Time management and supplemental exercises questions

[iclimb2improve]

So, I've had this problem for a while, and I was wondering if anyone could help me optimize the time I use for supplemental exercises. I've noticed that I've been using about two and half hours to complete my entire complete strength workout (completing an audit on time today), and I'd really like to be more efficient with my time if it's possible without sacrificing quality. My current workout is done in a serial fashion and is posted below:

1. Warm up (~25 minutes)
2. Hangboarding (~72 minutes)
3. Weighted Pull ups (5 sets of 5 reps; 3 minutes of rest each; 15 minutes not including time on bar)
4. Lat to Front raise (3 sets of 8 reps; 2 minutes rest between sets; 6 minutes not including time doing exercise)
5. Shoulder Press (3 sets of 8 reps; 2 minutes between sets; 6 minutes ^^)
6. Hanging Leg Raise (3 sets to failure; 2 minutes between sets; 6 minutes^^)
7. Push ups (3 sets to failure; 2 minutes between sets; 6 minutes ^^)
8. Plank (2 sets of 2 minute Plank; 1 minute rest between sets; 5 minutes total)
Total time:
141 minutes or 2 hours 12 minutes not including the time I am doing the majority of the supplemental exercises; not including driving time as well

Mark mentions he does a circuit style for his workouts in the book and on the website, but he doesn't really mention how much rest he has between each exercise. I would really be open to organizing my workouts this way if reduced the amount of time required resting while it still gives adequate rest.



Another question is do you recommend using the same amount of weight for supplemental exercises like shoulder press and front to lat raise or do you increment weight for each set (1st set 15 lb, 2nd set is 20lb)? I currently increment the amount of weight I use for each set in both shoulder press and lat to front raise, but I do not when doing weighted pull ups. Is one method more beneficial than the other?

[scojo]

IMO that's a lot of supplemental exercises. In particular doing three shoulder exercises in the same workout seems like overkill (lat to front raise, shoulder press and pushups). You could probably remove some of the exercises or split them between workout days. I'm curious what others think about this though.

If I'm low on time, sometimes I superset dissimilar exercises. Eg. do one set of pullups, then one set of overhead press, repeat. I would rest between the pullups and press, but not as long as I normally would if I was doing all my pullup sets then all my pressing sets (maybe 50%-70% of the rest time would be fine, but I'm not very precise with my rest times).

[climber511]

Create enough work to Stimulate - then stop. You do not get stronger when working out - you get stronger through resting, eating, recovering. You should be able to do a "strength" workout in an hour or so - probably don't need a 25 minute warmup either unless you have specific injuries etc to work through. Three sets of AMRAP pushups is not a strength workout. Beyond that you're probably spinning your wheels and doing unnecessary "stuff". Less is more when it comes to strength. The weight lifting community figured this stuff out decades ago - look up energy systems and resistance training time frames - pure strength work needs to be fairly short. Strength - strength endurance - endurance strength - endurance -- it's a continuum and each has a optimal training strategy.

[aikibujin]

Do your supplemental exercises as a circuit (one after another) without rests in between, that will eliminate about half an hour from your work out. I do seven supplemental exercises as a circuit for my shoulder, ab, obliques, lower back, hamstring, chest and triceps, and quad, taking rests only to catch my breath. I complete the whole circuit in less than half an hour.

[Lundy]

I do this differently in two ways. First, I do the SEs the day AFTER my HB workout. I started doing this mostly because of time issues, as I work out in the mornings before the rest of the house stirs, and I'm just not gonna get up when the first number on the clock is a 4. Second, though, it allows me to really push hard on this workout without worrying about trying to fire it up after a draining HB workout.

Second, I try to really focus on CNS adaptation, rather than muscle building. So I do three sets of each exercise on 3 minutes (meaning, put the timer on three minutes repeating, and start each exercise when the beep goes off, so the time spent exercising is included in that interval), 5-4-3 reps, adding 10 pounds each time. The exercises I do are: deadlift, push-up (on rings, heavily weighted), pull-ups (rings), shoulder press, one-arm inverted rows (rings), and dips (rings). I'm not sure if this is ideal or not, but it's worked pretty well for me.

Also, though, I do a good amount of pre-hab exercises everyday. I've discussed them elsewhere, so I'm sure you can find the details in a search, but the short version is: bands for shoulders, indian clubs for shoulders, the elbow exercises from "Dodgy Elbows", abs, and I currently have a bit of a strain in the distal portion of my biceps tendon, so I'm doing slow, lightweight, high-volume eccentric bicep curls. All in, this extra stuff takes me about 20 minutes which I add to EVERY workout. Otherwise, my whole SE workout takes 54 minutes (6 exercises x 3 sets x 3 minutes), which isn't too bad.

Hope this information is helpful.

[MarkAnderson]

As stated, I use a circuit-style approach. I rest about a minute between sets, but I don;t use a time, I just wait long-enough to catch my breath just enough to start the next exercise (which varies based on the two exercises--front levers require more rest before and after since it's really hard to breath effectively while doing them). I also train at 7400' so oxygen is more of a problem

[iclimb2improve]

Yeah, I don't train at the high of an altitude, so the oxygen is not so much of a problem . So, I've kind of adopted your circuit style last week, doing two different exercises consecutively and then taking two minutes rest to repeat. I feel like it's been helping when it's come to time management since I've been leaving 10-15 minutes earlier. Thanks for the input guys!