How to Get More Gains in Less Time (Time-Saving Workout Strategies)

What is going on, everybody? And welcome to the Built With Science podcast. You are here with your host, as always, me, Max Coleman. And of course, sitting in front of me is D. Pizzy D Pizzle Daniel Plotkin, a. A k a Danny Boy. And today we're going to be talking about what we can do in the gym to save as much time as possible and still get as much as the best results that we can in the shortest period of time that we can. Oftentimes here on the podcast, we're talking about how we can manipulate variables to maximize our results in the gym, regardless of how much time we're spending there. Right. But for the majority of people, they're not like Danny Boy and me, and they're not trying to maximize every little thing that they can in the gym. They just want to go to the gym. They want to spend a little bit of time there. They want to get the best results they can. Right. So today, those are the people we're making this podcast for. How can we go to the gym and not spend an hour and a half there? Maybe 30 minutes, maybe 20 minutes here and there, but still ensure that we're getting the best results possible? So, Danny Boy, why don't you start us off with. We'll just jump right into the topics here, and in the interest of saving time, we'll jump right in. What. What do you think are some. We'll start with some more conventional ones, and then we'll talk about some less conventional stuff. So you want to talk a little bit about intensity techniques to start. Right. And we'll define what intensity techniques mean as well.

Yep. So intensity techniques are essentially. I think there's not a really good definition for intensity techniques, but I think the way I categorize them personally is sort of jives with this topic in that it's a more intense amount of work in a shorter amount of time. So a lot of the time I think intensity could drop, actually, with most intensity techniques is kind of funny because as we'll talk about here, like, if you're doing a lot of work within a short amount of time, obviously you can't keep that same intensity over that period. So I think the one that we should start with is probably the one you're the most familiar with and the one that has the most literature on it. So drop sets. Drop sets have been studied a decent amount. Probably not enough in order to have, like, a really good dose response relationship.

But I think we have six studies as of. As of the time of this podcast.

I believe yeah, and I think the problem with drop sets as opposed to straight sets is that you can kind of categorize straight sets into shortish rest periods between sets and longish rest periods between sets. While drop sets could have really an unlimited amount of iterations in that there's more drops, there's different changes in load between the drops and so on. So I think. Are you sponsored by the way?

Yes, by Young, La and Duncan. So shout out.

So, yeah, I think that's the reason why it's hard to really get a dose response relationship for drop sets. But what we do know is that in the limited evidence we have, they are time savers. So whether you want to do it at, do that at the end of your session or sort of use it as a pre exhaust however you want to do things, I think it will definitely save time. So that's one that I think squarely false in the category of you will save time if you use this intensity technique. Do you have anything to say about drop sets?

Always and forever. The, the, the data that we do have. So I believe there's only two studies comparing drop sets to straight sets where they measured the time of the workouts, which is such an easy thing to measure. It's, it's very unfortunate. It, it makes sense. It's not something you're thinking about when designing a study, but it would've been nice to see more studies actually timing the, the amount of time that people were working out. Yeah, I don't, I, as far as drop sets are concerned, like, I think they're really fun and incredible and they definitely do save you a lot of time. What we can't say for sure is we like, we don't have a perfect analog. So like we don't have a perfect equation for one drop set equals one straight set. Like does three sets of a straight set equal one drop set with three drops or two drops or whatever? We don't know the study. So the studies that have been done on this, some of them are equated that way where one group will do four sets, straight sets with like two minutes rest in between and the other group will do one set with three drops afterwards. And in those studies they grow the same. But also in other studies where they're doing more additional drops, they also grow the same. So don't have a perfect analog there. But general, like a, a general rule of thumb is like if you're really pressed for time and you, let's say you were going to the gym to do four set like at the end of your workout, you have four sets of tricep extensions as like a finisher or whatever. Like your last movement, you could do one set followed by three drops and you would theoretically be getting the same stimulus in a much shorter period of time. I can't say that with a hundred percent conclusivity, with a hundred, like with a hundred percent certainty, but I think that they are an incredible way of saving a lot of time in the gym. However, not the only way. There are other intensity techniques as well. I think that the drop sets are the ones that are like the most definitive. Meaning like that there's actual data saying these save you time with while giving you the same amount of results. But there are also things like myoreps. You want to tell us what myoreps are, Danny Boy?

Maybe. Maybe. Let's go BFR first. Because I think it's closer in like nature to drop sets in that we have evidence on it, we know it saves time and.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Potentially, yeah. So let's go bfr. So bfr, did we say what a drop set was? I think most people know what a drop set is, right? Yeah.

But if you don't, drop set is just where you perform an exercise to failure or near failure and then without resting, you drop the load, however much. Let's say you're doing dumbbell curls with 20s and then you get to failure at 10 reps, you immediately drop down to 15s, you do as many more additional reps as you possibly can until you reach failure or near failure again. And then you can do as many subsequent drops as you'd like. Like Danny Boy said, even within the literature, drop sets aren't very well defined. And they certainly aren't well defined within the lifting community. Community. Like you ask one bro how he does drop sets, you're probably going to get a different answer than the next bro that you ask.

So do you prefer and in the literature have drops typically been all above 5 reps, so. Meaning each subsequent set?

