Worth it to go to gym 1 day / week?

[KingstonU]

I have been making attempts to get back in to the gym. However I have been really struggling to find the time or place it high enough on my list of priorities to go the usual 3 days / week, which I assume is the minimum required to get some gains.

My attempts thus far are resulting in 1 day per week. I do a 45-60 min workout of 5x5 sets/reps.

The question is, if I an can only go 1 day per week, is it even worth it? Am I getting anything, any benefits at all out of this?

Or should I not bother until I can commit to 3 days per week?

Thanks

 

[iluvdeal]

Something is better than nothing. There are people on bodybuilding routines where they hit a muscle group every 7 days. Assuming you'll be doing a full body workout, you're basically doing the same. While not optimal, you should be able to progressively increase your strength on a once a week workout.

 

[Zivic]

I have been making attempts to get back in to the gym. However I have been really struggling to find the time or place it high enough on my list of priorities to go the usual 3 days / week, which I assume is the minimum required to get some gains.

My attempts thus far are resulting in 1 day per week. I do a 45-60 min workout of 5x5 sets/reps.

The question is, if I an can only go 1 day per week, is it even worth it? Am I getting anything, any benefits at all out of this?

Or should I not bother until I can commit to 3 days per week?

Thanks

absolutely go 1 day if that's all you really can make it. I train 5-7 times a week all year round and I doubt in the summer months there is anyone busier than I am. It's all about your priorities. 1 day a week might turn into 2, which might turn into 3+.... though zero days a week rarely turns into anything

 

[edro]

Hell yeah it's worth it.
You can do one hell of a full body workout, but I would extend it to 90min.
I would skip cardio and focus on 100% weights though. (and body weight exercises)

 

[z1ggy]

Obviously it's worth it. If you do 5x5 of all major compounds, and are eating very strict, you can still make gains. They will just be a bit slower (depending on genetics).

 

[bradley]

absolutely go 1 day if that's all you really can make it. I train 5-7 times a week all year round and I doubt in the summer months there is anyone busier than I am. It's all about your priorities. 1 day a week might turn into 2, which might turn into 3+.... though zero days a week rarely turns into anything

Wow, you're even more addicted than me. Although I did lift during the summer 7 days a week 2.5 hours a day for three months. Then I sorta got burnt out and went back to 4-5x a week.

Yeah lifting one time a week is good. And then work towards at least 2-3x time weekly. I would do some stretching too during the week. Otherwise You might experience major doms from just 1x a week of heavy lifting.

 

[MongGrel]

You can work out every day without going near a gym without any weights involved, if you are inclined.

Marine Corps boot camp and things along those lines require neither.

It's more a matter of if you want to work out than anything.

Pull ups, push ups, sit ups, running, bends and motherf*ckers, etc are more than enough, it's a matter if if you're inclined to do it.

And no, I do not work out a lot myself these days.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Something is better than nothing. There are people on bodybuilding routines where they hit a muscle group every 7 days. Assuming you'll be doing a full body workout, you're basically doing the same. While not optimal, you should be able to progressively increase your strength on a once a week workout.

This. Each week, put the most important lifts are your first exercises because on a full body workout, typically the last lifts don't have the energy and intensity that the first lifts do. So if you legs are lagging, do those first.

If you are doing 5x5, I highly recommend you start with a weight where you could do 5 x 8 so that all 5 are done in perfect form and that you are not wiped out after. Also, you may want to consider 3 x 5 (3 sets of 5) as if you have not lifted in a while, you will recruit many motor units initially with just that.

 

[ArchAngel777]

You can work out every day without going near a gym without any weights involved, if you are inclined.

Marine Corps boot camp and things along those lines require neither.

It's more a matter of if you want to work out than anything.

Pull ups, push ups, sit ups, running, bends and motherf*ckers, etc are more than enough, it's a matter if if you're inclined to do it.

And no, I do not work out a lot myself these days.

