Can confirm. Having an progressive program tailored to one’s goals is key. In the first 6 months of going to the gym I wasn’t seeing a lot of results. It was certainly better than nothing; I was learning the exercises, developing the base level strength to handle beginner weight levels… But where were these newbie gains everyone was talking about?
It wasn’t until I got on a good plan that I started making noticable leaps in strength. A year in, I decided to add in some cardio (just a 2 mile run) and suddenly I started blowing up. When I finally got my routine optimized I could be in and out of the gym in an hour. 3 times a week, that was it. If I was tight on time, I would simply do my run on my off days. So daily investment of 30 to 45 minutes. You can buy a cheap weight bench and you won’t even have to go to the gym. Hell, you can buy a cheap rack, too, like I did and do every exercise in your home for free. You can accidentally lose 45 minutes just zoned out on the couch flipping through channels, so time-wise, it’s about the best ROI you could ever make.