Exactly an hour... no more, no less.

[yadz]

I wonder why the idea that a proper workout should ALWAYS last EXACTLY an hour came from and why it's so firmly entrenched in my mind. If I find myself getting ready to clock out at 55 minutes I get mad at myself for selling myself short and I make myself go back and do more exercises, even if I finished everything I had planned on doing that day already. If I find myself creeping past the hour mark (rare, but it does happen) I'll MAKE myself stop because on some level I truly believe if I go past an hour I'll overtrain and either hurt myself, be fatigued for the next 48 hours, or have such a calorie deficit that I'll end up eating everything that isn't nailed down.

I know it's silly, but I honestly can't think of where the concept first originated in my mind.

[Loren Wade]

I think it's arbitrary... as some of my hardest workouts lasted only 20 minutes.

[js290]

I wonder why the idea that a proper workout should ALWAYS last EXACTLY an hour came from and why it's so firmly entrenched in my mind. If I find myself getting ready to clock out at 55 minutes I get mad at myself for selling myself short and I make myself go back and do more exercises, even if I finished everything I had planned on doing that day already. If I find myself creeping past the hour mark (rare, but it does happen) I'll MAKE myself stop because on some level I truly believe if I go past an hour I'll overtrain and either hurt myself, be fatigued for the next 48 hours, or have such a calorie deficit that I'll end up eating everything that isn't nailed down.

I know it's silly, but I honestly can't think of where the concept first originated in my mind.

http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?page_id=301

http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?p=536

[Loren Wade]

js290, are all of your posts just links elsewhere?

[Lachy]

I'm pretty sure they are. I remember js290 doing those when I first joined and noticed that, but he/she disapeard for a while there.

[Corbab]

I wouldn't worry at all about going over an hour. It's a handy toss-out for trainers, but as with everything, it's not set in stone. If you're doing a wide variety exercises (and have a good reason for it), you may well go over an hour. If you've reduced your workout to the essential lifts/BW equivalents, you can probably get in a workout in under half an hour. My practices (rowing) are at least 1.5 hours, 5 days a week, and I'm still around.

Listen to your body—if you're experiencing undue fatigue, dial your workout back, but otherwise, don't let it bother you one bit.

[js290]

js290, are all of your posts just links elsewhere?

Yes. I prefer not to bias someone else's interpretation of the information.

[WizardTrip]

For me, the time is not important. Sometimes, I'm in and out in 45 mins....other days it takes almost 2 hours. This all depends on intensity, and more for me, the time I take to rest in between sets. I could easily say that 20-30 mins of 1.5-2 hour workout is me resting.

[airen123]

Never heard the hour thing. Guess it's different for everyone. The only workout I do that takes an hour is Zumba, and that's twice a week. When I lift, it's for 45 minutes 2x a week, and running/elliptical is about 30-35 minutes 5 times a week...

I read somewhere the minimum standard is 20 minutes 3 times a week-I would only do this if it was extreme HIIT or something akin to Crossfit.

[Raikas]

Huh, I've never heard the hour thing before - I wonder where that came from.

For what it's worth (which is not much), most of the "get fit!"-type articles in the popular media tend towards the 20-minutes a day message, and I've seen numerous gyms that half half-hour limits on individual pieces of equipment - and then at the other extreme most of the outdoors-focused activities are several hours. Maybe an hour is the standard time for group classes or sessions with a trainer? I think that's usually presented as about scheduling more than fitness, but I guess that's where the idea of workout=1hr would be born, maybe?

[CalvinHobbes]

CDC recommends ___ minutes ___ days of the week...at least that's where my idea came from and it took a while for me to get over it!

[bigm141414]

BigM Recommends MOAR LIFTING. That's really all there is to it.....

[rtalencar]

Tabata clocks in at 4 minutes and is ridonkulously taxing on your body.

Blackbelt testing at my dojo starts at 430PM on a Friday and lasts until ~3PM Saturday.

More isn't always better, less isn't always worse. Your body won't suddenly combust if you work out for 62 minutes, nor will it fall into atrophy if you only put in 58 minutes.

Find what works for you and your lifestyle, and do what you can. Judge your progress by the results and how you feel, not by the clock.

[DojangManChris]

I know from my experience, on the business side 30 to 60 minutes is a convenient way to block time for classes and for paying staff. Many payroll companies don't like (or refuse) to do payments in 20 minute blocks because apparently it is overly complicated to divide an hourly rate by 3.

From a fitness perspective, I will echo many other great comments on here: it depends on who you are, where your current physical fitness level is, and what you're doing that day. On my HIIT days, I will interval run for 15 minutes and be covered in sweat with a great burn in my muscles, but on the flip side I have put my TKD students through a 3 hour test and they weren't nearly as dead afterwards.

My general rules of thumb:

1. Anything that makes you work to complete it, is a good candidate to include in your workouts.

2. If it hurts, stop doing it. You're either doing it wrong (i.e. dead lifts) or you don't need to be doing it.

3. Figure out what you want to achieve, and then figure out how other people in similar situations did something similar. Refine what you find to what works for you.

~Chris

[DChristian]

I can complete a workout that will leave me a quivering puddle and sore for days in about 12 minutes if I push. I think it all depends on the actual workout.

[js290]

I can complete a workout that will leave me a quivering puddle and sore for days in about 12 minutes if I push. I think it all depends on the actual workout.