I don't think so, but generally yeah. So like I think that one. Ozaki. Ozaki paper. Sorry, I'm. I know I'm mispronouncing the name, I'm sure, but that's how I pronounce it. They did see that like you, you once you get towards those like lower, lower end ranges, like even when you're using super lightweight, the muscle is just so fatigued and like so depleted that yeah, I usually see very low rep numbers. Like I, I was doing drop sets yesterday with a Client. And. And on the last drop, he. He only got four reps, even with drastically less weight than. Than he was doing when he started. So I don't think there's like a perfect way of doing it, generally speaking. Yeah, I think it's probably. Probably better to stay above 5 reps. Like do drops that will allow you to get a little bit above 5 reps, but I don't think that's something that's going to ultimately hinder. Hinder growth or anything like that.

Sweet. All right, so now let's talk about BFR. So BFR is blood flow restriction, also called Ka2 training, I believe. And it's essentially where you're occluding a limb venous blood flow, so not arterial blood flow. So you have the blood going into the muscle, but the blood is not able to leave because of the fact that you tie a cuff around the arm at enough of a pressure to not allow for the blood to leave, but importantly, not so much pressure that you're allowing the blood flow to come in. So that way you don't have that tingly feeling and you don't cut off arterial blood flow to the arm and have to get it amputated and whatnot.

Yeah, just. Just to clarify, like, so blood vessels. Hope most of you probably know this, but for those of you don't, arteries take blood, two tissues, oxygenated blood, two tissues, and then veins that the blood back back to the heart. Right. And what we want with this is to. Is to occlude those veins so that the blood can't go away, but not occlude it so much that the arteries aren't able to deliver that blood to the muscle. So. Yeah.

Yep. So there's plenty of cuffs that can be, you know, bought readily on Amazon. I think the coolest machines are the ones that are actually able to. You can set a pressure, but they're a little bit more expensive. But what they've found is typically a 7 out of 10 on the discomfort scale when you put that cuff on is around what's needed in order to get venous occlusion. And typical protocols for BFR go something like this. You do 30 reps. 15 reps. 15 reps, and then I think usually another 15 reps. So four sets total.

And the 30 seconds rest in between those two or in between all of the sets.

Yeah, exactly. So that's pretty much just as quick, maybe a little bit slower than drop sets. I will say it's typically a bit more uncomfortable, I think significantly more uncomfortable. For me, I don't know about, for other individuals, but the pump is like super painful. And then afterward you can sort of still really feel, feel the pain for a bit, but it's definitely not like unbearable. So it can definitely save time. I personally don't dip into those waters as often just because you got to put the cuff on people, give you weird looks, all that kind of stuff. But it is definitely a tool in the toolkit, particularly if you have any sort of like injury or some sort of nagging pain in that area. I think there's weak evidence, but enough evidence that it's worth a try. So something in the toolbox touch on.

Why it can be a good tool for individuals that maybe have like, let's say, let's say you're having a little bit of elbow pain when you do bicep curls. Why would you want to do something like bfr?

Yeah. So the mechanism of action, or the proposed mechanism of action is that you may actually be causing type 2 fibers to come online earlier. And what that allows you to do is essentially use less load. So because BFR allows you to use less load and give you, gives you that same stimulus, you can potentially save some joint pain or discomfort if that's what's exacerbating it. So it's something to play around with where if you try it out and you clearly feel less joint pain, stick with it. I like tools like that because you can literally like see if it actually changes things in terms of how you feel.

So yeah, so generally speaking we want to use like somewhere between 30 and 85% of 1 RM. But with BFR you're able to use like even less than that. So like if for instance, 20 pound dumbbells hurt your elbows, but for some reason 10 pound dumbbells don't bother your elbows at all, or 10 pound dumbbells don't Bother your elbows at all, Then you with through BFR you're able to now train your biceps effectively without bothering your elbow. But obviously like Danny boy said, definitely try it out on your own before.

Yeah.

Just assuming that what we say is oak for sure.

And if you start feeling any sort of like numbness and, and tingling and discomfort, just, just stop. Probably, probably a good idea, you know, at least not moment, not only stop.

Because you could be hurting yourself, but also stop because now that exercise is not as effective you, that is a sign that you are not. You are also including arterial flow to the, to the muscle as well. So don't lose an arm and don't lose progress in the gym by making your BFR bands a little bit too tight.

Yeah.

Second most important. Yeah. Anything else you want to cover on bfr?

Nothing. That's good.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Cool. Supersets.

Did we go my reps yet?

We didn't want to go.

Do you want to go supersets now?

I don't care. Which. I don't care.

Let's go my reps. I think it'll be quicker. All right, so. So I'll describe what a myorep typically is, and you might have a. And I've seen it defined in a. In a plethora of ways.

Yeah, I have no idea what my reps are because you ask three people what my reps are, and you get four different opinions. So I have no idea.

