How Long Should a Powerlifting Workout Take?

Powerlifting workouts are notorious for being much longer than your average muscular endurance or bodybuilding sessions. When powerlifting, your goal is to lift near maximal weights for a low number of repetitions, meaning you need to be fully rested before each set. This can lead to lots of sitting around, waiting for your allotted rest time to finish. You can make tweaks, however, to make your workouts a little shorter.

  1. Rest Between Sets

    • The main issue that makes powerlifting workouts take more time than just a general weights routine is the amount of time you rest for between sets. According to the American Council on Exercise, if you're training for muscular endurance, you should only rest around 30 seconds between sets, and if your goals are muscle growth, rest for 30 to 90 seconds between sets. For strength, however, they recommend between two and five minutes of rest between sets. When lifting heavy weights, your body uses adenosine triphosphate as the main energy system. This only gives you enough energy for a few seconds of maximum effort work and takes at least two minutes to replenish, according to Lee Brown of the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

    Number of Sets

    • The length of your powerlifting workouts also depends on how many exercises you perform. Most workouts will start with a main lift, usually either a competition lift -- squats, deadlifts or bench presses -- or a variation of these, such as box squats, paused squats, deficit deadlifts, bench presses from pins or board presses. How many total sets you do depends on your specific program. In a conjugate session, for example, you only perform one maximal set on your main exercise, meaning you won't have many long rest periods, as each prior set is performed using lighter weights. A squat specialization routine such as Smolov, on the other hand, has multiple top sets of your main exercise, including one day per week where you perform 10 sets of three reps at 85 percent of your single-repetition max; for these, you may need up to four or five minutes rest between each set.

    Periodization Variables

    • Periodization involves changing your training schedule on a monthly basis and varying your intensity levels. A typical block perioidization routine involves four weeks of light accumulation work, four weeks of heavier training and a final two to three weeks of maximal training. During the accumulation block, your weights are lighter and sets and reps are higher, meaning you may only need one to two minutes between sets. In the second block you lift a little heavier, but still not at your maximum, so it should take two to three minutes; it's only in the final few weeks where you'll need a full five minutes rest between sets.

    Considerations

    • The number of exercises you perform in each session plays a role, too. If you're performing multiple maximal sets, you may only want to do one or two extra exercises in each session. A squat workout, for example, could just be squats, then two or three sets each of barbell lunges and weighted situps. If you're only performing one maximal set, though, you can include more accessory exercises. When pushed for time, adjust your workout to suit your schedule by cutting down on your top sets and only including the bare minimum of accessory exercises. Another method of speeding up your workouts without negatively impacting your performance is to superset exercises. With a deadlift workout, for instance, you would perform your prescribed sets for the deadlift, then perform your accessory movements back to back in a mini circuit, only resting when you've completed all the exercises.