HOW MUCH STRENGTH TRAINING SHOULD I BE DOING? PT 1.

How much strength training should I being a question I hear a lot from clients.

For the record, strength training can’t be measured in minutes.

Why?

Everyone is different and no two people will exercise the same within an hour.

One of them might diligently work hard, do an exercise, move on to the next exercise, and keep moving for the whole hour.

Another person might do 10 reps on an exercise, sit on the same machine, and look at their phone for 10 minutes, before doing another set of that exercise.

In that same hour, person A got a lot more done than person B.

That’s why you can’t answer the question of “how much strength training should you do?” in terms of time.

In sports science, the question of “how much” is answered with the total volume per session.

How is total volume calculated?

The number of sets x number of reps x weight.

So to use an example, if you did 3 sets of 10 reps, at 100 pounds, your total volume for that exercise would be 3000 pounds.

Makes sense?

Now, with that out of the way, let’s discuss the factors that determine how much strength training you should do.