So the way I typically think about my reps is that the theoretical problem with drop sets is, is that each subsequent drop, because you're not waiting any amount of time, means that you're losing out on the type 2 fibers that are being stimulated during that set because those are the most fatiguable, fatigable fibers. So because type 2 fibers are the most prone to growth, we want to stimulate them as much, as much as possible. But if we continue a set past failure a bunch of times, theoretically more type 2 fibers will drop out or not be called upon because of the fact that they fatigue so quickly. So what my reps tries to solve is it gives you some rest between sets to allow for those type 2 fibers to come back online and continue the set while getting potentially more stimulative reps or more quality reps. So what it looks like is the first set is usually a load where you can do about 15 to 25 reps or so, usually about 20. And then you wait 15 to 30 seconds between another drop or a my rep set. So you keep the same load, and then you wait 15 to 30 seconds, and then you do another set, and then you keep waiting 15 to 30 seconds or whenever you feel ready enough to do more than five reps on the subsequent set. And then there can be anywhere from usually like 2 to 4, but you keep doing it until you are going to drop under 5 reps. So basically, you stop when you feel like the next set is not going to be above 5 reps. So first set, 20, wait 15 to 20 seconds, next set might be 10, next set might be 7, and then you're done kind of thing. So that's what I typically do them like. That's what I've seen The most popular, but I've seen definitely many iterations, so. Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I, I think that I have thoughts on myoreps. Unless they were invented by some dude named George Mayo, they just make. No, myo is a Greek term that just means muscle, so muscle reps. I think it's a silly thing anyway. Yeah, I don't really know. I don't really know the protocols associated with myros because they're so ubiquitous. Like, I know that, like the, the homies over at Renaissance Periodization, they do like, myo rep match sets in. In which they do it a little bit differently. But the point is, you're doing an exercise, you're resting a short period of time, and it's like a drop set, but you're just not dropping the load. That's really the only. You're just dropping the number of reps you're doing. I think it's. They're really fun. They. They hurt and, and, and burn in a similar way to drop sets. And yeah, they're just another. They're just another tool in the tool bet for, for someone that's just trying to save time in the gym. I don't, I don't really have anything to add as far as more rest. Right.

Is the difference?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good point. So you're not. You don't usually rest 10 to 15 to 30 seconds between drop sets, but with my rips, you obviously have to. So ye. Good point. So maybe even less time saving, but Again, an extra 10, 30 seconds total across three sets is still nothing compared to resting three minutes between. Between three sets of exercises. Obviously.

Yeah. The only way we really know if it was time saving is if we found it to be true that it is actually more stimulative per set because you were waiting a bit longer. We don't know that to be the case yet. So it's more time, but potentially more stimulus per unit of time, if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, but again, we don't. We don't know that, obviously. I have nothing else to say about my rfs.

All right, cool.

Supersets, please.

Yeah, so supersets are cool. I've seen a whole bunch of definitions for this too. Surprisingly, it's not super straightforward. A superset is. But we will define a superset as just two exercises done subsequently. So, you know, bench, row, superset, lateral raise, bicep curl would be a superset, and so on. You're doing them back to back with minimal or just actually, it doesn't even need to be minimal amount of time. It could be like a minute rest in between and it'll still be considered a superset. So just two back to back exercises would be a superset. So why is this time saving? Well, you don't have to do nothing during your rest period. Typically you'll do a set of an exercise. You'll wait, you know, anywhere from 30 seconds to five minutes between sets. So while you are resting from one muscle, you can do work for another muscle. To be clear, supersets don't have to be different muscle groups. So it can be the same muscle group, but that would kind of fall into the category more of like what a drop set looks like. So we'll, I think typically from a time saving standpoint, if you want to create a different category, I would say leave supersets for muscles that don't interfere with each other. And I sort of consider supersets where it's the same muscle to be almost like a drop set in, in my head at least. Obviously that's not true. Like it, it's still a superset. They're two different exercises. But just from a categorization standpoint, I'm gonna separate the two for the purposes of this conversation. So the two types of supersets that I wanna talk about are antagonist supersets and then just regular supersets with two separate muscle groups that aren't antagonists. So typically in order to save time, what I like to do with muscle groups that are not antagonists is I'll choose an exercise that's pretty fatiguing, that's pretty difficult, and pair that with an exercise that's like pretty easy that I can do when I'm like fairly fatigued. I'll still wait a little bit between them, but not much time. So it can be literally anything like a squat and a curl or freaking deadlift and a curl, or a lateral raise and a over overhead press or something like that. Maybe not lateral raise, overhead press because of the shoulder thing, but any exercise that's very fatiguing paired with any type of like isolation exercise. A tricep push down a curl, a lateral raise, a leg extension even. So I think that's super good and time saving. Anything you want to add to that? Look like you're about to say something.

No, no, no, you're good. Keep going. I'll, I'll, I'll have, I have stuff to say about supersets, but I'd love to hear. Go ahead. Okay, cool.

Yep. And then for antagonist supersets I think there's the theoretical benefit of the fact that we have minimal evidence, but pretty strong evidence. I think that when you do antagonistic muscles back to back, so like a curl to a tricep extension or a leg extension to a leg curl, those muscles oppose each other. Oppose each other. They're on opposite sides of the joint. So theoretically, you can disinhibit one of the muscles more by taxing the opposite side right before doing a set. And I believe there's two studies that have shown pretty consistently that you can get more load by going right into the antagonist muscle. So you start with a curl, or you start with a tricep push down. And then if you. Right after you're done with the tricep push down, go on to doing curls. You'll get more reps on that curl because you did the tricep push down. And one cool study, I think it was leg extension. Leg curl did different amounts of time. So it was right after leg curl, they did leg extensions. So immediately after, then 15 seconds and then 30 seconds on separate occasions versus a minute, three minutes, and five minutes. And they found that immediately after gave the most increase in reps. And then 15 and 30 seconds was very close to that. And all of the short time periods, so immediately 15 and 30, all produced better results than. Than a minute, three minutes, or I think it was a three minutes and five minutes. So that's, like, pretty cool evidence that the shorter time periods are. There's actually something to the antagonist working beforehand because all of the shorter time periods clustered to better performance compared to just a straight set. So whether that increase in performance actually produces more hypertrophy is very, very speculative. So I wouldn't necessarily say to do that because we know it'll produce more hypertrophy, but there's no downside. And it falls into the same category of what we were talking about before, where it's a different muscle group, so they're not gonna get in the way of each other. So I think that's all I gotta say on supersets. What you got?

