How Often Should I Exercise?

Notably, the exercise regimens that different people take up in the hopes of gaining immense health benefits are diverse are vary depending on the individual's goals. While the goal of some exercise routines is to gain muscle and strength, others aim to tone the body, burn fat, and keep diseases at bay. Similarly, the frequency of the workout differs for each individual. Knowing beforehand how often to work out and committing to a specific schedule is the first step to achieving consistent, successful results from exercise (Healthline).

You Don’t Have To Exercise Daily.


You can exercise 7 days a week if you want to, but you'll still see great results from exercising just twice a week. According to research from the Harvard Medical School, a single exercise session may provide immediate and lasting protection from several life-threatening ailments. Most importantly, these gradual but consistent periods of exercise protect the most crucial organ in your body – the heart through a process called ischemic preconditioning.

For instance, if you’re exercising to lose weight, you don’t need to spend several hours in the gym or at the field. On the contrary, a weekly maximum of 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise is enough to attain your desired results (Active.com). Generally, you need to focus on using progressive overload as you workout. This means that you need to increase the reps, sets, or weights each week when working out to gain strength, build muscle, and potentially lose weight.

That being said, exercise routines aimed at gaining muscle tone require more intense workouts. The recommended amount of exercise for this type of fitness goal is approximately 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity three days per week, totaling 75 minutes on a weekly basis (Self.com)

Exercise Consistently

Consistency in your exercise regimen is the key to achieving your workout goals – without it, you won't be able to realize your desired results. After setting your goals, your main focus shouldn't be on the amount of time you put into exercising, but rather on the effort and the intensity of the workout. In essence, you should strive to regularly burn more calories than your overall daily intake, as doing so is the only way to reliably lose weight. 

When it comes to deciding how often to exercise, you may have assumed that more is always better. Here, we've established that quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to exercise. So long as you commit to an exercise regimen with the right frequency and intensity to achieve your goals, you'll begin to see results (Fitday).


References

https://www.active.com/fitness/articles/how-often-should-i-exercise

https://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/exercises/the-importance-of-working-out-with-consistency.html

 https://www.healthline.com/health/how-often-should-you-work-out#1

https://www.self.com/story/heres-what-a-perfect-week-of-working-out-looks-like

 

 

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