Train half the time and still get the same gains?

Time is valuable and limited.

Many people nowadays have packed work schedules and won’t be able to work out for an hour or longer.

So the question goes, are you able to workout for 30-45 minutes instead of an hour or so and still make the same gains?

Let’s see what science says about that.

A study in 2025 took 42 trained individuals and measured muscle thickness, strength, power, and accuracy of estimating RIR (reps in reserve).

All trained for 8 weeks and workout twice a week and performed one set of nine exercises.

To conclude, they all made significant gains and no big difference as if you were to do 3-4 working sets of a specific exercise.

Key points to take away:

1. Performing an exercise for 1 set close to failure is sufficient for putting on muscle.
2. Stopping 1-2 reps before failure is still beneficial.
3. Tracking weight and reps is important for building muscle and pushing muscle adaptation.

Moral of the study, there is no need to train for a long period of time and do high volume workouts if you are limited on time. You can still make similar muscle gains as long as you train hard or train to or close to failure.

Reference:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40249908/

Lastly, if you are interested in learning how you can train timely and efficiently with proper technique cues, click here to take you to my contact page and schedule our first session!