Workout times

[bigDman]

I've always read about how you should keep workouts under an hour, but then I see the westside guys training anywhere from 2 to 6 hours long. I was just wondering what everyones opinion on workout lengths was

[gobbla]

It depends on what you're doing\trying to accomplish. If you're going for maximum strength\power\endurance then it could last a while. The higher level you go the more time it might take because they're putting training ahead of other aspects that you might have to deal with. If you're going for moderate weight\moderate volume and doing any kind of time management (supersets ect) then *most* people aren't going to be able to push at a high enough intensity past an hour to make the training productive.

[StuWard]

You can also mitigate negative hormonal reactions through nutrition and hydration.

[Irishdazza]

Er...and other means....

[Frank.S]

the way i see it, once you become more advanced you have two main options.

you can either
- do less things in your training
- take longer.

once you get to the point where you are more advanced and moving more weight, you are going to need more warmups which i know take the majority of my training up. if you are doing a 225lbsx 5 deadlift it may look like this

90lbs x 6
135 x 5
175 x 5
200 x 5 <- maybe even skip this set.
225 x 5

but if you are going to do, say 600 x 5 its going to be more like
135 x 10
225 x 10
315 x 5
405 x 5
495 x 5
545 x 5
600 x 5

over the course of a workout, it adds up fast. I wouldn't get anything done (except maybe speed days) in under an hour. 2-3 is more realistic.

[AFI82]

I agree with Frank, it's very dependent on what level you're at.

I've not broken (nor attempted) 300 lbs with my deadlift yet. So it only takes me 3 to 4 warmup sets to build up to my max. Were I pulling 500 lbs, it'd probably take me 5 to 10 more minutes to warmup.

It also depends on dedication. I really enjoy weightlifting, it's going to be a lifetime habit for me. But I've got other habits that I don't want to give up on. So 1-2 hours each day is the most I'm willing to spend on average.