This is also true. Not a bad idea to do both. I typically do both.

 

[SP33Demon]

If you can only do 1 day a week, absolutely hit squat and then deadlift in that order and then accessory movements (like lunges, hammy curls, back extensions - pick 1 or 2 depending how you feel) and an exercise for your upper back (rows and/or chins). But do the upper back before accessory movements. Mainly because there is no excuse not to do pushups at home for upperbody. You can do that during commercial breaks, however loaded backsquats and deadlifting will require a bar + gym time. On your other days that you cannot hit the gym, hit pushups and abs 2-3 times a week and do some walking around the block. You should still get good strength gains on such an abridged schedule if you can hit your protein quota per day.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I would probably go squat -> deadlift -> Bent over Row -> Bench press and call it a day. If you do those four decently hard that's going to be a tough workout though. You'd probably want to give yourself a lot of rest between sets and such.

 

[edro]

What are the most well respected, efficient lifts?
I'm curious what people think.
Limit it to 5.

My first though would be (not in order):
1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. DB Press
4. Dips
5. Pullups

I have seen:
Squat
Deadlift
Bench Press
Overhead Press
Barbell Row

I personally think Pullups are better than Barbell Rows.
Overhead press is great too... I just don't like the pressure it puts on your back.

 

[SlitheryDee]

What are the most well respected, efficient lifts?
I'm curious what people think.
Limit it to 5.

My first though would be (not in order):
1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. DB Press
4. Dips
5. Pullups

I have seen:
Squat
Deadlift
Bench Press
Overhead Press
Barbell Row

I personally think Pullups are better than Barbell Rows.
Overhead press is great too... I just don't like the pressure it puts on your back.

I suppose if you had to limit yourself to five exercises you'd want to come as close to engaging every muscle group as you could.

Squats - Full leg and moderate core exercise

Deadlifts - moderate upper back, strong lower back, moderate leg biceps, and core exercise.

Bent over rows - Strong lat and upper back, moderate rear deltoid, lower back, and biceps exercise

Bench press - Strong pectoral and front deltoid, moderate triceps, and core exercise

Now is the hard part. We need one exercise that can ideally engage the lateral deltoids and triceps in a pretty direct way. Overhead press gets both of them to some extent, but is focused on neither. It's more of an anterior deltoid exercise than anything else, and I think the bench press is covering that well enough to leave it alone. Lateral deltoids are probably the least important of the two, so maybe I could drop them and focus on triceps.

Of course I'm thinking like a bodybuilder right now. What I really want is to be able to add three exercises; brain crushers, barbell curls, and shoulder flies, for primarily aesthetic purposes. If we're sticking to performance based criteria, then overhead press is the easy answer. It's the best remaining compound exercise that comes closest to engaging the least worked remaining muscle groups, so my final answer is overhead press. That way I'm getting most every muscle group with either one "strong" category or two "moderate" categories. Lateral deltoids aren't getting much love, but they aren't going to make a ton of difference from a performance perspective. That should provide pretty good coverage with the least number of exercises.

Overhead press - strong anterior deltoid, moderate lateral deltoid, triceps, pectoral, and core exercise.

 

[SP33Demon]

What are the most well respected, efficient lifts?
I'm curious what people think.
Limit it to 5.

My first though would be (not in order):
1. Squat
2. Deadlift
3. DB Press
4. Dips
5. Pullups

I have seen:
Squat
Deadlift
Bench Press
Overhead Press
Barbell Row

I personally think Pullups are better than Barbell Rows.
Overhead press is great too... I just don't like the pressure it puts on your back.

I do dumbbell bent over rows with my feet out and one hand on the rack or bench. Hits your core harder the further out your feet are. Another type of row that is awesome is the seated row machine where you can load up plates - basically the antagonistic opposite movement of a bench press.

