Gym timer

How to use the online timer

Ninety minutes is a long gym session, and it suits a full day of training rather than every visit: a proper warm-up, several compound lifts with real rest between sets, some accessory work and a few minutes of stretching at the end. Plenty of effective sessions run to forty-five minutes or an hour, so this is a comfortable window rather than a target to hit for its own sake.

A surprising share of the ninety minutes is spent standing still, and that is not wasted time. Heavy squats, deadlifts and bench presses need two to three minutes between sets for the nervous system as much as the muscle, and cutting that to sixty seconds because the gym is busy shows up immediately as lost reps on the next set. Lighter accessory work gets by on far less.

Order the session so the technical, heavy lifts come first, while you are fresh and paying attention, and leave the machines and isolation work for the end when fatigue matters less. Keeping a note of weights and reps is what turns ninety minutes into progress rather than exercise, since it is otherwise almost impossible to remember what you lifted three weeks ago. Finish with a few minutes of easy movement rather than walking straight out into the cold.