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New research suggests you can get noticeable muscle gains from shorter strength training sessions.
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Researchers found that lifting for just 30 minutes, twice a week, helped people increase their muscle mass.
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The lifting routine is not overly complicated, either.
A wave of research over the past few years has made it clear that a strength training habit is really important for your health. New research suggests that you don’t need to spend every day grinding it out at the gym to see results. In fact, researchers found that you can gain muscle in as little as 30 minutes of weight training.
Meet the experts: Albert Matheny, R.D., C.S.C.S., co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab; Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., study co-author and a professor in exercise science at Lehman College in the Bronx, NY; Luke Pryor, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., clinical associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at University at Buffalo
But it’ll take more than one quick dumbbell lifting session to see results. Here’s what the study found, plus how to maximize your results when you lift weights.
What did the study find?
The small study, which was published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, had 42 healthy men and women follow a lifting program with one set of eight to 10 reps for each exercise that was either train to failure (pushing yourself until you can’t do more reps with the right form) or leaving reps in reserve (pushing themselves but still having energy to do more).
The participants cycled through nine exercises that targeted major muscle groups twice a week for eight weeks. Each session was done in 30 minutes. Afterward, the researchers analyzed them for changes in muscle thickness in select areas of the body, as well as measures of muscle strength, power, and endurance.
The researchers discovered that all of the participants had muscles that were bigger and stronger than they were at the beginning of the program. But the changes were similar in men and women who pushed themselves until they couldn’t do more reps (train to failure) with the right form or those who still had energy to do more (reps in reserve).
Why might just 30 minutes of weightlifting help?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that people do two days of “muscle-strengthening activity” a week, along with at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity. But the CDC also notes that just over 24% of adults actually hit both of those goals.
The idea of squeezing in two 30-minute lifting sessions a week seems doable, and it is, according to Albert Matheny, R.D., CSCS, co-founder of SoHo Strength Lab. “I repeat this often: It doesn’t have to be the most to have a benefit,” he says. “There is a law of diminishing returns.”
But the study participants also didn’t slack off on their workouts. “In our study, the workouts were sufficiently hard to challenge the participants’ muscles beyond their present capacity,” says Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., study co-author and a professor in exercise science at Lehman College in the Bronx, NY. “This is key to making continued muscular gains.”
There’s a lot that happens in your body when you lift, including the release of hormones, metabolic stress (which disrupts the muscle’s usual state and can cause it to grow), muscle strain, and molecular signaling in the muscle, explains Luke Pryor, Ph.D., C.S.C.S., clinical associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at University at Buffalo. Even shorter sessions will tap into all of these.
Pryor says these shorter sessions have less recovery time, like one to two minutes. “By shortening the recovery time, it drives up metabolic stress,” he says. Cue the muscle growth.
Pryor notes that the study was done on people who already did resistance training, which suggests that even people who are already fit can gain muscle from this approach. “These shorter sessions are really effective for those who are sedentary, but this shows that even in folks who have been exercising for a number of nears, you can still maintain or even grow skeletal muscle in these shorter sessions,” he says.
Why does this matter?
There are a lot of perks to strength training beyond looking fit. Not only will it make you physically stronger, but research also suggests that a lifting habit will help increase bone density, an important area of health to focus on as you age.
“There are also links to longevity and hormonal improvements,” Matheny says. Strength training can even increase your metabolism, he points out.
“Resistance training has a plethora of benefits for almost all organ systems,” Schoenfeld says. “This includes improved ability to carry out tasks of everyday living, enhanced metabolic function, better cardiovascular health, better mental health, and greater injury resistance, among others.”
How to maximize your weightlifting time
If you’re interested in starting a lifting routine, Matheny suggests giving yourself a little extra time at first to figure out what you’re doing. “You have to work a bit to figure out the right weight to get the most out of each exercise,” he says.
The study specifically had participants cycle through these exercises:
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Front lat pull-down
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Seated cable row
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Shoulder press
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Chest press
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Cable triceps pushdown
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Supinated dumbbell biceps curl
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Smith machine squats
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Leg press
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Leg extension
But Matheny recommends focusing on major muscle groups for your lifting routine. “A lot of times these studies incorporate tricep-related things because they’re easier to measure, but larger, multi-joint muscle exercises are best,” he says. Pryor agrees. “You want to do exercises that recruit a lot of muscle,” he says.
Matheny recommends focusing on moves like these that target several muscle groups at once to get the biggest results:
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Pushups
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Squats
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Lunges
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Deadlifts
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Pullups
Schoenfeld also suggests keeping the time between sets to under two minutes to really maximize your time. But he recommends choosing exercises that will help you reach your goals. “Ultimately, personal choice should dictate which exercises you select,” he says.
Of course, doing any strength training is better than none, and you may not even need to set aside 30 minutes. “You can even get results with 20-minute sessions,” says Pryor.
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