Time Efficient Training | 6 Key Tips To Make More Gains In Less Time

Training efficiency is one of the most important aspects you should be considering when it comes to planning and organising your training week. I know most people reading this would love to spend all of their free time lifting in the gym, or even quit their job and become a full time athlete or gym rat, but the realities of life aren't going to let that happen. We need to pay the bills. We thrive off the sense of achievement and reward from being a killer in our careers or businesses. We want to provide for our families and give them everything they could possibly need. All of these things are great and rewarding, the kicker is that they all take up significant time. So anything we can do to make our training more efficient while being as effective as possible is seriously work looking into. And while training on a limited time and energy budget probably means you can't pursue the optimal programme that is going to leave you lifting like Lasha or John Haack, or looking like Cbum, what you can do is pursue the optimal programme for you within your constraints. So in this article, I'm going to give you 6 key tips to create your most time efficient training programme, to help you make more gains in less time. As a result you'll make all of the strength and muscle gain progress you could ever want in the gym, whilst freeing up more time and energy to invest in the other equally important areas of your life. The Big Rocks Of Efficiency

I'm going to get to the shiny fancy training methods in another article, but there is no point in starting with those if you haven't got the big rocks of your time efficient training plan already in place. And by big rocks I mean that if you have a jar, the volume of which is your capacity for training, you're going to fill that jar a lot more quickly and a lot more completely if you put the biggest rocks in first. They take up the most space and make the biggest difference. Then you can fill in the smaller gaps with your smaller stones and pebbles to fill it completely. Put the stones and pebbles in first, and you won't fit all of the big rocks in and you'll never truly fill the jar. 1. The Minimum Effective Dose Your first concern should be working towards the minimum effective dose. Because it is the minimum, it is obviously going to be quicker than the maximum dose. There is simply less training to be done. But it is specifically the minimum effective dose. So it does work.

And I'd bet that when it comes to optimal strength training and hypertrophy training, your goals aren't actually to be the strongest biggest and baddest MF out there, so you don't actually NEED to maximum recoverable volume needed to get those optimal results. What you actually want is to be significantly stronger and bigger than you currently are in 6-12 months time, which you can realistically do with a much lower training volume than you think.

For strength, 10-15 sets per movement per week is usually considered as optimal. But you can get significantly stronger doing just 3-6 sets in the 1-5 rep range, even when using a strategy like working up to one top heavy set then doing a couple of lighter back off sets with shorter recovery in-between. One is optimal for absolute maximal strength gains, and one is much more optimal for maximal whole body strength gains within a time restricted training programme.

With maximal efficiency in mind, I know which one I would chose. For hypertrophy, the volumes required a higher still, with optimal being somewhere between 10 and 30 sets per week per muscle group. There is this clear dose/response relationship when it comes to lifting weights and building muscle. But, for every doubling of volume, you get around 50% of the additional gains. So to absolutely double the training response from 1 hard set to failure, you would need to do another 4-5 sets to failure on the same movement.

Repeat that across all muscle groups and your signing up for a massive training programme and subsequent recovery demand. So I recommend drawing a line somewhere in the pursuit of optimal, which for many people is going to need to be close to that 1 set to failure than it is the 5 sets to failure per muscle group.

2. Compound Movements

The second big rock is to prioritise compounds movements first. You want to be hitting as many muscle groups as possible at the same time when prioritising time efficiency in your training, and compound movements that train multiple muscles over multiple joints do this. So instead of prioritising bicep curls and tricep extensions where you only work those two muscle over the elbow joint, you should prioritise a chest press variation where you hit a combination of the chest, shoulders and triceps, and a row variation where you hit a combination of the back, rear delts and biceps. For the same time investment of 3x10 for example, you're training a significantly larger amount of your body. It is true that not all of the muscles involved get the same stimulus. One muscle will be the limiting factor and reduce the stimulus to the other muscles, but at least they are all getting some stimulus. Prioritise compounds first, then add in isolation work if you have the time.

3. Timing Your Rest

People who say they have a limited amount of time to train, but then waste time in the gym by not managing their rest periods appropriately are a lot more common than you think.

