Key Takeaway
The optimal duration of a training session is a hotly debated topic. The reality is this will depend on the goal of the session and the athlete’s training capacity.
Many studies show that intense strength sessions should be no longer than 60 minutes. This is to ensure optimal hormone response during the session. Endurance training can and should be longer depending on the goal of the session. However, the higher the intensity of the session the shorter it should be.
Outside of selections or other events that are designed for attrition, tactical and First Responder populations shouldn’t just be training “hard”…they should be training optimally. When you include the stress of the job, hectic schedules, and family obligations these will all play a factor in recovery from your training.
You can not outrun a poor training program or lifestyle through hormone replacement therapy or supplements that raise your Testosterone. When using these tools they need to be part of a holistic lifestyle approach. This includes proper nutrition, sleep, and strength/endurance training.
Testosterone (The Body’s Neuroendocrine Response)
We all know and love testosterone. It plays a crucial role in the body for various factors associated to performance. It should be noted this is just one hormone that works in conjunction with various other factors of the body. A doctor should be consulted to understand how your chemistry may be impacting your life and/or training. Or better yet…how your life and/or training may be impacting your chemistry.
With that said most studies show the more “intense” of a workout session, the more your body will create testosterone and the higher and more short-lived the rise is. This peak usually happens around 45 minutes into a high intensity session and then starts to go down (3).
Tools Used
Another impact on this rise in Testosterone are the exercises you’re using. Several studies show that compound movements illicit the greatest rise in testosterone during training (2,3). Compound movements are multi-joint exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench presses, pull ups, etc.
For strength training, this point is important and why I often program “slow supersets” with at least one compound movement in our Human Performance Training.
I do this for a few reasons but not limited to:
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This set up is time efficient- keeps us around that 60 minute window.
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Compound movements creates the stress to illicit these big hormone changes.
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Training Density- High quality work, creating optimal stress to the body, in shorter period of time…still keeping us within that 60 minute window.
Notice I didn’t say these all had to be straight barbell movements. These can be kettlebell variations, specialty bars, or even the sled. The key is create stress and then let us recover. This is where change and progress happens.
As stated earlier, testosterone will peak around 45 minutes into a hard session before beginning to drop. This means marathon weight room sessions are usually not going to be optimal for most people. Notice I said MOST. There are always exceptions to the rule. Genetics, performance enhancing drugs, or maybe you’re just having a great day but more often than not most people do well with keeping things at or under 60 minutes for truly intense strength training the majority of the time.
Limitations
It is worth noting that many factors can impact these hormone tests. One study found that when you compile several studies on the impact of strength or endurance focused training it is sometimes hard to find a consistent trend (3).
If you have ever gotten blood work done, you’ll know the significance of fasted vs fed blood profiles and the impact of ingesting anything into the body prior to the test. Even the time of day will impact your hormone profile as different hormones go up and down through out the day via natural circadian rhythms.
Variations can also be due to:
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Sleep Quality
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Nutrition
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Hydration
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General stress levels
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Age
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Training Age (how advanced)
This is why we do our best to look at the trends and see what works best over time. This is where we come up with 45-60 minutes of intense strength training. In a practical sense it holds true through various training systems and fits most peoples schedules.
Don’t be upset if you go over a bit because you had to wait for your favorite squat rack when the gym was busy. I am just talking about the actual training session.
Conditioning
Much like with strength training, conditioning sessions will be about the same length as well…but also goal dependent. If you’re getting ready for SFAS and you’ll be walking with ruck on for hours on end then of course some of your conditioning will need to be longer to create the required adaptations. The coinciding intensity will be lower overall during those long sessions. Even when you start to add in some anaerobic threshold work like we do in our selection program, my advice will still hold here…the more intense the shorter the session should be.
This means if you’re doing sprint work or high intensity interval training, these can have a massive impact on testosterone levels, however just like with strength training you’ll be peak about 40-45 minutes in and then see a drop (3).
Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT) and Supplements
It is worth noting on this topic with the prevalence of TRT and Testosterone supporting supplements, these interventions are not magical solutions to all your problems. What I mean is you cannot just inject a hormone or take a supplement and see massive improvement without the proper lifestyle interventions to go alone with it. A very interesting study took middle aged men and put them on either TRT or a strength and conditioning program. Overall, the individuals who were just on the lifestyle and workout program got better results than the individuals who were just on testosterone.
By all means though, if you’re training hard and you want to take something to help with testosterone support there are some phenomenal supplements out there like Project Apex with We Go Home LLC.
Just understand that an injection alone or an awesome supplement like this isn’t going to overhaul your body composition and strength without you training optimally, consistently, and over long periods of time. If you want help with your workouts or you want to take the guesswork out of your training, check out our live programming.
Citations
1. Chasland LC;Yeap BB;Maiorana AJ;Chan YX;Maslen BA;Cooke BR;Dembo L;Naylor LH;Green DJ; (n.d.). Testosterone and exercise: Effects on fitness, body composition, and strength in middle-to-older aged men with low-normal serum testosterone levels. American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33739155/
2. Kraemer, WJ;Ratamess, NA. Hormonal responses and adaptations to resistance exercise and training. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15831061/
3. Riachy, R., McKinney, K., & Tuvdendorj, D. R. (2020, November 7). Various factors may modulate the effect of exercise on testosterone levels in men. Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7739287/
