Many people have misconceptions about how long they need to spend training. Even though I may hear opinions all over the board, I think the most important thing to remember right off the start is, something is better than nothing. So regardless if you go for a 10 min walk outside or train for 2 hours in the gym, both are 100% better than not doing anything.
When people talk to me about how long I spend in the gym each day they are usually pretty surprised to hear from the time I leave house until the time I get back (I live less than 10 minutes away from my gym) that it’s probably on average close to 2 hours. Some days could be more or less, but that would be a good guesstimate for whenever I go. Even though many people are surprised, what a lot people that ask me don’t realize is how much I enjoy going to the gym. I enjoy spending time there and talk to all kinds of people when I go. I try to keep the talking to before and after my workout, not so much during but my girlfriend would tell you otherwise haha. Between my warm-up, talking to people, stretching, and any cardio that I choose to potentially do, I could easily spend close to an hour on just those things. I also do my best to usually train every body part twice a week, which can cause me to create some splits that contain a few longer days. The longer training days don’t bother me and are what I’m willing to do to reach my own personal goals.
But what if you don’t have that kind of time to put toward training? I know some people that only have 30-45 minutes of free time in between a busy schedule. Even with limited time, you can still get a really good training session in. Just because you are on a time constraint, does not mean you have to sacrifice quality. There are plenty of options such as HIIT cardio workouts, EMOM training, or even just 45 minutes of lifting can really make some great progress. The only real drawback to having a time constraint while training is there’s not time to lollygag, you have to get in and put the work in. For some people this may mean dragging themselves out of bed before their kids are up, sneaking in a workout during lunch, or staying up an extra hour at night to get your training in.
Just because you may have to alter your training or extend the time it will take to reach your goal, doesn’t mean you can’t reach it on a limited workout out schedule.
Another point I want to bring up is don’t stress if the program you’re following only takes you 45 minutes to get through. There will be times when I’m about to leave the gym and it won’t feel like I’ve been there long. So when I check the time and see I’ve been there less than an hour I will at first seem surprised. Then I’ll review what I did and reassure myself I put in the hard work and was just able to get in and out that day. Maybe I felt extra good and took shorter rest periods or the gym was extra empty so I didn’t chit chat with anyone or have to wait on equipment. There’s tons of reasons on why that workout may have went shorter. I also try to not compare how long I’ve been in the gym to how long others are spending. When I’m walking out I will sometimes notice someone who is still training and was there when I arrived. It will sometimes make me question myself, but I always remind myself to not compare myself to them. I don’t know what their goals are nor does their training affect me. For all I know they could have come in only 5 minutes before me and are about to leave as well.
The best thing to do is set up a plan that you can and will adhere to.It makes no sense picking a training plan that requires you to be in the gym for an hour and half when you only have 45 minutes. Maybe find/develop a program where you lift for 30 minutes and do cardio for 15. This plan that you can/will adhere to will get you much better results than only half following a program that is unreasonable for your time constraint. You may need to alter the timeline of your goals if you have limited time to train, but that doesn’t mean you can’t reach them.