Maximising Time In The Gym For Building Muscle

A simple guide to ensuring you do what needs to be done

If you go to the gym and lift weights of any form, you have a goal of building some muscle. This ranges from simply trying to be healthier or being a bodybuilder. The amount of time people believes they have to spend in the gym to get the results they want is often incorrect. I’ve found in my own experience 1 hour 3–4 times per week is enough to help me get to my goals. I’ve tried various workout splits and plans over the years, however, most were unsustainable over a long period of time and included too many exercises, in my opinion.

Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights — Ronnie Coleman

This video from Jeff Nippard explains how to build muscle efficiently. One of the principles he refers to is the “sweet spot” where increasing volume (the amount of weight you lift) begins to negatively impact the “gains” (or muscle you build).

The most recent studies have shown that about 10–20 sets per body part per week is sufficient to build muscle. The number of sets can be defined further as hard sets. Those in which you are actively counting as working sets. These would not include warm-up sets.

For example, I run a 3 day Push/Pull/Legs Split. On Push days, I do between 3–6 sets of my main movement (bench press or overhead press) depending on what week of the program I’m on. I then perform 3 sets of another chest and shoulder exercise. Examples include dips, flat dumbbell press or seated shoulder press. This brings my total to between 9–12 sets. To increase this, on pull days I’ll do 3–4 sets of bodyweight pushups to ensure I get a least 12 sets of ‘pushing’ per week.

Applying a similar process across my Pull and Legs days allows me to ensure I’m doing enough hard sets per week.

The next logical step is now to address the way our bodies works. The human body moves in 7 basics ways: Push, pull, squat, lunge, hinge and gait (which means walking). Push can be further broken down into a vertical push and a horizontal push movement. In the example of my push workout above, the horizontal movement is the bench press (or variation of) and the vertical is the barbell overhead press (again, or a dumbbell variation). By including at least one of each in your workout you’re ensuring you’re working your body in each of its planes. In total, you have 3 planes of movement: the sagittal, frontal and transverse.

We can also split pulling movements in a similar way. Horizontal pulling movements include bent-over rows, chest supported rows and seated rows. Vertical moves include pullups, chinups and lat pulldowns.

Squatting is fairly self-explanatory. Barbell squats, front squats and goblet squats are all excellent for developing the quads and stimulating the glutes. Including a form of the lunge whether that be bodyweight, weighted or even a split squat variation will also hit your quads and glutes. You also work on a single leg at a time (unilaterally) accounting for any imbalances.

The last of the lifts is a hinging movement. This includes deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts and stiff-leg variations. Back extensions performed correctly are a suitable bodyweight substitute.

The importance of walking for our bodies is often forgotten. By moving about as much as we can throughout the day we can burn more calories compared to being sedentary during that time. This will, in turn, help you get closer to achieving your goals. Setting a daily or weekly step goal is the key to this aspect. Walking during the rest between sets will help get you with your step count too.

Putting It Altogether

Okay, so we’ve looked at the science and the way our body moves and operates. Time to use all these pieces to effectively build muscle and maximise our time in the gym.

Firstly, pick how many days you’re willing to work out and what you believe you can consistently do over a long period of time. You might have time to do 6 days a week or only enough time for 3. Both are equally acceptable.

Next, I try to make sure I hit the 10–20 sets per body part per week using as few exercises as possible. This will mean you aren’t overtraining or spending ages in the gym — especially if you have other commitments to attend to. Get in there, smash it and get on with your day.

Another important concept to remember is progressive overload. This means you are lifting more each time you lift. You’ll build more muscle and gain strength. There’s a couple of ways to do this.

First of all, you choose a weight and increase the reps per week. I do this with the first exercise after my main lift for the day. I start off with a weight I can do 8 reps for 3 sets. Each week I’ll add on a rep on each set until I can do 3 sets of 12. Once this happens, you can move up to the next weight by the smallest increment. The second method is to pick a rep count and add the smallest weight available every time you perform the move.

By doing either of these consistently you’ll ensure maximum muscle and strength gains each time you’re in the gym and over a long period of time.

A final point to note is nutrition. I’m not going to cover it here however getting an adequate amount of protein is key. 1.7–2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight per day is recommended by Brad Schoenfeld in his book Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy.

The above principles sum up what I’ve learned from over 7 years of lifting. I believe these are critical to the strength goals I have seen in myself over the past year or so.

I hope this article helps you with your own programming and makes your time in the gym the most effective it can be. What other methods have you found useful for muscle building?

Thanks for reading my article. I would greatly appreciate it if you share this with anyone who might find this useful.

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Have a great day,

Josh

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