Advantages of rows over the pullup:
-dumbbell rows hit your rear delt and traps more which you need to build a shelf for backsquatting heavy as well as benching (not to mention rows hit core more). Lats (from pullups) are important for benching just because of their mass and building a "shelf" but IMO aren't as active in the actual benchpress lift as the shoulder and traps. Many times when I've had a grinding bench workout I'll feel it in my traps, never lats though.

-it's easier to adjust the weight in a warmup pyramid style which is way easier on your rotator than just going 0lbs to 185lb (or 200 in my case). With a dumbbell row, I can warm up with lighter ones first. Some gyms do have the adjustable pullup/chin counterbalance machine but they are rare. As a result, most beginners will get easily frustrated when they can't do a pullup/chinup right away and won't know what to do to get to that level since it's either 185lbs or bust.

-when you get more advanced, it's safer to load heavier for rows because our back muscles (including lats) are the 2nd largest muscle group in the body (yes even bigger than chest). It was made to be loaded up and most people should be able to easily row more than they can bench in the seated row. Loading up weights in the pullup? You're begging for a rotator injury since the shoulder is a LOT more fragile than your back muscle group. We didn't evolve to load the rotator cuff - once you tear the labrum it's surgery time. I would wager that you can row 3-5x more weight than you can pull up while hanging. Over time, it's simply not worth a rotator injury when there are safer alternative like the seated lat pulldown.

-Form is way more important for pullups/chins than with rowing for the simple fact that heavier weight should fix your form on a row. On a chinup on a straight bar, try doing 50 with your wrists curled every other day for a week and bouncing up at the bottom. You are guaranteed to have elbow pain because all of your weight will be placed on the elbow tendons as you shorten them unnaturally. Granted, if you go neutral grip this won't happen but most only have a straight bar at their disposal. Most people aren't conscious of their form nor fully activating essential muscles like the lower back and abs. With a heavy row this becomes a moot point, your wrist will automatically be straightened out by the heavy ass weight and you will have to activate your core to support said heavy ass weight.

-Related to the previous point, it's more unnatural to do pullups/chins on a straight bar due to our anatomy. We may have anatomical differences (people have one arm longer than the other and/or our tendons could be different lengths) and a straight bar in a single plane of motion isn't the way our elbows and wrists were meant to naturally move. Too much volume on a straight bar is a good recipe for tendonitis since our hands are naturally better suited to be in the neutral grip (palms facing each other). I would recommend something like this which will naturally put your grip at a safer angle and range of motion for overload:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0049EBAKM
Or gymnast rings.

Advantages of the pullup/chinup over the weighted row:
-you only need a bar for a doorway which is cheap and easy to do.

-it does hit your lats a little harder than row, but that can be remedied by gym goers who have access to a lat pulldown machine.

Summary: Loaded pullups/chins will = snap city someday. You will get tendonitis unless you have perfect form or do them on apparatus that will give you a more natural grip like rings. No warmup weights = not good. There are safer ways to overload the lats. Rows = a movement we evolved to do with heavy ass weights. Rows will help your benchpress more than chins/pullups.

 

[Keshav]

From my point of view, it's all about priorities. If you want to make yourself healthy and active, Shoot for at least 3 days in a week.

However, If you are still struggling to go to the gym, get a buddy.

I guess 1 days is not enough to produce the required results.

 

[Lana230]

Exercising once a week is absolutely better than nothing. I used to struggle getting up in the morning just for work but then I set a goal for myself saying I need to get healthy and get in shape. So now I set my alarm at 8am every morning when I don't work before 10am and i'll go to the gym for an hour. Now my body is so used to waking up that early for the gym so i'm more motivated now because I love the way I feel afterwards. If I don't workout I feel tired actually for the entire day. So once you continue going once a week to the gym, I think that'll lead to you being more motivated to go twice a week then 3 times a week eventually. So don't give up, stay motivated to go even if it's just an hour a week because at least you're trying and that's all that matters. Fit the gym into your schedule as much as you can and I guarantee you'll feel a lot better about yourself.