{Guest Post}- 5 Tips For Time-Crunched Lifters
When I asked some buddies to write for the site I was blown away with how many offered to help out.
Although my writing paternity leave is over, I have an awesome article this week from someone who I refer to as 'my coach', Tony Bonvechio. A native New Englander, a fellow Father and craft beer connoisseur.
I've followed Tony's work for a long time and when he opened his gym, The Strength House, I started doing their Hypertrophy and General Strength programming templates.
What Tony forgot to mention in his 'about the author' bio in the bottom is that he has an undergraduate degree in Journalism...which means he writes like a badass. Definitely a few notches up from the scribble you all read from me each week.
There, Tony, I set you up for a kick ass article!
Seriously, I can't thank Tony enough for taking the time to write this article and share it with you all. Thanks, Tony, I look forward to repaying the favor some day!
5 Tips for Time-Crunched Lifters
By Tony Bonvechio
“We all have the same 24 hours in the day.” I never really understood the absurdity of this statement until I started my own business and became a dad. Often spouted by smug trainers in an attempt to shame clients into making more time for exercise, this misguided retort forgets a key fact: while we all abide by the same 24 hour clock, we do NOT all have the same responsibilities in a 24-hour period.
Some of us have kids. Some don’t.
Some of us have full-time jobs. Some don’t.
Some of us have long commutes. Some don’t.
The list goes on. “Busy” is a relative term, but I’ve found that the older you get, the busier you get and the more tired you become. The funniest joke I’ve ever heard? “I’ll start working out when things settle down.” Guess what? Until you retire or find yourself 6 feet under, nothing’s gonna settle down.
It may not be feasible to make more time to exercise, but you can make the most of the limited time you do have. I’ve trained busy people for over a decade. Here are five bits of advice I pass on to my clients who are booked solid day in and day out:
Do a Little a Lot
Training frequency is one of the many variables that trainers manipulate to help clients get results. Most often, busy people and/or novice lifters train LESS often, usually 2-3 days per week. However, to make progress when you exercise so infrequently, you have to apply a pretty large stimulus every workout. That means longer, more intense workouts in order to keep the results coming.
Unpopular opinion: busy people and/or people new to lifting should train MORE often. I’ve found quick workouts (as little as 15-30 minutes) 5-6 days per week to be more effective than 2-3 longer workouts. Better to do a little a lot versus a lot a little.
That’s because beginners are less skilled in big, compound strength exercises like squats and deadlifts, and should be practicing them as often as possible. Strength is largely neurological, after all, and the more proficient you get at a movement, the stronger you’ll become.
Beginners also have lower force outputs and aren’t able to tap into high threshold motor units as readily as advanced lifters. In plain English: if you’re a newbie, no matter how hard you try, you simply can’t push your muscles to the max as effectively - not yet, anyway. This means faster recovery between workouts, necessitating more frequent workouts to keep getting stronger.
Rather than doing a lot a little via a couple long workouts per week, try 5-6 quick sessions. It’s often easier to find 15-30 minutes in a day as opposed to 2 hours of uninterrupted time 2-3 times a week.
Get It Done in Two Sets
Classic strength exercise prescription is typically 3 sets. It’s not a bad idea, but it’s somewhat arbitrary. With my busiest clients, we often do 2 sets per exercise: the first set to get acclimated to the movement and the weight, and the second set to push ourselves as hard as we can. You can get away with doing a little less work as long as the work you’re doing is of high quality - that is, pushing yourself to do as many reps as you can with good technique for every exercise.
For example, rather than doing squats for 3 sets of 10, we’ll pick a weight we can do with good form for anywhere between 6-12 reps and do as many reps as we can, stopping 1-2 reps shy of failure. The exact number of reps isn’t important, but rather the proximity to muscular failure.
And remember, if you’re only doing 2 sets but you’re training more often (5-6 days vs. 2-3 days), you’ll make up the difference by training movements and muscle groups more frequently during the week.
Timed Rest Periods
The stopwatch is your best friend when it comes to training on borrowed time. Once you start timing your rest periods between sets, you’ll be blown away by how much time you’ve likely been wasting. Do a set, sit down, sip water, check your phone, scroll mindlessly… and suddenly you’ve rested 5 minutes when 60-90 seconds will do.
As a general guideline:
Rest 2-3 minutes between sets of heavy, low-rep strength movements (squat, bench press, deadlift, etc.)
Rest 60-90 seconds between sets of moderate weight-and-rep strength movements (lunges, rows, etc.)
Rest 30-60 seconds between high-rep/endurance-based movements (biceps curls, planks, etc.)
Keep yourself honest and keep an eye on the clock. Your efficiency will go through the roof.
Pair Exercises with Similar Equipment
Exercise supersets (pairing two exercises, preferably for different muscle groups, back-to-back with minimal rest) are an age-old strategy for improving training economy. For example:
Push-ups and pull-ups
Biceps curls and triceps extensions
Heavy deadlifts and sitting on your ass (seriously, you shouldn’t pair anything with heavy deadlifts)
A common mistake I see trainers make is programming multiple set-up-intensive exercises together, which costs the lifter precious time. If you have to move multiple pieces of equipment or grab several pairs of dumbbells just to do your superset, you’ve negated any efficiency you aimed to gain by performing a superset. Plus, if you’re hogging lots of equipment at a public gym (e.g., occupying a squat rack AND a bench), you’re gonna piss off a lot of people.
The solution: pair exercises with similar equipment or minimal equipment to shave precious seconds off the clock. Hence the aforementioned push-up and pull-up combo - no equipment needed. Other examples:
Incline DB bench press w/ Chest-supported DB rows (face down on the same incline bench)
DB curls w/ DB skullcrushers (use the same dumbbells)
Band triceps pushdowns w/ Band face pulls (same band looped around top of chin-up bar/power rack)
Standing 1-arm cable rows w/ Standing 1-arm cable press (same cable stack set at the same height)
Invest in a Coach/Program
It’s easy for me to say because coaching is my livelihood, but I firmly believe in the value of hiring a coach or following a program written by a professional. Far too many people waste valuable time figuring out what to do instead of actually doing the damn thing. If you invest your hard-earned money into hiring someone to guide the way, you can put your head down and get to work.
Paralysis by analysis is a very real thing. Maybe you’re putting off starting a new exercise routine until you find the “perfect” one (hint: it doesn’t exist). Or maybe you show up to the gym with no plan at all and waste several minutes figuring out what you’re gonna do. Either way, a coach or program solves these problems instantly.
If you’re busy, you likely already suffer from decision fatigue. Take the guesswork out of training and hire a professional to illuminate the path.
Time is Money
Time is the most precious of all resources. Your health is a close second. Don’t use a lack of time as an excuse to put off your commitment to exercise. Doing a little a lot adds up to… well, a lot in the long run. Use the strategies in this article to make the most of the time you have.
About the Author
Tony Bonvechio is the owner of Bonvec Strength in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he trains primarily powerlifters and strength training enthusiasts. A former college baseball player turned powerlifter, Tony has achieved elite status in the 198-pound and 220-pound weight classes with personal bests of a 578 squat, 405 bench press and 584 deadlift. Tony earned his Master’s degree in exercise science from Adelphi University, and is a proud husband and dad who loves fishing, craft beer and heavy metal music.
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