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. So. So just to give an. A little bit of context for why antagonist inhibition is a. Is a thing. So, like when I do a bicep curl, especially if I'm an untrained individual, my tricep, to a certain extent, I'm doing a bicep curl, right? And my tricep, which is on the opposite end of my humerus and does the exact opposite action, is actually activating and opposing my bicep from doing the maximal amount of work. Right. So if we exhaust that tricep before doing a bicep curl, theoretically, it turns off the ability for it to inhibit my bicep curling the most amount of weight possible. And again, most of what we're saying right now is speculative because there's no, there's very little I there. I think there may be one study, but I could be wrong. And I don't. I, I didn't even know this existed until last night when I was talking to Milo Wolf. But a study looking at growth with, with supersets. So we don't really know, but shout out Ryan Burke, there's going to be a study on that real soon, which I'm excited about. I think that supersets are probably your best bet for time saving, especially on like, compound movements. So steering, stealing this directly from Eric Hel, kind of sum up the whole intensity technique thing here that we've been talking about. The umbrella is that if you're really trying to save as much time as possible, antagonistic supersets for your like, kind of more compound movements. And then once you've gotten those out of the way in the workout, you then for whatever isolation stuff you have, you can do drop sets to get the most, the most bang for your buck out of that workout. And then I think that the last thing I'll touch on with, with supersets is that when I choose. So actually I'm going to disagree with Danny Boy just a little bit here when I'm choosing antagonistic supersets for the purposes of saving time. There's three things that I ultimately consider. One is that the, the muscles have to be, they don't have to be antagonists, but they can't interfere with each other. So I can't do a squat to a leg extension because clearly that squat is going to interfere with my ability to do as much of on the leg extension as possible. However, like, let's say I superset leg extensions and, and lateral raises. Theoretically, my quads burning is not going to affect my deltoids ability to produce force. Right. And then my second consideration is that the exercises themselves, regardless of muscle, cannot interfere with each other. So I would not. And this is the part that I disagree with Dandy Boy. And it's not a hard disagree. But generally speaking, I wouldn't want to do something like an RDL into even like a bicep curl just because after a set of rdls, man, I feel like I get. I just got hit by a car. And I don't want to do anything, let alone try to produce as much force in my biceps as I can. So I don't want the muscles to interfere with each other. And then I don't want the exercises themselves to interfere with each other either. And then the last thing is just pragmatics. Like, I, I don't, I wouldn't say, okay, you're going to do incline bench press and assisted pull ups if the assisted pull up machine is on the opposite side of the gym as your, your incline benches or something like that. So yeah, generally speaking, those are the three things that I consider. Muscles can interfere with each other, exercises can interfere with each other, and you just want the equipment to be semi close to each other. But ultimately, I think supersets are a really good way of, of saving a lot of time in the gym for sure. All right. Anything else you want to talk about with intensity techniques or anything else?

Of course, you said I was wrong, so I have to push back naturally. You had to see that coming, you know, for sure.

Walls are up. Walls are up.

So, so guess what? Here's my one question to you, please. You would never do an RDL or never do a squat if you were trying to save time. Cause then that means that you would waste time, quote, unquote, waste time rather than do another exercise.

So I, if, if, if the goal is truly. No, this is a genuine question. If the goal was actually saving time. No, I probably would not program someone's squats or rdls, because you have to warm up for like hours to do both of those exercises, like, and get like maximal results from each set. Right. Like outside of the superset thing, I probably just wouldn't program those for like someone who's like truly strapped for time. But I also, Yeah, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I just wouldn't want to do, have someone do any exercise after doing something like really heavily fatiguing like an RDL or something like that. No, I don't, I don't truly think it's gonna make a huge difference, but just me and my preferences. I wouldn't want to do something like that.

Yeah, that's, that's kind of what I was getting at. Like, if somebody's doing an RDL already, which most people will, even if they're trying to save time, like include those like RDL squats and so on, I don't think it needs to take like that long. I'll start with the, I'll start with the leg curl. Like a hamstring curl and then go into an rdl, usually use less load there, warm up with like one set, and then go straight into that RDL set and then superset it with something that's easier. Like, that's if the person wants to. I agree with you. If you wanted to maximally save time, you probably wouldn't even include them. Like, they're not. There's not enough of a benefit if the person's truly just strapped for time like crazy and you're trying to get the most bang for your buck, period. But if they are including them, I think doing something like that, like a super easy exercise, doesn't have enough of a downside to, like, just spend that time resting, if that makes sense.

I couldn't.

I think we're on the same page.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's what I was kind of. I really don't think pushback RDLs or squats are gonna. With your, like, calf raises afterwards or anything like. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

Sweet.

All right. Yeah, this one's not gonna. This, this conversation's not gonna go long at all. We're one point in. Okay, so real quick, we'll just touch on. As far we moved away from intensity techniques, that's kind of going to be your biggest umbrella for time saving in the gym, for sure. But this next one is also a really good tool for individuals who are looking to maximize their results in the gym in the shortest period of time. Right. And that's just simply using lower volumes. Right, that's simply just using the lower end of the range for what we consider effective for a muscle group. Right. So Instead of doing 20 sets for your chest in a week, you're doing eight to 10 sets in a week for. For your chest or something like that. Yeah. You want to touch on the effectiveness in general of lower volumes.

