Fitness Tip Review - Is a 30 Minute Workout Enough?

TLDL – 100% yes. You just need to know how to maximize your time by working out at high intensity.

30 minutes is ample time for a great workout.

I am a huge proponent of 20-30 minute high intensity workouts 4-6x per week. Most of my workouts only last from 30-45 minutes.

The key is to make sure you work out at high intensity.

High intensity is not just a general term about hard workouts. It has two specific meanings.

High Intensity - Definition 1:

In terms of lifting weights, intensity refers to the percent of your one rep max (1RM) you are lifting on that set.

For example, you can squat 405lbs, 90% intensity is 365lbs (405*0.9).

High intensity is generally referred to as weights greater than 85% 1RM, but this can slide down to weights over 75% or 80% 1RM.

High Intensity - Definition 2:

In terms of cardiovascular training, high intensity refers to your percent of VO2 max. VO2 max is your ability to deliver and utilize oxygen-rich blood to working muscles.

However, percent VO2max is much more appropriately used when training for endurance events. If you only have 30 minutes to workout out, you are not training for an endurance event.

You are instead simply training your cardiovascular system (health > performance).

In this case, we measure high intensity with speed and heart rate.

High intensity cardiovascular workouts need to push high heart rates, and high speeds.

A single effort 500m is high intensity. 4 x 30 second repeats on the treadmill is high intensity.

High Intensity - Bonus Definition:

A more advanced measure of high intensity is the generated EPOC.

EPOC is excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.

The next time you workout, start paying attention to your body right after you finish.

Are you still breathing heavy? Is your body still at elevated temperature?

Those are two by-products of having an elevated EPOC.

This means that your body is still burning calories post workout. This is good - and a sign of a good workout.. in fact, a sign of a high intensity workout.

Although the length of time you workout is a factor, high intensity anaerobic training has the greatest impact on EPOC.

The documented best ways to boost EPOC are heavy loading (high intensity), high speed sprint intervals (HIIT – high intensity interval training), and total body loading (high intensity muscle activation).

To make sure you have a great workout, you should focus on at least one those factors. They are again:

1)      Lifting over 85% (over 75%-80% is OK)

2)      Performing HIIT cardiovascular finishers (E.g. Tabata Row)

3)      Performing total body lifts or supersets/tri-sets/circuits that target multiple muscle groups

The best workouts are total body focus, high intensity, and still have a warm-up, cool down, strength component (85%+ compound lift) and a metabolic finisher (2 x 1 min max effort ski erg).

Is it enough to time to reach peak performance? Absolutely not.

Is it enough time to get stronger, more flexible and better shape? Yes.

Addendum: For this to work, you need to have a basic idea of proper rest intervals for when you are working out. Most people rest too much. 85%+ lift: 2-5 minutes recovery (unless Olympic lift, then 90s-2min). 75%-85%: 30-60 second recovery (90 ok for big lifts). Less than 75% = less than 60 second recovery or as short as possible.