One of the most persistent fallacies of resistance training is that you must train four or five days a week to see significant progress in your strength.
It’s simply not true.
You can make incredible progress in just two 30-45min strength workouts a week.
As long as you do it right:
The weights, sets, and reps need to get progressively heavier.
Not in every workout or even every week, but the upward trend should be clear.
Challenge yourself, and find your limits.
Over the years of training women, I’ve noticed the lack of trust and belief in your strength and what your body can do*. Especially when starting out with strength training.
But you are stronger than you think. The next time you feel like you only have one rep left, see what happens if you try to do two more. Was the limit only in your head?
Focus on a couple of key movements.
You don’t need dozens of exercises in your workouts. Sure, doing a lot of different things might be entertaining. But it’s holding you back.
Pick a few key exercises to get strong in and get after it. The big multijoint movements, such as squat and deadlift variations, upper body presses, and rows, are all great choices.
You can still do other movements. But only as long as it doesn’t diminish the effort you can put into the key lifts. The goal is to get strong in a chosen few.
You still want to do other physical activities during the week to maintain a well-rounded, healthy body.
But for strength, two days a week is plenty when following an intelligent plan.
Honestly, you’ll make more progress in two focused strength workouts than the folks who do five half-ass efforts a week.
-J
*This is in stark contrast with men. We are notorious for overestimating our ability. Both in strength training or fixing that plugged-in microwave in the bathtub.