Yeah. So I think what's important to understand is that generally speaking, what we know about the dose response relationship is that it's like upward, and then the slope becomes a little less, and then it sort of tapers off and then probably is flat for a whole while. So what that means is that the initial sets that you do is getting you most of the gains. So probably up to about 8 or so is where you're getting most of the gains. And then you probably get a bit more worth it more, but maybe not for someone that's strapped for time worth it, and then it ends up probably tapering off close to, you know, with some new studies maybe, you know, in the in the high 20s now, but essentially up to eight sets is probably where you're getting the most bang for your buck per set. And then up to that middle, you know, 15 to 20 range, you're still probably getting a little bit more benefit depending on the person, but you're getting a lot less benefit per set. So if you're trying to save time, you definitely want to stay on the lower end of volume. So that way you can get the most bang for your buck or the most stimulus per set. So what that would mostly look like is most of your exercises or most of your muscle groups are going to get anywhere between, I'd say, four to six or maybe four to eight sets per week, depending on whether that muscle group is involved in a whole lot of stuff and so on. So I think working out two to three times per week for 30 to 45 minute sessions, hitting each muscle group about four to eight sets per muscle group per week is like a pretty good minimalist recommendation where you can be.

Sure that you're still growing on average, producing enough stimulus to, to cause your muscles to grow. Again, not maximally, but that's not what we're after here. We're after maximal time efficiency. Right. And I think that's important to note because we often talk about, and we often talk about how you've got to be doing 10 to 20 sets to, to, to grow your muscles as much as possible. Right. But we, we often don't hear people talk about how these people in these studies that comparing low volumes to high volumes are still growing muscle, a considerable amount of muscle, just not as much as the individuals that are in higher volume groups on average. Right. So if you're someone who's pressed for time and you're just looking to build, you know, as much muscle as you can in that shorter period of time, you still can build a substantial amount of muscle using only like, as low as, like 4, as low as 3 in one study you pointed out, but as low as like four to eight sets per week for a muscle group. Right. And I, I think it's important to note that since we're talking about time saving, that assumes adequate rest between sets, that assumes that you're taking about 90 to 120 seconds between exercises to allow for the most stimulation that you can per set. Right. So if you are someone that's trying to use lower volumes and save time, it's probably worth resting a little bit longer on average. Now this is a topic that I'm not sure, I don't know the Answer to. I don't know if you're saving more time by doing eight sets and resting adequately between sets or doing like something like 12 sets, but resting very short periods in between. In between each subsequent set. I don't know which one of those would save more time. That's something that you would have to experiment with on your own. But yeah, I thought that was worth mentioning.

Yeah, I think the time saving thing, I lean strongly toward longer rest periods and the reason why I lean strongly toward longer rest periods is not because I think there might be a difference over time, but I think if you're doing, and you probably are, if you're trying to save time, super sets, then you will and can easily wait those longer periods because of the fact that you're hitting a different muscle group during your rest. So I think for a person trying to save time, they can definitely veer on the longer end of things because of the fact that probably most of their program is going to be some sort of superset.

Yeah. All right, beautiful. So use lower volumes. That ain't bad. Okay. And then that's all the conventional stuff. So only two topics that took us four hours to cover. Intensity techniques like BFR drop sets, myorep supersets, really great options, as well as just simply using lower volumes in the gym and still knowing that you're, you're, you're producing enough stimulus to grow.

I think one thing, one thing to point out is just how much you can get. So I think based on the analyses that many of them have untrained individuals, so it's a little harder to say. But still, even with the limited trained studies that we have, it seems like you can get 60 to 80% of the gains from those lower end of volume. So it's not like you're missing out on a ton. So I think I wanted to underline that a little bit more that even though it's not optimal, optimal means, you know, close to a hundred percent. If you're getting 80% of the gains from doing half the work, then, you know, one might even argue that you're winning, quote, unquote, in terms of at least bang for your buck.

For sure.

So, yeah, just wanted to put some.

Numbers on that beautiful point. And thank you for doing so because I, I think that's incredibly important. And I think Dr. Pack, shout out, he's the first person I ever heard say this. He's like suboptimal can mean 98%. Right. So I think that with how often the word optimal gets thrown around in this field, like it is important to note that suboptimal does not mean bad. Okay. So yeah, let's touch on some, let's touch on some less conventional stuff that we can do to, to save time in the gym. Starting with kind of the really, really obvious one which is just using lower rep ranges on average. Right. Probably not going to save you a ton of time in general, but maybe spending the majority of your time in the gym in that 6 to 8 rep range as opposed to that, you know, 10 to 30 rep range. Again, not a ton of time saved. But if you're someone with three kids and, and, and a full time job, every second that you can save in the gym obviously helps. So I think that, I think that simply using a lower rep range on average can net you at least some time saved. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, I think, I think this ties in well with the next point we have here too where you can kind of like use a lower rep range because of the fact that one, you can probably get away with being a little bit further away from failure. And that has been shown a couple of times and it'll, it'll get you more, more stimulus while being further away from failure and save you a bit of time. But what I think also makes sense is that you don't really need to warm up if you use higher rep ranges. So I think a really good example is if you go into the gym and you wanted to do let's say 2:25 for sets of seven or five or so, you can go in there and put a plate on, maybe do one warmup with a 25, whatever, then put a plate on, do like 25 reps. So an actual set, a stimulative set and then put a 25 on and then do a stimulative set of like 12. So that's your second set and then go and do two 25 for your five and that's your third set and then you're done. You don't even need to actually do three work sets at the 225. You save time by not having to warm up. And then you've also benefited from the fact that you're at the lower rep range, you know, at the end of it. So I think sort of best of both worlds is don't warm up, do a high rep set, which is your warmup, and then do your next warmup set as just another high ish rep set and then do your work set at the lower rep range and then you've you've covered a lot of your bases and then bonus, if you, you know, superset that with something else, you're golden.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think the, probably do the same thing with the row. Start at the lower weight, do a high rep set paired with the bench press and then add a bit more weight to each one and then.

