lot of people avoid it because they think they don’t have the time or they don’t need it. However, resistance exercise is crucial to a healthy lifestyle. This post will address the misconception of exercise duration. Resistance exercise does not need to last as long as you may initially think.

What People Believe

Most people think they need to spend hours at the gym in order to see results. They perform multiple sets of each exercise with a pre-set number of repetitions in each set.  In between sets, they provide an adequate amount of recovery time. This process can take a while to complete. Therefore, a lot of people do not believe they have the time for resistance exercise. They can’t afford to block out an hour of time to go to the gym. However, most people do not know there is another way to exercise.

In Reality

When it comes to exercise, it is important to consider effort level. A person’s effort has a huge impact on exercise duration. If a person exercises with a high intensity level, they will only be able to sustain this for so long. On the other hand, if a person exercises with low intensity, the session will last much longer. In order to see results from resistance exercise, you must reach momentary muscle failure. Unless you reach this threshold of muscular fatigue, you will not see results. Exercising at a high intensity level is a great way to make your training sessions effective as well as time efficient. You do not necessarily need to perform multiple sets of each exercise. Simply perform that exercise at a high intensity until you are no longer able to do it with proper form. In addition to this, it is helpful to decrease recovery time. These two modifications cut exercise duration in half.

It is important to consider the danger of overworking your muscles. In order to see results, you must reach a minimum level of muscular fatigue. However, too much muscular fatigue can result in a loss of strength. This is the danger in prolonged exercise sessions. You risk overworking your muscles. In addition to this, you must leave adequate recovery time in between sessions in order for your muscles to build back up. If you don’t allow this to happen, you will not see an increase in strength. Exercising with high intensity increases the amount of recovery time needed and, therefore, decreases the number of sessions needed in a week. Most people will only be able to exercise two to three times a week.

When thinking about exercise, time no longer has to be a factor. Simply increase your level of intensity. Each workout session should last no more than thirty minutes. However, it is thirty minutes of focused, purposeful and intense exercise. Get the best results in a short amount of time.

“A workout can be hard or a workout can be long.  There is no such thing as a long hard workout.” – Arthur Jone, Inverter of Nautilus & MedX Exercise machines

 

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