Discover Strength Offers Two 30-Minute Workouts

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Do you want a really hard workout, but don't have very much time on your hands? Discover Strength requires just 30 minutes twice a week in order to see results, but you better come prepared to work hard.

At Discover Strength, the focus is solely on strength. The sessions seem pretty standard. You work each muscle group -- legs, arms, back, abs. The twist is that you push harder than you ever thought you could.

Because you work out to the point of failure, trainer Greg Viland said it might be a tough routine for type A personalities.

"It's one of those things where people really don't like the discomfort of strength training or exercising in this fashion," he said. "But look at it like this -- it's different than just being active. ... This is something you do not because you like but because this is the only way to produce a certain result."

There's no clear formula on number of pounds and repetitions; that's up to the trainer. Your job is to go until you can't go any more.

"We know that having more lean muscle will burn more fat, and you'll have a better body composition as a result," Viland said.

There are other benefits to strength training, like prevention of age-related muscle loss and osteoporosis, and improving cardiac function and muscle function. Then there's the afterburn.

"In the recovery process of strength training, you'll burn more calories recovering for the next 72 hours than you would during a normal cardio bout," Viland said.

You will need that recovery time, which is built into the gym's schedule.

"We don't let people come to us more than twice a week," Viland said. "A lot of people compare this to getting the same results in one day a week versus four days a week."

Sessions are just 30 minutes a pop, because it takes 72 hours to recover, if you're working hard enough.

"It's the best workout I've ever done," Bethany Johnson said.

Discover Strength is done one of two ways: you can workout one-on-one with a trainer for $49 per session, or you can work out in a group of up to three people for $29 per session.