Perfect. Yeah, I think it's a, I think it's a really good point. Like you what you walk into the gym, you can walk like if you're someone who can squat 225 for three sets of five to eight, 135 is your warmup. So you walk up to a bar, you can walk up to a 135 barbell cold. Again, you don't have to do this, but you probably can get away with it. You walk up to a 135 pound barbell, cold, do a set of 25, you're freaking gassed and, and your quads are screaming at you, you're warmed up. Congratulations. Throw 225 on there. You like again you can do the, the 185 if you wanted to do like I said, a 12 or something. But you're again you could probably get away with just throwing 2:25 on there and doing two more sets of the five to six reps. Right. So I think that that's a really good one, a really non conventional one that I hadn't thought of. So those are great point man. All right. Another non conventional way of saving time. And this one by the way, all of the, none of these are empirical in any way. There's obviously no studies looking at time saved by doing a warmup set and then going into heavier sets. So just keep, you know, keep that in mind when we're talking about. This is a lot of anecdote here, but lengthened partials or lengthened based exercises in general as a way of saving time. Thoughts?

Yeah. So first of all, I have thoughts in your previous statement. Like sometimes people say like there's no studies on, on something or it's anecdotal. Like if you, if a bunch of people do something and it doesn' actually need to be measured in any sort of weaken, we can't tell unless we measure it kind of way, then that's really good evidence. Right. Like if I say that it takes less time to do a work set than it does to do three warm up sets and then three work sets, then I don't think we need like evidence to show that it's like time saving and Sometimes people like, oh, like, where's the, you know, evidence?

Where's the p mid?

Like, yeah, where's the P mid?

So, so this is, this is not.

I just wanted to. Because you reminded me of it when you said that. I just wanted to sort of underline the fact that some things are just kind of self evident if you. On the opposite side of things. Many times people, things. Think things that are. Think things are self evident when they clearly are not. Like they did something, they're like, I grew so well. So obviously you're freaking wrong. And they don't obviously have a clone of themselves that did the opposite thing. And they don't even have any ability to discern whether they grew or not in that short period of time and so on. But I digress. What was your question?

What do you think about length of partials?

Yeah, so before. So before we go into length and partials, I think just pointing out that you may be able to get more bang for your buck from just exercises that target the length and position more. So there was a study by, I think they're Mayow and colleagues. I still don't know how to pronounce their name. We should probably find this out. But they compared seated hamstring curls to lying hamstring curls and found that seated hamstring curls produced more growth per set. So those weren't partials. But that was biasing the hamstring to the lengthened position because it crosses the knee and the hip. So if you put it into hip flexion, then you're getting more of a stretch in your hamstring. So the same was true for the tricep, where overhead tricep extensions produce more growth than regular, you know, tricep extensions with your arms at your side. So if you are trying to maximize growth, I'd probably say to do both. But if you were trying to maximize time or maximize stimulus per unit of time, then I think biasing more of your exercises to the length and position for most muscle groups is probably a good idea. So I think for many muscles that's easy to do with just a standard exercise, but for some muscles that's not true, especially depending on your equipment. So a lot of back exercises are hardest at the end. So doing partials for back exercises I think is a good idea. So like a partial row, if you don't have equipment that allows you to target that lengthened position or a partial, honestly a partial leg extension, a lot of people don't have equipment that allows them to target the rec fem and the. I mean, I guess it's not the most lengthened, but let's not digress too much there. What's another one? A lot of. If you don't have cables, then a partial lateral raise might be a good idea. So in my opinion, at least as it currently stands, there's not a whole lot of downside to doing the partial reps. So integrating them in makes a whole lot of sense. But if an exercise is already by far the hardest in a lengthened position, you could probably just do that exercise with the full range of motion. You're probably not going to miss out on much. So I like to leave that partial work to the muscles that are the most conducive to that based on the equipment available and get the most sort of bang for your buck per set that way.

