Workout Duration and result

In this world of fitness enthusiastic people, we can easily find people worried and talking about their health, fat loss and smaller waist. This is the era when every age group is concerned about their health and fitness. Most people, for fitness, are doing something or the other, like some are going into yoga classes, some are performing Zumba, some are simply walking or jogging, some are hitting gym with passion and some are simply following a diet routine, but only few know exactly what should be the perfect duration of exercise.

Some experts have been advocating from years how 45 minutes of gym training is enough for losing fat and gaining muscles whereas some latest research suggest, one can do workout up to 90 minutes straight and that will benefit more than what a 45 minutes training could do.

What is the truth and logic behind the workout duration and how can a LESS or MORE duration effect one’s result, let’s discuss this in detail.

 

 What happens when you are over doing your gym training

When someone is training in gym and continues it for very longer duration, his/her body burns fat for energy but only for a certain period of time. Later when the fat stores stop releasing energy, body goes into catabolic mode and starts burning MUSCLES for energy. As each gram of protein contains 4 calories just like carbohydrates, one has to compromise with the muscles loss just for the sake of useless extra workout.

So if one is doing more workout or the duration is longer , he/she is not doing any good to the body, but how can one find out how much time is best?

There are some variables like, mood, sleep hours, time of workout, protein intake, carbohydrate intake, how much muscle mass the person carries, how much fat body has, and the Intensity at which he /she is performing exercises, all together these variables determines when the person’s body will GIVE UP on the fat stores and turn CATABOLIC.

 

Intensity of the workout

Out of all the different variables mentioned, “Intensity of the workout” is one such variable that has a greater role to play. Here is an example to make the topic clear:-

If a man is training heavy, for reps between 6-8 and only doing super heavy weight training, has got higher muscle mass but less body fat percentage, his body might hit the CATABOLIC MODE somewhere around 45-50 minutes.

If the same individual is sipping BCAAs intra workout, or had a good rich protein diet prior to his workout, he can exceed 10 more minutes, but no one actually know when his body might hit catabolism. Here, the best thing to do would be to have a good protein and carb rich meal an hour before workout and sip BCAAs intra workout and finish workout before 45 minutes to avoid any tiny bit of muscle loss. As soon as his workout is finished he should have his fast digesting protein without wasting any single minute to switch ON the anabolic ZONE and completely get rid of the catabolic condition that might over take his body, if he would have delayed.

What will happen if the same person will train on LOW INTENSITY

Let’s assume the same person (mentioned in the above example) is training with low intensity. For example he comes into the gym and starts walking on treadmill for 10 minutes and use light or moderate weight to do 15+ reps in each workout, does sip BCAAs intra workout and had a good meal before workout, HE CAN WORKOUT FOR MORE THAN 1 HOUR STRAIGHT.

This might sound little weird but this is absolutely correct makes complete sense. Because this person had a good pre workout meal, have got BCAAs, he will not turn catabolic any sooner. His workout is not too intensive, it is moderate to low weight training and how many reps he does hardly matters. This person might hit the catabolic mode somewhere around 70-80 minutes, so the best thing that he must do is, stop his workout before 70 minutes (excluding the warm-up he did on treadmill for 10-15 minutes).

 

 

What if the same person did same moderate to low intensity workout but didn’t had BCAAs

If the above man, in the example, didn’t sip BCAAs in between his workout, he might hit the catabolic zone 10 to 15 minutes earlier. It has been observed in several examples that people who drink BCAAs can perform for a longer period of time than those who doesn’t use it.

Some old-school legends, athletes and bodybuilders have been drinking Protein before, intra and after their workout session to enhance the anabolic benefit and could do longer workout and also recover well at the same time.

 

What will happen if the person hits the Catabolic zone

As soon as someone hits the catabolic zone, he will not do any progressive benefit to his body in the gym, in fact he will lose muscles and it might get harder for him to cover that loss. Some people after their workout sit in the gym and start talking and chit-chatting. They completely forget that they were supposed to have a protein shake or something that could cover their loss. Such people do not gain any benefit from their workouts, they neither gain muscles nor lose fat. They later complaint how their trainer is not helping them lose weight, how they are working out in the gym for hours, how they are so much hard working and dedicated towards their workouts but cannot get results.

What if someone finishes workout before the appropriate time and leave the gym?

There are such people who visit gym 4 or 5 times a week. They do not have much time and so they just finish their workout in 40 minutes and go back home. They quickly finish their post workout drink and rush towards their other works. Such people are often called GIFTED or people with better genetics. Often people talk about such people who do not do much of the hard work in the gym but they have great body. They lose fat faster and gain muscles faster as well.

The amazing fact here is, THEY ARE SMART. They workout smartly, have proper meal, never go catabolic and are always anabolic. They are training with intensity and they are feeding their body the right way too. They are not gifted or have better genetics; they are actually doing the right thing.

Some people who have been doing 30 minutes High Intensity workout are also seen gaining better results than those who spend HOURS running, training and sitting in sauna and steam baths.

 

 

So next time when you are at the gym, think for a while, are you really doing the right thing? Are you feeding your body? Are you over training? Are you anabolic or catabolic? If you are not getting results, you are probably wrong at some point. Think deep, learn well, hit the gym harder and live life smarter.

 

 

Jasbir Devgan

The writer of this article is a Fitness Expert with experience over a decade. He has been guiding clients from different gyms in various cities for all these years and he is now working as a Free Lancer to promote awareness and guidance to people over the internet in far distance places.

He has not only helped people by introducing them to healthy living but also motivated people to do what they thought they can never do in the gym. Many clients, who joined his Personal Training program for weight loss or for some other fitness goal, are now participating into competitive bodybuilding and living a different and better life.

To get connected to the Jasbir Devgan, or to join his online Training Program, Find him on- Instagram:- devganjasbir, Facebook:- Jasbir Devgan or email – jasbirdevgan82@gmail.com