How To Workout Faster

I’ve been getting a lot of these questions lately about how to workout faster, like this one from Andrew R:

I’m trying to get out of the gym in under an hour, but even with HIIT and lifting, it just seems to take more than an hour. I’ve tried tweaking it by incorporating Craig Ballantyne’s turbulence training in addition to compound exercises. It’s not like I’m working out for two hours, but I’m not in that 30-45 minute range. Thoughts?

Thanks for the post!

All the Best,

Andrew R

So that inspired this post:

How To Get In And Out Of The Gym Faster!

First off, why do you want to get fast workouts in?

• Efficient - You’re not wasting time
• Hormones - Your fat burning AND muscle building hormones peak at 30 mins and start to decline after 1 hour so  the best time to spend in the gym is 30-45 min.
• Focus - Getting in and getting it done keeps you focus
• Recovery - You build muscle OUT of the gym, not in it. Get in, get the muscle building stimulus and get out to recover, eat and grow.

The Problem With Strength Training

Strength training is great for a lot of things, but here’s the thing: you need to have adequate rest in between your sets to make sure your CNS is fully recovered and you can build maximal strength.

My DoubleYourGains’ 3-5 program says to have 3-5 minute rest periods in between sets… and if you’re doing a leg exercise, a pressing exercise and pulling exercise… those rest periods add up. Plus, if you want to finish your workout with some High Intensity Interval Training then you are getting close to that hour or maybe going over it.

What’s the solution?

Exercise Alternation

I’m a little ADD, so I was always doing a form of this in my workouts before I found the research to back it up as a good thing to do. Top Soviet Strength Coach Pavel Tsatsouline was the first one I heard talk about “random practice”.

Random practice is the opposite of blocked practice, where you complete all the sets/reps of one drill before moving to the next exercise in line. For example, doing all your sets/reps of squats before moving on to doing the bench press sets/reps. With random practice you alternate between various exercises within a certain period of time, it’s similar to circuit training, except there’s plenty of rest in between exercises.

Ideally you want to alternate between harder and easier exercises for you… and ones which work totally different bodyparts… which incidentally helps you recover between sets. Basically heavy use of one body part promotes reflexive relaxation of bodyparts distant from the first one.

So even though your “rest” for one exercise is actually being spent doing another exercise, because you’re working a totally different bodypart, you’re promoting greater recovery of the primary movers of the first exercise.

How To Alternate Your Exercises For “Random Practice”

So if your workout usually looks like this:

• Squats 3 x 5 then
• Bench Press 3 x 5 then
• Pullups 3 x 5 done…

Assuming each work set took 1 minutes and a 3 minute rest in between sets you’re looking at 12 minutes per exercise which already puts you at 36 minutes (12 minutes per exercise x 3 exercises), add in time setting up stations, couple water breaks, etc and you’ll easily be breaking the 45 minute barrier. And definitely breaking it if you do some HIIT.

Instead do it like this:

• Squats 1 set of 5 reps immediately switch to…
• Bench Press 1 set of 5 reps immediately go to…
• Pullups 1 set x 5 reps and go back to…
• Squats 1 set of 5 reps immediately switch to…
• Bench Press 1 set of 5 reps immediately go to…
• Pullups 1 set x 5 reps and go back to…
• Squats 1 set of 5 reps immediately switch to…
• Bench Press 1 set of 5 reps immediately go to…
• Pullups 1 set x 5 reps and go back to…

Here’s what you’ve accomplished:

• you’ve done 3 sets of 5 for each exercise…
• you’ve gotten a little over 3 minutes of active rest on each exercise (your rest for the squat was the 1 minute it took you to perform a set of 5 bench presses, and the 1 minute it took you to do 1 set of 5 reps of pullups because they all work bodyparts that aren’t the “primary” movers for squats.)
• You’ve done it all in just 10-15 minutes (taking into account the time it takes to move between squat racks/benches/etc)
• You can even add in 1 minute rest in between each exercise and only tack on another 9 minutes to your workout (to make sure each rep is perfect, done with maximal tension, and you’re lifting at your 80%+ of 1RM)…

As you can see…

Alternating Exercises Is A MAJOR Time Saver!

Pavel recounted the story of how Linda Crawford who broke four Minnesota State Powerlifting Records routinely knocked off ten sets per EACH powerlift (bench press, deadlift, and squat) within a 45 minute training session — all with at least 80% of her 1RM on each powerlift!

Plus, you’ll probably find yourself huffing, puffing and burning off some body fat just doing these heavy compound exercises so close to each other too.

Isn’t This Just What Supersets Are?

No supersets, are a little different. Supersets are usually pairing two opposite, yet complimentary exercises together. It still uses the principle of reciprical inhibition where your opposite and opposing muscle group is resting in response to the opposing muscle group working but it’s usually done like this:

• A-1: Bench Press: 5 reps then immediately
• A-2: Bent Over Row: 5 reps then back to A-1…
• Until you’ve completed all the sets for those exercises.

So you’re more “tightly focuse” when doing supersets which can work well for certain situations… but for whole body training… you want lots of rest in between sets so it’s good to alternate between harder and easier exercises and upper body dominant and lower body dominant… to get in as much quality reps/sets/weight lifted in the shortest amount of time possible — all while staying as fresh as possible and avoiding muscle failure like the plague.

So, there you go, if you’re finding yourself strapped for time, or you’re having a hard time getting in and out of the gym in under an hour, this article should show you how to workout faster.