We’re all busy - that’s just life. Whether it’s working hours, kids, social pressures or the like, most of us probably don’t have the amount of free time we’d like. With a limited time window in which training can be done, one of the questions many people have is “it is better to do one long training sessions, or multiple short ones?”
I’ll shorten the question to ‘training frequency or duration - which is better?’
In this article we’ll look at the evidence to help you to understand which is the best way of training when time windows are compressed and you’re forced to prioritise. We’ll look at what is best to do any why, because there’s always an opportunity to do something…
Training in a squeezed window…
Let’s make an assumption that you have general fitness goals - you want to maintain a decent level of strength and cardio and burn plenty of calories in a session. You don’t have any specialist, extreme goals that will take up a lot of time and individualised, targeted training.
Now, imagine in a given week you have two hours in which you can realistically squeeze in some exercise - what’s the best use of that time?
A single, two hour blasting session? How about 2 x 1 hour sessions? Maybe the best way is three equal sessions?
There’s a way to answer this question and starts with what ‘general fitness’ looks like. I think we can all agree that being ‘generally fit’ means that you have a decent blend of strength and cardio capabilities. You might not have elite levels of either, but you certainly don’t want to be lacking in both. That means you’ll need to dedicate some training time to both. That leads us to higher intensity forms of training - using squeezed windows to work on strength and cardio at the same time.
The research on training frequency when it comes to muscle growth is clear - frequency is better than duration. A 2016 meta-analysis on training research showed that training muscles twice per week was significantly more effective than once. That leads us to a clear conclusion on the resistance training front - full body training sessions more frequently is better.
Moreover, a combined training approach appears to be even more effective than separating strength and cardio training when it comes to the general population. A lot of people will split their training into ‘strength’ days and ‘cardio’ days, keeping a sole focus for the session. A research study from 2019 suggests that this may not be the most effective approach though, and that combining strength and cardio work is better from a general health perspective. The researchers concluded that…
‘data suggest that combination training may be of better value than either aerobic or resistance training alone, as it appeared to have the most beneficial effect on the composite of CVD risk factors.’
This is interesting because it effectively gives the green light for the high intensity strength training that is often seen at bootcamps, circuit classes etc. The other good news is that these classes are often around the 30-45 minute mark, which allows for multiple sessions in the same week.
The benefits of combining exercise protocols
There are both practical and health reasons for combining training approaches, as opposed to keeping cardio and strength training apart. Research from 2020 that studied resistance based HIIT (high intensity interval training) showed there was a genuine benefit to gained from running these approaches concurrently. This is excellent news for anyone who is worried that they won’t achieve the same benefits if they mix the training approaches.
Do shorter workouts compromise results?
The next question to answer is whether shorter workouts mean results are worse? The evidence here again is clear - there’s no doubt that shorter workouts are very effective, as long as the intensity is sufficiently high enough. In fact, in this study the conclusion was that the shorter, high intensity sessions led to greater gains in VO2 max than the more traditional longer-duration steady state cardiovascular training.
Making the most of short time windows…
We know from the research that there’s definite benefit to short, intense workouts. This sets to bed one of the major worries about time restricted windows. So in order to make the most of short time windows in which you can train, here’s what the evidence suggests….
Go for frequency over duration. 4 x 30 minute sessions or 3 x 40 minute sessions are better than 1 x 2 hour session.
Combine strength and cardio training by adopting a circuit/bootcamp style of training. Research shows this is effective.
Work hard! Shorter workouts have to be more intense, so go all-out with effort!
It shows you can still exercise and hit your health and fitness goals even when you are limited with time. Don’t ever let a lack of time be a factor, there’s always a way!
At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
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