If you don’t have the time, or inclination, to spend a full hour in the gym lifting set after set of weights to try and tone or harden your physique, I have some good news for you. If you’ve heard that strength training is important to stave off age-related muscle and strength losses but increased work and/or family demands make it hard to commit large blocks of time to exercise, you will be thrilled to hear what you can accomplish in as little as 13 minutes.
A little equals a lot
In 2019 a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise by Brad Schoenfeld and others found that one set “to failure” of exercise worked the same as three or five such sets, even in experienced lifters (one to four-plus years of consistent lifting). Amazing!
The catch, of course, is in that term “to failure.” Normally, a set of an exercise involves doing a certain number of repetitions, like eight to 12, after which we stop to rest before doing another set. However, the effect of that set will be determined by how much effort you put forth by the end. Muscle strength, we are finding, responds not so much to the number of sets as to the quality of effort. So that if a set of exercise is not just stopped at an arbitrary number but continued until no more complete repetitions can be done (“to failure,” in other words), nothing more is needed to stimulate that muscle to grow in strength and endurance.
Now it has been well known for more than 25 years that just one such set is needed per exercise for beginners to weight training. For example, in 1998 Carpinelli and Otto did a review of 37 studies in the periodical Sports Medicine comparing one work set to two, three or more work sets of the same exercise. Bottom line: In 35 of the 37 studies there was no significant difference in strength with a single set versus multiple sets. But those studies were in beginners whose muscles are new to lifting and tend to respond dynamically to any amount of unfamiliar activity. What about those of us who have been lifting for a while? Is it necessary to add more sets and effort to keep improving past the beginner’s stage? Glad you asked.
New research with experienced exercisers
So the new study decided to test how much weight training is required to produce results in already consistent weightlifters. They recruited 45 male lifters who had been lifting weights at least three times a week consistently for a minimum of one year, though many had lifted for up to four years or more. After testing the men’s current strength, muscular endurance and size, they randomly assigned them to one of three supervised weight training routines.
The general program was simple: just seven common exercises including the leg press, bench press, pulldown, overhead press, row and a couple of other leg exercises. A set for any of these exercises had to be done until no more repetitions could be performed, usually about eight to 12. However, the “dose” that each group got was significantly different. One group was asked to perform five sets of each exercise, with 90 seconds rest in between. Their total gym time was around 70 minutes. The second group was asked to complete the usual three sets of each exercise, for a total workout time of about 40 minutes. Finally, the third group had to do just the one hard set of each move, meaning they were done in just 13 minutes.
The results
After two months, all the volunteers returned to the lab for repeat muscle testing and measurements. First off, all of the young men were stronger, revealing that even very experienced lifters can continue to gain strength with continued hard training. But way more beguiling was the fact that the strength improvements were essentially the same, no matter how many, or how few, sets the men had completed. The subjects who stopped after one set gained as much strength as those who had done three or five sets.
Similarly, the men’s muscular endurance was equivalent, measured by how many reps they could get with a light weight in the bench press. Only the size of their muscles showed a slight difference, undoubtedly from the increased swelling that accompanies increased muscle damage from a greater volume of work in the multiple sets groups. That this wasn’t much actual contractile tissue growth is likely since it contributed nothing to the muscle’s strength, it was just a little extra swelling.
Express workouts
Contrary to the authors’ initial hypothesis, gains in muscular fitness were strikingly similar across conditions. Indeed, the results indicate that one set, as long as it is done “to failure,” is the only prerequisite to making this kind of time-efficient strength training work. In fact, the stimulus of a mere 13-minute workout, done in this manner, has all the power to create increased muscular might and endurance as one taking five times as long.
Utilizing a simple routine of 5-8 basic exercises to cover all the major muscle groups, you can get most of the benefits of resistance exercise in less than a fourth of the typical lunch hour. If building strength and muscular fitness is something you need to do but you haven’t felt you could spare the time, I encourage you to give these brief, high-effort routines a try. You’ll be glad you did.
Thomas Morrison is a fitness coordinator at the Bradley Wellness Center.