With time efficiency as a goal, understanding and then appropriately managing your rest times are a must. Again, this is a scenario of what's optimal for maximal strength and muscle gain progress, then what is optimal for you within your constraints.

For maximal strength, you'll often hear that 4-6 minutes rest between sets is optimal to allow for full recovery and greater intensity set to set. This is true. But if you reduce it to 3 minutes and that allows you to hit more sets in a shorter amount of time and move on to something else, you're probably on to a winner. For hypertrophy, 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest will allow you to maintain a heavy enough weight to tick the mechanical tension box of muscle building essentials, but also accumulate some metabolic stress and muscle damage relatively quickly. When it come to single joint isolation exercises, you could reduce that even further to 60-90 seconds. In all these scenarios, it only works if you actually time your rest and stick to it. So leave your phone in your gym bag/car, use your watch to time your rest, and don't get distracted by my Instagram while resting between sets. 4. Being Focussed

The next biggest time drain in busy people is not being focussed when they come to the gym. We can be so busy jumping from responsibility to responsibility or appointment to appointment that we turn up for the gym with no plan, get changed and then think "f**k, what should I do today". Being focussed and prepared is going to save you a ton of time as it allows you to walk in and get straight to work on what you need to do. Think if it as your in-gym to-do list. Have your session planned in advance

Have the aims of that session clear in your head

Train with absolute intent on the aim of each exercise

Know how much rest you need

Know what you lifted last week so you know if you need to push on this week

Knowing all of these things will take out all the guesswork, all the umm-ing and ahh-ing, and also save you from doing weeks or months work of training that never lead anywhere (the biggest waste of time possible). Efficiency needs planning, and getting yourself a clear and precise training programme is an essential part of that. 5. Minimise Warm-Up Time

Time spent warming up is time not spent training.

If you're not getting started on your first movement in your programme within 5 minutes of being in the gym, you're likely wasting some time. Sure, if you have some specific limitations or needs due to injury or training history, then tick those boxes. But if not, a quick general warm-up then a 2-3 light sets on your first before hitting your first hard working sets will be enough to both reduce your injury risk and improve your performance on that lift enough to make great progress. Foam rolling is not going to get you the strength and muscle gains you want. Lifting weights will. Prioritise the latter, only do the former if you really have to (you probably don't). 6. Always Use Good Technique

The best and quickest way to build really strong legs is to accumulate a large amount of good heavy squats. The best and quickest way to grow a bigger chest is to perform heavy and stressing exercises with a high focus on the chest. If you use shitty technique on our squats and compensate with your back, you reduce the training you put on the legs. If you drop the weight and improve the technique, your legs get a better training stimulus. If you use shitty technique on your chest presses, use momentum and involve your delts too much, you reduce the training you put on the chest. If you drop the weight and improve your technique, your chest gets a better stimulus. Your technique determines the quality of your training. If you have to do less due to your time constraints, make sure it all contributes as much as possible to your specific goals by always using good technique. This also doesn't mean to train with no intensity. It means back focussing the intensity where it needs to be. Prioritising full ranges of motion, high tension, and minimal momentum are the most common key aspects of great training technique.

GET A COACH

If you are genuinely serious about making the most progress in the least amount of time, hiring a coach is a non-negotiable. They will look after all of these variables and more for you, saving you all the time it takes to think, plan, research, and write out your own training sessions. They'll also monitor your progress and tell you when to push on, change movements, or change approach, saving you all of that the thought and trial and error involved in that. They will manage all areas of your lifestyle, including your nutrition and recovery t maximise the returns from everything you are doing in the gym. And if you hire someone who gets it. Someone who has worked with thousands of everyday athletes over the last 15+ years, helping them make incredible progress alongside hectic schedules full of work, home, and family commitments, they will quickly make things as efficient and effective as possible for you specifically. Not a hypothetical busy person. You, the specific busy person they're working with. This is my speciality and what I am world class at doing. If you're fired up to make the best strength and muscle gains in the most time and energy efficient manner possible, apply for coaching HERE.