Is 3 hours in the gym too much?

[gospelutionary]

@asdtmr12 Yes

 

[leiner]

@asdtmr12 Seems like way too much time unless you are only going once a week and doing a full body routine.

 

[leena2016]

@leiner This. There's gotta be a lot of stars aligning for this to be ok. Training a lot of body parts on the day, long warmup, resting long, a busy gym, genetically working well with high volumes, etc etc

 

[bonnieruth]

@leena2016 Training with friends, socializing takes more time than people realize

 

[tedbraga]

@leiner I have been doing it for a little while now. 3 3 hour full body weight workouts a week. As long as you eat enough food and protein you should be good.

 

[aceofgod]

@asdtmr12 Check how much you are resting. Probably a lot more than you think. And yes, 3 hours is absolutely too much

 

[chevreuil]

@asdtmr12 3h of pure exercise? Yeah that is too much.

All in all, I can spent 3h at the gym, especially on leg day.
Getting there, changing clothes, 10min warmup cardio. Exercise warmup, getting my old bones ready for squats. Doing 3-5sets for 5 exercises with 90-120secs breaks.
Getting changed again.
I am not aiming to stay long, but some weeks, some days it is between 2 and 3 hours.
I really try to be as quick as possible, even track my pauses, but time flies.

 

[faithangel2017]

@chevreuil It’s most likely 2 hrs of rest, one hr of excerises as he said he rests a lot in between sets. A set may take 1 minute to perform, and he may rest 3-6 mins.

 

[cjcarrie]

@asdtmr12 Anyone who says "No" has no idea what they are talking about or how building ACTUAL muscle is done.

Yes, yes without a doubt 3 hours is too much. 2 is too much.
1 to 1.5 should be more than enough. BREAKDOWN muscle in the gym, REBUILD it in recovery time.
Don't dig a hole bigger than you can refill!

 

[jmunxong17]

@cjcarrie Frequency is relevant here.

If you go to the gym 3-6 times a week you can get the necessary volume (10 - 20 sets per body part) in around 60 to 90 minutes.

If you go twice a week you'll need 2 hours.

Regardless, you'll get enough recovery in any scenario. The key is getting enough weekly volume without over-doing it.

 

[rainbowcookiemonster]

@jmunxong17 Exactly. If you go 6x a week 1-1.5(max) will be plenty. 6-9 hours of weekly volume. Of course houres in the gym is a poor metric of volume since some might take 5+ min phone breaks but lets assume people are not doing this. If you go 3x a week and are advanced, you pretty much have to train 2-3 hours.

 

[dawn16]

@jmunxong17 2 hours? Just with dumbbells I can do a full upper body workout in 30-40 minutes.

 

[jmunxong17]

@dawn16 30 minutes x 2 workouts a week is 1 hour a week.

Let's say you do the bare minimum volume required of 10 sets per body part. Legs, arms, chest, back, shoulders. That's 50 sets.

You'll have to complete every set in 1.20 minutes.

 

[dawn16]

@jmunxong17 No no, I’m just saying I can do upper body in 30-40 minute in one session.

So my schedule looks like, let’s say an average:

35 minutes in Bicep, Tricep, Chest, Back, shoulders.

So upper, cardio, lower, rest, upper, lower, cardio. That’s a full week schedule. Even in 40 min per session, it’s plenty of time.

I do it HIIT style though, shoulder press, curls, triceps, back, chest, and rotate. Only about 20 seconds at most between. Keep the blood pumping. It definitely slows down over time but over an hour is just wasting time

140 seconds is plenty to lift something 10-12 times

 

[jmunxong17]

@dawn16 If your frequency is twice a week then that isn't enough volume. You will benefit from longer sessions.

You might be able to do 30 minute sessions if the frequency is 6x a week. That'll give you 3 hour a week.

 

[dawn16]

@jmunxong17 How isn’t 3 sets of 10-12 reps per muscle twice a week enough? If anything, more than that is detrimental and not helpful. Granted, my dumbbells are 30lb

 

[jmunxong17]

@dawn16 6 sets a week? That's not enough. You should aim for between 10-20.

Yes you can do 6 sets, for short sessions, but you certainly would be better off with more volume and longer sessions.

 

[dawn16]

@jmunxong17 How can you accomplish that without proper muscle recovery? I guess I could incorporate an additional day, but research always told me more than two exercises for a single muscle per week would be excessive and diminishing returns for gains

 

[jmunxong17]

@dawn16 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35291645/

A quick Google search on pub med I found the above link. 12.

6 sets is minimal.

You'll have no issues recovering on 10-15 weekly sets. Eat above maintenence, sleep more than 7 hours, eat enough protein, control stress.

 

[rainbowcookiemonster]

@dawn16 Read up on MEV, MRV etc. 6 sets a week will be minimum effektiv volume if even. But totally depends on person, training experience, age, muscle. A small muscle doesn't need 20 sets. Thats why its silly when people do 20 sets biceps a week. For example my MEV on triceps is 4 sets, MRV 20. On back MEV is 8 MRV 27. You should neither always be doing MEV nor MRV. Look at more advanced / periodized BB programms. They will ramp up volume from week to week working up to MRV and then deload.

the page I will link for MEV, MRV etc is fantastic and also has a great workout template you can buy. And a great youtube channel (mike israetel RPD)

https://rpstrength.com/training-volume-landmarks-muscle-growth/