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Thread: Time spent in the gym = 2 hours???

  1. #1
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    Default Time spent in the gym = 2 hours???

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    Hello all,

    I just restarted SS in mid January after taking months off due to illness/losing 20 lbs. I am a little over 6'3 and am sitting at 170 lbs right now (yes, I'm aware this is quite thin). I haven't really noticed this too much, but as the weights have started getting heavier I find it takes longer, and longer for me to get out of the gym. At the beginning I could pretty much finish in an hour, including warming up and stretching beforehand (I do < 10 mins rowing maching, then warm up sets with stretching in between). In the past week, I've noticed that I literally take 2 hours to finish everything. Let me clarify, that I am only doing the 3 main lifts a day. My work sets are as follows:

    Squat - 225
    Deadlift - 225
    Bench - 155
    Press - 105
    Clean - 115

    I tried to hustle through the workout today, and ended up starting my first squat work set literally 30 minutes after stepping into the weight room. I did my first work set, and felt good about it. I tried to keep my rest under 10 mins. in between work sets, but I failed miserably on the 2nd, only getting 2 reps and dumping the 3rd. The bulk of my time is spent on squats, from the moment I step into the gym to the moment I finish my last work set with squats is usually at least in hour.

    Should I be worried about working out for 2 hours at a time? Is this normal? If not, what the hell can I do to cut down the time?

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by kel View Post
    Hello all,

    I just restarted SS in mid January after taking months off due to illness/losing 20 lbs. I am a little over 6'3 and am sitting at 170 lbs right now (yes, I'm aware this is quite thin). I haven't really noticed this too much, but as the weights have started getting heavier I find it takes longer, and longer for me to get out of the gym. At the beginning I could pretty much finish in an hour, including warming up and stretching beforehand (I do < 10 mins rowing maching, then warm up sets with stretching in between). In the past week, I've noticed that I literally take 2 hours to finish everything. Let me clarify, that I am only doing the 3 main lifts a day. My work sets are as follows:

    Squat - 225
    Deadlift - 225
    Bench - 155
    Press - 105
    Clean - 115

    I tried to hustle through the workout today, and ended up starting my first squat work set literally 30 minutes after stepping into the weight room. I did my first work set, and felt good about it. I tried to keep my rest under 10 mins. in between work sets, but I failed miserably on the 2nd, only getting 2 reps and dumping the 3rd. The bulk of my time is spent on squats, from the moment I step into the gym to the moment I finish my last work set with squats is usually at least in hour.

    Should I be worried about working out for 2 hours at a time? Is this normal? If not, what the hell can I do to cut down the time?
    Assuming you have the time, I wouldn't worry much. Perhaps try to not dawdle during the warm up?

  3. #3
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    Default

    That sounds about right.

  4. #4
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kel View Post
    Hello all,

    I just restarted SS in mid January after taking months off due to illness/losing 20 lbs. I am a little over 6'3 and am sitting at 170 lbs right now (yes, I'm aware this is quite thin). I haven't really noticed this too much, but as the weights have started getting heavier I find it takes longer, and longer for me to get out of the gym. At the beginning I could pretty much finish in an hour, including warming up and stretching beforehand (I do < 10 mins rowing maching, then warm up sets with stretching in between). In the past week, I've noticed that I literally take 2 hours to finish everything. Let me clarify, that I am only doing the 3 main lifts a day. My work sets are as follows:

    Squat - 225
    Deadlift - 225
    Bench - 155
    Press - 105
    Clean - 115

    I tried to hustle through the workout today, and ended up starting my first squat work set literally 30 minutes after stepping into the weight room. I did my first work set, and felt good about it. I tried to keep my rest under 10 mins. in between work sets, but I failed miserably on the 2nd, only getting 2 reps and dumping the 3rd. The bulk of my time is spent on squats, from the moment I step into the gym to the moment I finish my last work set with squats is usually at least in hour.

    Should I be worried about working out for 2 hours at a time? Is this normal? If not, what the hell can I do to cut down the time?
    As you have noticed too, 170 at 6'3 is mighty skinny. Try to eat and rest more. The total workout time of around 2 hours isn't that horribly much though. Mine were around one and a half. My rest times between sets were 5-6 minutes max at the end of linear progression. I'm guessing it varies from person to person, but I have a gut feeling that your overall skinnyness has to do something about it.

    Cutting down the rest time would probably come when you put on like 30-40 pounds, and you'll have more power and as Rip would say: your lever arms would work more efficiently. Since you've lost 20 pounds recently, this 40 increase shouldn't take forever. Otherwise don't worry too much about the rest time, just eat more.

    How old are you by the way?

  5. #5
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    I'm 21 and male, probably should have mentioned that. Extreme end of the ectomorph range, most I ever weighed was 185. I have gained about 5 lbs since mid January.

    Oh, and these are the weights I conservatively started with January 18th, @ 165 lbs

    Squat - 155
    Deadlift -165
    Bench - 135
    Press - 85
    Clean - 95
    Last edited by kel; 02-05-2011 at 04:59 PM.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
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    10 minutes rest between sets seems like an extraordinary amount to me. I would be afraid of getting cold... (although usually not a problem here in Sydney).

    ...and why the stretching between warm-up sets? The 10 mins of rowing should be enough to get a good sweat. Some good advise I read here was to do your warm-up sets quickly but then rest a bit before the 1st work-out set. Works well.

    I also have time constraints in my work-out as I work-out before work, and I limit my rest to 3 minutes. It's all about setting-up a pattern. You might want to experiment by doing your 225x3x5 with 10 mins rest, then same weight with 9 mins, then 8, then 7... Slow and steady wins the race.

  7. #7
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    2hrs is excessive.

    For squats (and all 3x5s), walk up to the rack, do 5 bar squats. Load up to 25% do 5 of those. Load up to 50%, do 3 of those. Load up to 75% and do 2 of those. Wait three minutes, and begin work sets. If you really want to, you can stretch before the work sets, but I do not need to do this.

    10 minute rests are excessive, imo. If you were 50+, that'd be different. Drop the weight until you can handle 5 minute rests.

  8. #8
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    Eat.

  9. #9
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    2 hours is realistic if you are really pushing it, eeking out all possible progress at the end of your LP.

    At your modest bodyweight, this maybe the case for your current squat. Your deadlift however seems very low in comparison.
    Last edited by Dastardly; 02-05-2011 at 08:28 PM.

  10. #10
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    starting strength coach development program
    Well, you're doing 10 minutes of rowing at the beginning and taking 10 minutes rests between sets, so it'll take 2 hours...

    Eat more. And you shouldn't be dallying that much.

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