The Problem, and Fix to Strength Training

The problem with strength training is that it takes time to do. Conditioning is easy to fit in. All you need is 30-90 seconds of rest for 4-6 hardcore intervals each lasting 10-60 seconds, and you're done. With real strength training you need 2-5 minutes of rest per set. 3 to 10 minutes once you get really heavy. Less rest turns the workout into more conditioning and less strength. In my opinion, when you get around 200-250 pounds on the squat and/or the dead lift (135-175 for girls), you should be resting at least 3 minutes (no more than 5). If you're doing a 10-12 sets 3x squat, 3x upper body pull, 3x upper body, 1-3x pull from floor (dead lift, power clean, etc), resting 3 minutes will be 30-36 minutes. Add a 10 minute warm up, a 5-10 minute cool down and 10-15 minutes for the time during your exercises, that's a 55-71 minute workout... and that's with only 4 exercises. I usually do 5 (because I add a gymnastic static hold). That's a lot of time, and we're busy people. So how do we get around this road block?

To fix the problem we do a strength version of circuit training. Circuit training is when you combine 2-3 exercises back to back, usually with little to no rest. We need rest to properly train strength, so we will increase the rest, but we will need less than normal strength training because we are linking exercises. I like 2 minutes of rest per combination. Let me show you what I mean with a sample workout:

Linked:

3x5 squat

3x5-8 row or pull up

Rest 2 minutes per set.

Linked:

3x5-8 overhead press

3x3 power clean

Rest 2 minutes per set.

With the squat and row, it'd look like this:

5 squats

Rest 2 minutes

5-8 rows

Rest 2 minutes

5 squats

Rest 2 minutes

8 rows

Rest 2 minutes

5 squats

Rest 2 minutes

8 rows

Do you see what happened there? You actually got 4 minutes of rest per set of each exercise. Granted, this is not as ideal as full our resting for 3-5 minutes, but it sure can yield better results than dropping an exercise for the sake of time. 

A final note: please make sure to combine exercises logically. Don't combine rows and dead lifts, because your forearms will fry and you won't be able to lift as heavy. Don't combine squat and dead lift both fry the spinal erectors, quads, hamstrings and are too taxing overall to the body. I actually don't don't combine anything with dead lifts when I train. As I said before, I add a gymnastic move. I link that with my squat, and I combine my push and pull. Dead lifts go all by themselves because they are so taxing and epic.