If you train with the requisite effort, you can’t go very long.

If you can, you’re not going hard

enough.
Going through the motions, i.e., using the same poundage in the same exercises for the same
number of sets and same number of repetitions, week after week, doing the same things in the same
ways, is going to net zero results. Only by pushing the body past current capacity, only through
dogged struggle, only by attempting to equal or exceed your previous best, will anything of muscular
significance occur.
Keep in mind that capacity is a shifting target. On an “off” day, capacity might be 15% less than
when you have an “on” day. That’s okay and needs to be taken into account. Trying to hit or exceed
100% of maximum capacity on an “off” day is dangerous. Capacity can be breached using different
strategies. Look around when you go to the gym. If by simply performing the same number of reps
using the same poundage in the same exercises triggered the adaptive response, the gym would be
crawling with muscle monsters.
The human body does not favorably reconfigure itself in response to ease and sameness. The body
only grows new muscle and becomes stronger when pushed into new territory. Those who go
through
the motions (staying within their comfort zone) can train for a long time. Those who train intensely
enough to trigger hypertrophy have between 30 and 75 minutes before the sheer intensity of the
effort
causes them to run out of energy. Super hard and super heavy training drains physical energy and
also
drains psychic energy. Only the trained, experienced individual, a member of the athletic elite, can
train hard longer than an hour.
Science has shown that serum testosterone levels plummet when the body is pushed past a certain
point. The Bulgarian Olympic lifters put their medical people on the case and they recommended
that
training sessions be limited to 45 minutes. Before you get too excited about that particular training
time limitation, be aware that Bulgarian National Coach, Ivan “The Butcher” Abadjiev, said, “Fine.
We’ll limit national team lifting sessions to 45 minutes per session—but we’ll have six sessions per
day.”
Exercises done at the beginning of the session are attacked hardest because energy levels are at
their peak. Exercises done at the end of a long hard session inevitably and invariably suffer. Energy is
a finite substance and is depleted by all-out effort. Attack the most important exercises first, while
energy is high and always start with the big, sweeping, compound, multi-joint exercises. Then follow
up with the less intense isolation exercises.
The Purposeful Primitive knows the energy clock is always running, the sands in the hour glass are
shifting and sliding downward, imperceptibly, inevitably, and time is not on our side. Never
compromise on expending intense effort in order to artificially extend the length of the session. Get
through the important compound movements before the endurance gas tank runs dry. A good rule
of
thumb: train hard enough to trip the hypertrophy switch; energy is going to start heading south at
about the 40 minute mark. An insider trick-of-the-trade: drink a “smart bomb” shake during the
workout (combination of protein and carb powder). Come to grips with the physiological fact that if
you train correctly, hard and intense, you only have about an hour!