You only need to spend between 30 to 60 minutes on a workout. More advanced gym goers can surpass 60 minutes, but only if they’re not overtraining. More importantly
How Many Exercises per Workout
How many exercises you do during your workout depends on two things; your rest periods and how many sets/reps you use. Both of these factors depend on your experience level and workout goals. Here’s a table of each goal along with how many reps and sets to use, how long to rest, and how many exercises should be in the workout.
| Workout Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest Period | # Exercises for a 60 Minute Workout |
| Hypertrophy | 3 | 8-12 | 1-2 minutes | 8 |
| Strength | 3 | 6-8 | 2-5 minutes | 4 |
| Endurance | 3 | 15-20 | 0-30 seconds | 16 |
| 1 Rep Max | 3 | 1-5 | 5+ minutes | 3 |
| Power | 3 | 1-5 | 5+ minutes | 3 |
What About Weight Loss?: Weight loss is not listed as a goal because any of these workouts are great for weight loss. Technically, short rest periods means more movement, so more calories being burned. However, this is not a healthy mindset since you should not look to go to the gym just to burn calories. People who only look to burn as many calories as possible end up with workouts that are too intense to maintain for more than a few weeks. Also, weight loss is mostly nutrition based, so that’s where most of your focus should go.
Below we go into why each goal is given their sets, reps, and rest periods.
Rest Periods
Rest periods the length of time spent catching your breath between sets. Most people only rest 10-30 seconds between sets, but there are benefits to resting for up to 5 minutes. In fact, resting between sets is just as important the exercise itself. In order to properly achieve the goals listed below, you’ll need to rest for the corresponding time even if you don’t think you need that much time.
| Rest Period | Workout Goal |
| 0-30 seconds | Endurance |
| 1-2 minutes | Hypertrophy (muscle growth) |
| 2-5 minutes | Strength Power |
| 5+ minutes | Strength Power 1 Rep Max |
Endurance Training: As the name implies, short rest periods work on your ability to handle moderate intensities for long periods of time
Hypertrophy: Hypertrophy means building muscle. If your goal is to “get tones, add shape, sculpt your body, etc.” then you actually want to build muscle. Building muscle does NOT mean you want to look like a hulking bodybuilder or linebacker. It means adding definition to the body while also speeding up the metabolism
Strength: If your goal is to get stronger – whether for a sport, your job, or for fun – you’ll want much longer rest periods. Although muscles only require about a minute to recover from a set, your nervous system needs much longer. The heavier the weight is, the longer you need to wait for your nervous system to recover. Otherwise you’ll lift the weight with subpar form, increasing your risk of injury.
Power: Power means lifting maximal weight as fast as possible. Exercises that express power include jumping, pushups with a clap, kettlebell swings, or Olympic lifts like cleans and snatches. Power is also crucial in all sports since there will always be a time where you have to move as strong and as fast as possible. Although you won’t use as much weight as a one rep max (explained below), the speed component is just as taxing on your nervous system
1 Rep Max: A one rep max means summoning all of your available strength to lift a weight as heavy as possible for one rep. This is only recommended for those with at least a year of strength training experience since bad form can easily lead to injury
Sets and Reps
For those who don’t know the difference, reps are how many times you do an exercise in a row. Sets are packages of reps, which are separated by a rest period. For example, if you do 10 pushups, then rest a minute, then do 10 again, you just did 2 sets of 10 reps.
Sets are easy because no matter what your goal is, you’ll benefit from 3 sets per exercise. Reps, however, do depends on what you’re looking for. Below is another list of different goals and what rep range works best for it.
| 1-5 reps | 1 Rep Max Power |
| 6-8 reps | Strength |
| 8-12 reps | Hypertrophy |
| 15+ reps | Endurance |
1 Rep Max: As the name implies, a true test of maximum strength uses only one rep. However, some people do have up to a 5 Rep Max if doing a single rep is too much stress for their body to handle. Again, this is only for those with at least a year of experience.
Power: Although it’s very popular to do box jump and other explosive exercises for 20+ reps, this is not an effective way to gain power. After 5 reps, you’re body will likely be so fatigued that either your form or speed start to reduce. Continuing reps after this point defeats the purpose.
Strength: The only way to get stronger is to lift heavy weight. While you definitely gain strength in a 1-5 rep range, you should spend most of your training at 6-8 since lower reps are more taxing on your body. A 6-8 range is heavy enough to get stronger, but no so heavy that you’ll destroy your muscles after a week
Hypertrophy: Almost every study that studies muscle growth shows that 8-12 is the most beneficial range. However, hypertrophy is weird because any rep range you’re not familiar with can also cause hypertrophy. For example, if you’ve been using 8-12 for a year, switching to 6-8 can actually provide more hypertrophy than 8-12. This is called periodization, and it’ll become vital the more experienced you become.
Endurance: Endurance training is all about taking a moderate or light weight as seeing how long you can last with it. 15-20 reps is usually where people stick to, but doing more than 20 can provide great results if you’re already use to 15.
Which Exercises To Do in Your Hour
No matter what your goal is, every exercise benefits from using compound lifts. Compound lifts are exercises that bend more than on joint at the same time. This might not sound like much, but this results in exercises that use many more muscle groups at the same time. Also, compound lifts can be used for months on end before hitting a plateau (an inevitable halt in workout progress.)
To learn more about the benefits of compound lifts and how to use them, read out other article here.
Examples of effective compound lifts include:
- Squat
- Bench Press
- Deadlift
- Pullups
- Rows
- Overhead Press
Exactly which ones to use and how to use them depending on the goal.
Hypertrophy
For muscle growth, it’s best to start the workout with 2-4 compound lifts, then focus on isolation exercises for the remainder. Having an even balance ensures you don’t burn out your body with 8 compound lifts. Also, doing isolation at the end allows you to develop smaller muscles or add extra exercises to parts you want to develop the most.
Strength
Strength goals require compound lifts for most of the workout, especially if you’re only doing 4-6 exercises. The best compound lifts for strength include the squat, bench press, deadlift, and rows. While isolation exercises can be added, they don’t benefit as much from the 6-8 rep range. Instead, use 8-12 on isolation exercises and 6-8 for the compound lifts.
Endurance
Endurance benefits from 4-6 compound lifts, leaving most of the workout to smaller isolation exercises. This is to prevent the body from being overwhelmed with these exercises
1 Rep Max
If you’re attempting a true 1 rep max, you should only do it on 1 exercise. This means only 1 compound lift for the entire workout. Yes people who are preparing for a powerlifting meet should get 3 different 1RMs in the same workout, but if you’re reading this article, you’re likely not one of these people.
Power
All exercises in a power workout can be compound exercises. Like strength, isolation exercises don’t benefit from the “max strength, max speed,” principle of power. This is also why you need such a long rest period in a good power workout.