I was speaking with someone at a function last week and I found it fascinating, she was telling me all about here training (which is something that happens all the time when people find out what I do for a job). She went on endlessly about what she does, what works, what doesn’t, her injuries, what’s best for her arms, the greatest exercise for her inside thighs (and no I didn’t ask!), her favorite cardio routine she went on and on. It was when she paused to take (another) sip of wine that I seized my opportunity to talk (I wasn’t sure when I would get another one) and I asked her ‘so how long does your workout take you each day?’ ‘It only takes me 2 hours each day’ she replied calmly. I must have looked like I just got shot by a sniper, ‘are you ok?’ she enquired ‘uuummm yeah I’m good thanks’ I stammered.
I couldn’t believe that this woman who, granted did look good (don’t know about 2 hours training a day good, but good none the less), had the motivation to, persist with, patience for, ability to, and time for a workout that takes 2 HOURS EVERY DAY.
My question to you is a) who has that much time spare? And b) if you did have that much time spare why would you want to spend it all in a gym?
I tried to inform my new little friend that she didn’t have to spend so long working out every day; in fact she could at least half it. ‘But I can’t shorten it, as then I won’t have time to fit in my 15 minutes of sit-ups or my 5 minutes of stretching.’ At this point I realized that I should pick my battles as not everyone wants to be told so I just gave it a bit of ‘ok fair enough, keep at it then.’
So people I am here to tell you today, that if you are currently, you no longer have to be working out for 2 hours a day. At a maximum you should be doing 1 hour 4 times a week. We recommend our clients train with us 2-3 times a week and in that hour we complete the warm-up and the cool down, then we recommend them so homework for the other sessions during the week.
Personally I like to keep my workouts to an hour or less, as I separate my strength and cardio workouts and then do them scattered throughout the week and weekend. You simply don’t need to spend that amount of time in the gym to lose weight and achieve a great physique and if you are I recommend that you show someone (qualified) your workout plan as I suggest you might actually be overtraining. This is dangerous, counterproductive and a whole separate email.
So now that we have that cleared up, what are you going to do with all your spare time?
Till next time,
Andrew Zagami
P.S – If you want me to have a look at your training you can email it to me at andrew@a2zpt.com.au And if you don’t think you can modify your workout to under a hour then come and have a session with me and I will show you how you can. 🙂