What's The Right Amount of Weight Training?

I recently heard a weightlifting coach say that overtraining doesn’t exist. That’s a very broad statement to make. I know for a fact that overtraining exists because I was a victim of it. I overtrained for many years, believing the more you trained, the more progress you would make. I was wrong, and I suffered a severe case of tendonitis because of it.

And just as bad, I probably didn’t make as much progress as I would have had common sense guided my training.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying you shouldn’t train hard. I’m all for training hard, but not to the point where you’re risking injury. The key is to know when enough is enough.

How do you know when that is? The answer won’t be the same for every lifter.

DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE

One of the biggest mistakes I see lifting coaches make is giving all of their athletes the same program without taking into account that each individual is vastly different. While a high-volume program may work for some, it will not work for everyone. There are some, like myself, who respond better to shorter, more intense workouts with heavier weights. But just because it works for me doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. Each program has to be tailored to fit the individual.

If you’re a weightlifter, you have probably heard about the famous Bulgarian training system from the 1980s and 1990s. They often had up to five or six training sessions a day. What people forget is that not all Bulgarian lifters used this system. In fact, it was probably only 1 or 2% that did. This small percentage of lifters were highly gifted elite athletes whose only job was to lift weights, and it’s no secret that they were using PEDs. Trust me, it’s not for you, so put it out of your mind.

Another thing that tends to get overlooked by some coaches is that no one is built the same. We all have different body types, and therefore we cant all have the same exact technique. Years ago, I had a training partner who had great upper-body flexibility but poor lower-body flexibility.

I was the opposite. I had great lower-body flexibility, but poor upper-body flexibility. It was simply a matter of how we were built. I used to joke with him that if we could combine his upper body with my lower body, we would make one heck of a weightlifter.

MANY THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN DESIGNING A PROGRAM

As a personal trainer, I need to consider many factors and variables before designing a program that fits my client’s particular situation. There are also many questions I need to ask them before we get started.

#1 — What are your goals, and what are you looking to achieve? Not everyone wants to compete. My son is a good example of this. He competed about 7 or 8 times, but it just wasn’t something he wanted to continue. He needed more training to stay competitive, but being somewhat injury-prone, the intense training was taking a toll on his body. He continues to train as an Olympic lifter, but he only competes against himself, and he gets great enjoyment from it. He has learned from experience what the correct amount of training for him is.

# 2 — What is your lifestyle? What do you do for a living? Does your job require long hours, traveling, or odd hours? Is it a physical job? Maybe you’re a student. Are you married, have children, have a house to maintain? No two people have the exact same lifestyle, and all the questions above affect how much or how little time is left over for training.

I am currently training a single young man who lives in an apartment. Since he has no family obligations and no house to maintain, he has more free time to devote to training, or does he? He has a job that requires a lot of traveling and long hours (sometimes 70 hours a week). The job can also be very physical at times.

But it’s a good job that pays him handsomely, so the job obviously takes priority over his weightlifting. It would be foolish of me to expect him to do the same training routine as someone who works 40 hours a week and sits behind a desk. I have him training three times a week, 45-minute sessions, and he has made great progress despite his hectic work schedule. Could he do better if he weren’t working 70 hours a week and had more time to devote to training? I’m sure he could, but right now that’s not a possibility for him.

# 3 — How important is training to you? How much time do you want to devote to this? This goes back to question # 1. Is your goal to reach the Olympics? If so, be prepared to make many sacrifices and spend a lot of your time training. For most people, the Olympics is not the goal. Maybe your goal is to qualify for the Nationals, or to qualify and get a medal. That’s still a fairly lofty goal, and it will still require sacrifices and a great deal of time spent training. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Some people have a God-given gift for weightlifting, and it comes to them fairly easily.

I have trained with people like this, and while I worked every bit as hard as they did, I didn’t achieve the same results. Hard work will only take you so far. You do need to have some degree of natural ability. I had some, but not enough to qualify for the Nationals.

WHAT IS YOUR GOAL?

Maybe you, like most people, just want to get in better shape, gain some strength and muscle, and feel better about yourself, but you have no desire to spend hours and hours at the gym. I have good news for you. You don’t need to. I train roughly 2 1/2 hours a week, and the results are great. I can still deadlift over 500 lbs and front squat over 300 lbs at 64 years old.

But can you be competitive with only 2 1/2 hours of training a week? Yes, you can, if you take it seriously. That means not skipping workouts and not letting yourself get distracted. Those 2 1/2 hours belong to you! Weightlifting is serious business. You need to stay 100% focused. Not doing so can lead to serious injury. This means no cell phones and no Tomfoolery. You need 100% concentration. Workout hard for 45 to 60 minutes, three times a week, and I guarantee you’ll see results.

My wife’s main sport is pickleball. A couple of years ago, she told me she wanted to start lifting again to get stronger, but she didn’t want to spend much time on it. She had competed in some powerlifting meets about 15 years ago, so she already knew how to deadlift and squat properly. I have her do two 45-minute sessions per week, and she’s up to 122 kilos/270 lbs on the deadlift and 102 kilos/225 lbs on the squat at 59 years old.

It’s not only overtraining that you need to be careful of; it’s boredom. Whether you choose weightlifting as your sport to compete in or you choose it as your main form of exercise, it should be enjoyable, at least to some extent. Some people enjoy training almost every day and spending hours at the gym, but most don’t. I enjoy weightlifting, and I always have, but I never wanted it to be my main focus in life. I have a variety of other interests I like to spend time on, and I don’t want to spend so much time on weightlifting that it becomes drudgery.

The most common excuse I hear from people who say they would like to do some weight training is that they just don’t have the time. Well, it’s like anything else in life. If it’s important enough to you, you will find the time to do it. I wrote a book a few years ago titled No Nonsense Old School Weight Training, with the subtitle (A Guide For People With Limited Time). You can find the book on Amazon.

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Mark Morthier is the host of Yesterday’s Sports, a podcast dedicated to reliving memorable sports moments from his childhood days and beyond. He grew up in New Jersey just across from New York City, so many of his episodes revolve around the great sport’s teams of the 70s for the New York area.

He is also an author of No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training (Second Edition): A Guide for People with Limited Time and Running Wild: (Growing Up in the 1970s)