How Long Should My Workout Be?

This is a question that has many different answers depending on the situation. Generally speaking, workout length is not that important compared to other variables, such as training volume and intensity. Volume equals sets x reps x weight for resistance training, total distance (miles/km) for endurance runners, and can be classified differently for other activities.

In any case, it measures the total work performed and there is a strong relationship between training volume and results. Higher volume leads to better results, as long as you get enough recovery. Otherwise, extra training becomes counterproductive and leads to overtraining and numerous negative changes (declining ability, illness, injury, burnout, etc.).

The actual length of your workout can have some additional importance, so let’s take a look at some exercise scenarios:

Here are 4 common workouts and their relationship to exercise length:

1 – Cardio for weight loss

When people ask about cardio workouts, they usually want to know what length of workout is best for calorie burning and fat loss. People used to say workouts needed to be at least 30 or 60 minutes long to tap fat stores, but current research shows that shorter workouts are just as effective as longer ones.

For example, three 10-minute cardio workouts spread throughout the day can be just as good as one 30-minute workout. As long as the total intensity and length are similar, different length workouts are equally beneficial for calorie burning and fat loss.

This is important for beginning exercisers, because a common mistake is doing too much too soon. Some people are convinced they need long workouts to make progress, but excess exercise is counterproductive if your body is not prepared for them. It is much better to start with shorter sessions and increase the intensity and/or duration as your fitness level increases.

Action Step: When doing cardio workouts for weight loss, the total daily/weekly time exercising and intensity (difficulty) are more important than the length of each workout. If you have a busy schedule and don’t have a long block of time for a cardio workout, multiple short workouts are the way to go.

I actually encourage people to perform cardio workouts of varying lengths and intensities throughout the week to maximize results. If you have more time on one day, you can plan your longest workout for that day and then do shorter/more intense workouts on days when you don’t have as much time.

2 – Cardio for Endurance

If your primary goal is to improve cardiovascular endurance, the length of your workouts is more important. Since endurance training is all about getting your body to perform for extended periods of time, longer workouts are a necessity. If you want to run a 26.2mi/42.2km marathon, doing 30 minute workouts is not an effective approach.

Your body adapts specifically to the type(s) of training you perform, so if you want to be good at running long distances, you have to train using progressively longer distances. This doesn’t mean every workout has to be longer than your last one or you should not do short workouts, but over time the length of your longer runs should increase.

Action Step: When training for cardiovascular endurance, cardio workouts have to be longer than when training for weight loss or general health and fitness. If your current workout length is something your body is used to, at least some of your workouts need to increase in length if you want to continue improving.

Many people use total weekly distance to keep track of their cardio workout volume and determine when to change things up. There should be some variation (up or down) from week to week with a general trend that increases in length over time. However, too many long workouts or large distance weeks in a row can lead to overuse injuries or other problems.

3 – Resistance training for muscle gain (hypertrophy)

When it comes to resistance training, the total time of the workout is not that important compared to the overall program design. Some people get a lot more out of a 30 minute workout than others get out of an hour one. However, if your primary goal is to increase muscle size, the length of the workout and the amount of rest between sets both impact your results.

Training to increase muscle involves performing many sets for each muscle group, with the whole body being trained over the course of multiple workouts. For example, one workout might only be exercises for the chest and shoulders, followed by a leg day, then back exercises, and the last one could be arms and abs. Then the cycle would repeat with days off included wherever necessary during or between each group of workouts.

Note: This is not necessarily a recommendation, just an example of a traditional workout strategy for gaining muscle.

Within each workout it is important for each set to be done using a weight that can only be lifted 8 to 12 times and the rest between sets should be kept low (around 30-90 seconds). The goal is to completely exhaust the muscle group(s) you work each day. This training is very demanding and products high levels of lactic acid, resulting in that temporary burning feeling in your muscles.

More experienced exercisers may perform at least 3 to 5 sets of each exercise and 4 to 6 exercises per body part. This means they are doing anywhere from 12 to 30 sets for one muscle group during a workout. Obviously, new exercisers should not start with this high exercise volume, but if your goal is to gain a lot of muscle, this is the basic training strategy to use.

Action Step: Training for muscle gain is different than training for other types of physical improvement. To be successful, workouts have to be fairly long to accommodate the high number of sets and reps. Additionally, reps are performed slower than during most resistance training workouts (about 5 seconds each) and 4 to 6 workouts are typically done each week. As a result, resistance training for hypertrophy requires time and dedication.

4 – Resistance training for Strength

Many people don’t realize that training to increase strength and training to increase the size of your muscles are not the same thing and they require different types of training to be done effectively. While some workout variables are similar, many are noticeably different.

Some similarities are that both types of training use a high number of sets per exercise and workouts are relatively long (an hour or more). Strength training typically involves 3 to 5 sets of each exercise or more, but the reps in each set are significantly lower (around 3-5 or less) and fewer exercises are performed for each body part during a workout.

Since strength training is all about increasing the maximum amount of weight you can lift, you have to lift heavier weight than you do when training to increase muscle size. If you are new to resistance training, almost any type of training will initially increase your strength, but as your fitness improves, gradually increasing the amount of weight you lift is required to continue increasing in strength.

While these changes are noteworthy, perhaps the biggest difference is the amount of rest between sets. Instead of the short rest periods between sets used to gain muscle, traditional strength training uses rest periods of 3 to 5 minutes or more between sets. Performing 20 sets in a strength training workout requires at least 60 minutes of rest time, which is why strength workouts take so long.

The rest time is important in these workouts, because it allows your muscles to fully recover (or get close), so they can produce the greatest amount of strength in each set. With muscle building workouts, strength production is not as important as fatiguing your muscle, which is why the workout designs are so different.

Action Step: When training for strength, the most important element is lifting heavy weights, because without lifting weights greater than what your body is used to, there is no stimulus for further improvement. In other words, if you always lift the same weights, you will eventually stop making progress. However, this does not mean every workout should be as heavy as possible. You still need enough recovery and having lighter workouts mixed in actually improves your long-term results.

I have included brief discussions of four common types of workouts and from looking at the differences, it becomes clear that the length of the workout by itself is not as important as the rest of the components that make up the workout. In general, the best approach is to design workouts first around what you physically want to accomplish and then make them as long as they need to be for the task.

If time is an issue, you can still do shorter versions of any type of workouts and receive a lot of benefit, they just might not be as effective as they could be under ideal conditions. Finally, these are examples of traditional workouts for each type of training, but there are many other training strategies, especially for resistance training workouts. In any case, you can always find at least some workout programs to work for your lifestyle and needs.

By Ross Harrison
VFT “Awesome” Fitness Expert 🙂
VirtualFitnessTrainer.com