I go to the gym almost every day and the amount of time that I spend there varies from 45 minutes to over 2 hours depending on what I’m working out. This got me thinking, does being at the gym for a long time mean that I am being more productive and getting stronger?

I have seen people who spend hours a day at the gym that are always tired and sore. I always thought that their hours spent hitting the gym lead to them being sore, but after looking into I found out that they may have been at the gym for too long. Dr. Mecola put out an article talking about the effects of overworking at the gym. He said that people who are often sore for days at a time, people who have “heavy legs”, people who get sick easily, and people who the blues can all trace their issues back to overworking at the gym.

Dr. Mecola also said that when doing high intensity workouts more is less. He said that when you are doing a workout that involves little time to rest in between sets being at the gym for to long can hinder instead of help your health. He also claims that rest is crucial when high intensity exercises are being done day in and day out.

After looking into Dr. Mecola’s research I have realized that it is not about how long you are at the gym, but rather what you get done in that time. Dr. Mecola said “it’s all about balance”. While working out you need to find the right balance between how intense the workout is and how long you will spend at the gym. For example if you are at the gym lifting with a group of 5 people who are talking in between sets and working out in a casual environment being at the gym for over 2 hours is very plausible. However if you are alone or with another person and the workout is intense with very few breaks being at the gym for hours on end can be dangerous to your health.

I think that studies about the ideal amount of time to spend at the gym are not published because of the file drawer problem. If  more studies got published saying that less is more at the gym that people would stop going. In regard to Dr. Mecola’s article I don’t think he had a big enough sample size to totally prove his point. Confounding variables could affect his study because we do not know the general health of the people he studied. Even though his study is not perfect it still provides enough reliable evidence to prove his point.

And make sure you know what your doing at the gym so you don’t end up like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXmp5sAhBkY

Works Cited:

http://training.fitness.com/weight-training/time-spent-gym-23473.html

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/12/28/7-hidden-signs-of-overtraining.aspx

http://www.builtlean.com/2013/09/17/muscles-grow/