Maximizing Your Strength Workouts
How to make changes to get the same benefits in half the time with your strength weight training program.
Short of time? Find out how you can maximize your strength workout by increasing its intensity but decreasing its duration. You'll get the same benefits in less time.
The two keys to increasing the intensity of your strength training routine are minimizing rest time and combining exercises.
Minimizing Rest Periods
By minimizing rest time, you can reduce your overall session time. Achieve this by moving quickly from exercise to exercise without resting, but at the same time making sure you still give the muscles that have just had a workout time to recover between sets. Rather than performing several sets in a row of the same exercise, make a circuit or pair up two exercises, performing one set of each exercise before going back to the first exercise. The exercise sets should work different body sections, such as one working the arms, and the other the legs. Muscles can recover while you're doing your next exercise, rather than while you stand around watching TV!
Make note, ensure you move quickly between the exercises, not during the exercises. Always perform sets with slow, controlled movements, and make sure to keep proper form so the exercise is done safely.
combining lunge and bicep curlsCompounding Exercises
Another way to reduce your workout time is to perform compound exercises, that is, exercises that work more than one muscle group or body part at a time. You can shave more precious minutes by finding two-for-one exercises that combine two or more major muscle groups.
Exercise Examples:
- Clean and Jerk
- Dead-lift followed by a shoulder shrug
- Squats with dumbbell arm curls, front raises, or lateral raises
- Lunges with dumbbell overhead press or arm curls
Related Pages
- About Strength and Fitness
- Combining Intermittent Fasting and Weight Training for Maximum Results
- Resistance training programs
- Testing for strength and power
- Strength Training Equipment
- Resistance training exercises
- What are the highest-ranking strength sports?
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