Yeah, I think that. So like generally speaking, the, the protocols that they use for these lengthened partial studies, they're using like 1/3 to 2/3 the range of motion in the lengthened position. Right. So you would be doing a bicep clip like this. Right. As opposed to like this. Right. And I didn't, I. This is never something I even thought about until I started experimenting with LinkedIn partials myself. I started noticing like, cause I record a lot of my sets and I post them on Instagram and I started noticing that, oh, a lot of these sets are now like 30 seconds long instead of like a minute and five seconds long. Like it was like, it was almost like shocking how much time I was cutting off of my sets by doing the same number of reps. But it makes sense if you think about it because you're cutting up to, to like 66% of the range of motion out. So it can save you a considerable amount of time. Now when talking about like cuz we're talking about lengthened exercises in general as giving you more bang for your buck because those studies show more growth with exercises that are using the length of position. Right. So something like an overhead tricep extension led to more growth in the same number of sets than a non lengthened tricep extension. Right. But there are also, just outside of lengthened exercises, there are exercises in general that give you more bang for your buck than, than others. Right. So a good example here is a bench press, like a dumbbell bench press or something like that is probably better than a dumb like a cable fly or a pec deck machine or something like that because you are now hitting not only your chest but your triceps as well. So you're stimulating that both two muscles at once as opposed to, as opposed to just your chest for like an isolation movement. Or you could, you could also compare it to like something like a walking lunge compared to a leg extension or something like that. Not a perfect analog, but still you're working your quads and your glutes simultaneously as opposed to just your quads. Right. So just in general picking exercises that are biased, the lengthened position or using lengthened partials, or just in general using exercises that kind of stimulate multiple muscles at once can be a really good idea. Like, so again, walking lunges can hit your glutes really well and your quads really well as opposed to doing something like a leg extension with a, a hip thrust or something like that, if that makes sense. You got anything else you want to add there?

Yeah, I think that's perfect. The only thing I would add to that is that sometimes people try to pack in way too many high bang for their buck exercises and quality ends up dropping off. I think what people might benefit from is having like a few of those exercises in for sure because, you know, it's time saving and it makes sense for antagonist supersets, all that kind of stuff. But also, don't be afraid to pair three exercises together. So let's say you were doing a bunch of easy isolation exercises you could very well do. Like, let's say you really cared about developing the upper chest and you wanted to make sure that you were getting that stimulation and you didn't feel like a regular bench was giving that to you. You could do an upper chest fly with like a lateral raise to a bicep curl and save a whole lot of time and not have any overly taxing exercises included there. So just so people aren't like, oh, crap, I need to make sure that like all my exercises are compounds and stuff like that. Just make sure the session makes sense both real estate wise and, you know, fatigue wise with exercises together and whatnot. So, yep, all good points.

Yeah, Yeah. I just want. And just to clarify what, what Danny boy means, he's basically talking about cluster sets, which are another form of intensity techniques. I just want to clarify that when he said do an upper pec fly to a bicep curl to a lateral raise, he meant like do, because do like finish your upper pec flies, do your bicep curls, then do your like as if you're super setting each of them together. The only reason I feel the need to say that is because you do see a lot of people do exercises like this where they're doing like a bicep curl to an overhead press and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. That's the only reason I wanted to clarify that is because that's just. That's not what we mean. We mean basically a cluster set of multiple exercises back to back to back. Instead of, you know, pseudo exercises that you would see someone like Joel Seidman doing or something like that.

Yeah. I thought Johnson fired roasted. I thought you meant it would have been even funnier if you were like opposite sides. You have like a cable on one side and a bicep curl on the other side and just be.

I can't even, I can't even do that as a joke like to, to myself. Okay. Okay. Beautiful. This episode's about saving time, right? The last two things here are. One of them is extremely obvious. The other one is not because Danny boy came up with it, but just using pin loaded machines. They just, just in general, we kind of touched on this for the, in the last episode that we did. Basically, like, it's just a good way of saving time in general. You don't have to go through the, the time of loading plates onto a barbell or onto a Smith machine or even on a plate loaded machine or something like that. That. So that's just another example. Like if you have access to two machines that are identical, but one's plate loaded and one's pin loaded, choose the pin loaded one if you're strapped for time. All right, this last point before we, before we wrap up leaving the super easy stuff for home, why don't you tell us what you mean by that?

Yeah, so I think I've, I've really liked doing this and clients have really liked this where, you know, you go to the gym, you do all the stuff that you need to do in the gym and do that in the most efficient way possible and then leave the super easy stuff that you can do kind of passively while like watching TV or in between, like laundry loads and stuff like that. So exercises like lateral raises, if you have some light dumbbells at home, curls, calf raises on stairs, especially unilateral cab raises. I don't know if I'm like super weak in my calves or something like that. But even with like no load, a single leg calf raise for like a high rep number like 25 or so is like really stimulative, especially with like a really controlled eccentric. So if you have a staircase, if you have light dumbbells, there's tons of things that you can do and leave for home sort of passively. So I have some clients like have in gym and then on certain days, and it's even flexible kind of a floating amount of exercises that they could just do at home whenever they, they feel they have the time. So I think cab raises, lateral raises, bicep curls, any sort of like light, like, like a reverse lateral raise. What's that called? Like a reverse fly. Definitely super light. Tons of exercises where if you feel like you have the equipment, just leave it for home and just do it while you have some free time. And I've really enjoyed that. Like sometimes also just the fatigue, especially if you're doing a whole lot of supersets, you're in the gym and you're just like, all right, I want to get out of here. Having that option of doing it at home is also fairly useful. So you can even plan it for the gym and then if for whatever reason something comes up or you just aren't feeling it, you can do it.

At home as well.

