Is upwards of 3 hours in the gym too much?

[bobmurray]

I do PPL 6 days a week and they range between 1.5 hr to 2.5 hr(generally closer to 2.5hr). I do 7 exercises for legs, 9 for push, and 10 for pull. Sets are between 3-4 per.
I’ve been told I do too much volume, but the only change I’ve made is doing incline bench and flat on separate days (although I still sometimes do them back to back).
I spend up to 45min doing S/B/D and takes a large chunk of time.

Tips are appreciated and I’ve been working out just over two months.

 

[roguemouser]

@bobmurray That's a ridiculous amount of time, no two ways about it.

 

[kaiisbae]

@bobmurray Wow - it does sound like a lot for someone who’s only been at it for two months.

When you do those main compounds - why so long? How many warmups are you doing? What are your rest times like in general?

I just began reconsidering my volume doing after a bout of Covid, doing a low volume program, and having a newborn. I’ve been lifting for just over a year now. Weirdly my workouts were the longest on the low volume program because I was doing way more warmups than I had been in order to do high intensity sets.

I dropped all my volume down to 1 or 2 sets. I work as hard as I can during those sets and then I reflect on them. Did I get a pump in that muscle? Did I experience loss in strength in the muscle over the course of the workout? What was my soreness in that muscle over the next few days post workout?

If the answers are no pump, no loss in strength, no soreness, or something in that ballpark, I add another set.

If the answers are great pump, loss in strength, and soreness, but I can recover from it by next workout, it’s good volume.

If the answers are somewhere in between I make an appropriate call.

I started doing that this week and plan on doing it for a few weeks to dial in what I really need for each muscle group.

This comes from renaissance periodization’s video about determining training volume, btw.

 

[suemariejudith]

@bobmurray I’m gonna with yes. Similar to what the other poster said, what’s your warmup and rest like? It’s not a sustainable amount long term, so fresh in the game.

 

[kephadaily]

@bobmurray It really depends how you're spending your time while at the gym since things like talking to friends, going to the bathroom, stretching, walking on the treadmill, etc. can all take up a lot of time.

But yeah, three hours is a lot. 1.5hr to 2.5hr like you described in your post seems to be the standard for people who lift weights though.

 

[arleen213]

@bobmurray I used to do this too. However, once you plateau this will be an issue. I do an hour a day now so If I plateau I can switch up exercises and my body won’t be used to “I need at least 3 hours” to see results.