T Nation: 5 Ways You're Wasting Time in the Gym

If you're anything like me, you love lifting weights. It’s the best part of your day. There’s no finer feeling than the blood coursing through your veins, no finer sound than metal clanking against the floor. But when your life starts to revolve around three-hour marathon gym sessions, you’re no longer getting the most out of your training.

Though your intentions are pure when it comes to these all-day exercise affairs, your results are suffering. You see, building muscle depends on a delicate hormonal balance. Anabolic, or muscle-building, hormones are released at the onset of training, and catabolic, or muscle-wasting, hormones are released around 40 minutes in. Spend much more than an hour pumping iron, and you start tipping the scale in the wrong direction.

It’s easy to fall into this trap. We’ve all been there. One minute you’re warming up; the next you’re only halfway through your workout, it’s two hours later, and you’re late for dinner. Through a combination of improper warm-up, suboptimal exercise selection, and idle rest periods, you’ve managed to turn what should have been a gym quickie into some sort of tantric chest and triceps experience.

With a little extra attention to detail, though, you can get back to building serious muscle without the full-time plus overtime commitment. In my latest T Nation article, I chronicle 5 Ways You're Wasting Time in the Gym -- and what to do about them. Read it here:

>>https://www.t-nation.com/training/5-ways-youre-wasting-time-in-the-gym<<