So.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's, I think that's really beautifully put. Like, if, even if you just have like a 10 pound dumbbell laying around and these don't have to be dumbbells, like, you probably have something in your house that's relatively ergonomic. Like, it's easy for you to like hold, that weighs around 10 pounds. Right. But even if you don't, like, if you have no equipment at home. Right. And I know very few people who don't have a straggling pair of dumbbells at home. It's a weird, it's a weird piece of gym equipment that you just see in people's homes all the time. But even if you have no equipment at home, like you can if you're, if you're someone who's interested, and generally speaking, if you're trying to maximize time, you're probably not hitting abs and calves very often. But those are two muscle groups that you can take out of the gym and do at home in a theoretically just as a stimulating way with virtually no equipment at all. Right. So things like sit ups, lying leg raises, like Danny Boy said, stair calf races, especially unilaterally. Yeah. It's an incredible way of saving time. All right, man.

Anything else you want to add a good point? Getting a gym at home is probably a huge time saver. Like packing up for the gym, going to the gym.

How did we not think about this until right now?

That's crazy.

I'm like, I love the home I'm like the home gym guy. Like, I love home gym so much. How did we not think about this? He has a beautiful point. All right, we're starting the podcast over.

That's it. We have to rewind the podcast, make this our first point.

Yeah, that's beautiful. Do you want to touch on that real quickly? Like, anything else you want to add to that?

I think you're probably the home gym guy, so I think you might have, like, some things ready to rattle off. But yeah, I think it could save you, honestly, money and time and allow you a lot more flexibility in terms of just like, being able to. A lot of the time people can't go to the gym is like, they have children in the house and they just obviously don't want to leave their kids and have, like, you know, family time and stuff like that. You could put your kid in, like, one of those bouncers and get some, get some sets in and whatnot. So I think it's really clutch, honestly. Just like a pair of both bow flex or new, new bell dumbbells can go up super, super long way. And it doesn't even need to be like a whole gym setup. It could literally be like just the dumbbells, honestly, could go a super, super long way. But if you really want it to add another, you know, pieces, another few pieces of equipment, you definitely could in like a garage or something like that. But I have a decent amount of clients that just had dumbbells at home and like, some, some bands which we never used. Yeah, they got them before our unit, you know, unity and whatnot. Of course they didn't go the ways. Yeah, just they can be useful. Calm down, Kaz. No, I'm kidding.

Yeah, to, to, to your point about just home gyms in general, like, this is gonna sound really silly and has nothing to do with saving time, but you brought up, like, having your kid there and like your toddler watching you work out. Like, my, my father worked work, worked out at home, and because he did that, that set an example for me to, to work out. And, and so that, that was a, it was a big deal for me. And, and so I, I, I think that working out at home not only saves time, especially if kids are involved, it sets a good example. It sets a good example for your children that taking care of your health is important. Not for, obviously. Okay, stupid sappy stuff aside, get that outta here. That's not, that's not what we're talking about. If, if you, if you are looking to save as much time as you can. And by buying a home gym, like starting a home gym. Here's what I think you should consider. Danny boy was right. Start with a pair of adjustable dumbbells. If you, if you really don't. If you're strapped for money, just start with a pair of dumbbells of some kind. And. But you can also buy really, really cheap adjustable dumbbells. But if you're. But if so, that's. That's number one. If you have a pair of adjustable dumbbells at home that go from 5 to 80 pounds or even 5 to 50 pounds, whatever it may be, right? Because there's a bunch of options out there. You have just now covered 90% of all of the things that you need to do at home to, To. To literally maximally grow your muscles, right? There's very few muscles you cannot hit very effectively with a pair of adjustable dumbbells. Second thing to consider buying is an adjustable bench. You have those two things. You're golden. You are. You're set. You can, you can maximally stimulate almost all of your muscles, essentially. And then the third thing, some sort of cable stack, a tonal, if you can afford it, is a, Is a. Is a great option, but just some sort of cable thing that allows you to then manipulate gravity to a certain extent, which is a really great thing. You have those three things. You no longer need a gym membership. Congratulations. So, yeah, and that is, that is true, bro. Like, that is a huge time saver, and I cannot believe that we did not think about that. So it was a really good idea on you. A really good, good, good, good point on you for bringing that up. That's all I have to say about home gym stuff. So I think we can now officially wrap up.

Yeah.

All right. So time savers for, for our, for our soccer parents out there, right? Your best, your best time savers are definitely going to be things like intensity techniques where you're doing antagonistic super sets for your big compound lifts and, like, drop sets or something of the like for your more isolation type movements, Right? And then, of course, another big, big heavy hitter here is just simply using lower volumes and knowing that you're sacrificing a little bit of growth but saving a metric ton of time. Right? And then I would say that one that probably did actually belong in the conventional category is exercise selection. So choosing exercises that are not only maximally stimulative to a bunch of muscles, but also kind of bias most of your exercises to a more lengthened, focused portion of the exercise, like things like lengthened partials or just exercises in general that tax the lengthened partial, like seated or the lengthened position of an exercise, like seated hamstring curls or overhead tricep extensions. Right. And then of course, you can do things like using lower rep ranges on averages or, or on average and, and using kind of lighter sets as warmup sets is another option. And then of course, things like pin loaded machines, leaving super easy stuff for home, or just buying a home gym in general. All of these are really, really good ways of saving you time while not sacrificing very much at all on the side of growth. All right, anything else you want to say before we wrap?

Perfecto.

Beautiful. All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to this drawn out podcast about trying to save time in the gym. Of course, as always, if you, if you have anything that we didn't cover or that you think we should cover or you want to hear us cover in the future, please feel free to reach out to us at Built with Science on Instagram. And as always, thank you for listening. Peace.