Working out in bursts

[Ticks]

Hi, I'm trying to get back into shape, and this is something I've wondered about for a long time. My background includes bodybuilding starting in high school and military service. Back then—both during those high school bodybuilding days and in the military—the approach was always strength and conditioning, lifting heavy, crossfit, long endurance sessions; essentially every workout ran at least an hour. Now that I'm older and have more insight and perspective, I've realized the most efficient route for me to alter my body composition and add lean muscle is light weights (or bodyweight exercises), exertion, and going to failure with a strong mind-muscle connection. HIIT appeals to me, and that's how I handle my weight training now. (Supersetting, high reps, strong pump)

Since I work from home these days, I've been finding small windows throughout the day to train in my home gym. For example, I might spend 15-20 mins on chest / tris in the morning, pushing until my muscles are very pumped and exerted, then later in the day when I have more time I might add more sets in, switch muscle groups, exercises, etc. Personally, I'm finding this works really well, but I'm curious what this group thinks—when you tear down a muscle in one of these short windows, does it affect the efficacy of the tear down / rebuild process? I figure if it's not broke don't fix it, but I know there are a lot of smart people here who might have more scientific insights to add.

 

[yrrdead]

The sole (extremely small) drawback would involve the way you arrange particular sessions so fatigue works in your favor, letting you hit specific muscles further along in that session. In practice, however, I doubt it will make any genuine difference to hypertrophy.

When it comes to scientific evidence, best of luck, since the bulk of hypertrophy studies are quite weak simply in terms of design (too few participants, age, training, all of that), never mind the actual findings.

Beyond that, as the years pass and my schedule fills up, whatever I can squeeze in beats skipping a workout altogether.

 

[pilsnermagnus]

With little kids around, finding 45 minutes to 1.5 hours for a full session was almost never possible for me. Since I work from home part of the week, my first step was resistance bands; after that came a secondhand weight bench that was cheap, then I made dip bars myself, and I turned lifting slings into pullup equipment. That arrangement lasted a while, used whenever I could fit it in. Eventually I swapped the bench and rack for a superior setup (it cost me nothing) and piled on additional plates, and in the end I picked up a 40lb vest whose weights can be taken out. These days there is more method to it, though it remains pretty casual overall.

My sessions come in bursts, lasting as briefly or as long as I have room or desire for. On work-from-home days I spend most of the time on my feet with the 40lb vest on (roughly the body fat I no longer carry).

For me the important thing is to do a little something daily, whether that is only stretching or 5-10 pullups. I am going easy today because I have a blood draw scheduled for hormone tests. Once tomorrow's draw is done, it will likely be back to full effort with some kind of leg session. I am constantly changing things around to deal with soreness or spots I think need work. I am no body builder chasing looks, just a guy in his 40s who wants to move with power and control.