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Answered in 5 episodes

How long should a strength workout be?

Answered by Nikkiey Stott and her guests · Updated

The short answer

Nikkiey Stott says 45 to 60 minutes of focused, progressive strength work is enough for women over 40 to change their body composition. Unless you're a competitive athlete, sessions of 90 minutes or more add fatigue and recovery demand without adding results. Short on time? A 20 to 30 minute session with fewer sets and heavier weights still counts.

Hear it from the show

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  1. Nikkiey shows why a full session fits in 45 to 60 minutes and what makes them run long

    Plays from 4:00 · Ep. 397: How Long Should Workouts Be for Women Over 40?

  2. Why Nikkiey says training past an hour shifts your body from building to breaking down

    Plays from 6:31 · Ep. 397: How Long Should Workouts Be for Women Over 40?

  3. Nikkiey on hitting every muscle group in 45 to 50 minutes versus long bro-split leg days

    Plays from 8:42 · Ep. 64: Full Body Workouts vs Bro Splits: Which Is Better After 40?

  4. How to cut a workout to 20 or 30 minutes with fewer sets and heavier weights

    Plays from 5:43 · Ep. 216: How to Keep Working Out During the Holidays After 40

  5. Nikkiey on why two to three hours a week is enough for real results

    Plays from 27:29 · Ep. 373: Why Women Over 40 Need Strength Training

The full answer

On Ep. 397, Nikkiey does the math. If you train three to four times a week and do three to six working sets per muscle group, a full-body, upper or lower session fits in 45 to 60 minutes. When workouts keep stretching past 90 minutes, she says one of these is usually the cause:

On Ep. 64 she makes the same point about full-body training. She gets through every muscle group in 45 to 50 minutes, while her old bro-split leg days could run an hour to an hour and a half.

  • warming up too long
  • resting too long, often while on your phone (five minutes is way too long)
  • doing too many exercises
  • piling on volume that research doesn't support

She also gives a hormonal reason. According to Nikkiey, testosterone and growth hormone are elevated and working for you in the first 45 to 60 minutes. After about an hour of hard training, cortisol rises and the environment shifts toward muscle breakdown. Her conclusion is that extra time gives you more fatigue and more recovery demand for the same result or a worse one.

Her 45-minute template from Ep. 397:

  • minutes 0 to 8: warm up
  • minutes 8 to 40: five to seven exercises, three to four sets each, resting 60 seconds to two minutes between sets
  • last five minutes: an optional cool-down of light walking and stretching while you log your weights

On a short day, Ep. 216 has the fix. Cut each exercise from four sets to three, or even to two. Drop your reps from 15 to 10 or from 10 to 8, and use heavier weights. Intensity matters more than duration, and 20 minutes is still worth doing. On Ep. 373 she says 45 minutes a couple of times a week, about two to three hours in total, produces measurable gains in strength and muscle. On Ep. 286 she puts it plainly: you don't need a 75-minute workout every day. You need to be intentional with the time you have.

From The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott. For education, not medical advice: talk to your doctor about your own health.

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