How Many Days a Week Should I Work Out?
Without a doubt, one of the most frequently asked fitness questions is ‘how many times a week should I work out?’
There are so many variables that dictate what will be the magic number for you. Plus, with plenty of conflicting information, it's no wonder people are left feeling confused and demotivated.
The most common mistake people make is to over commit when deciding their workout frequency. We've all been there: struggling to make it to a 6am CrossFit class when we’re feeling achey and tired from our last session. Setting yourself up for success is key.
How many times a week you work out, depends on your goals. The UK Chief Medical Officers’ Guidelines recommends adults do at least 150-minutes moderate intensity activity each week, 75 minutes’ vigorous activity or a mixture of both and strength training on two days. But how should you split these recommendations to suit your needs?
Before you pack your gym bag and get going, let us run you through how you training frequency will affect your goals and what the experts recommend for building muscle, strength, improving cardio, and achieving weight loss.
How Many Days a Week Should I Work Out for Weight Loss?
While weight loss is dependant on a negative energy balance, which you can create with exercise by burning more calories, it may not be the most efficient route to weight loss long term. According to Examine, 'exercise is an advantageous adjunct to diet for achieving and maintaining weight loss, although exercise alone is an inefficient way to induce significant weight loss.' So, not all is lost, exercise is integral in maintaining weight loss long term. That's a key takeaway for those who feel like they are successful at shifting those last 10lbs, but not able to keep them off.
If that doesn't put you off from exercising for weight loss, and you still want to know how often to work out in order to achieve it, a recent review reported that 'an exercise programme (average of 150–200 minutes per week) induces an average weight loss of 1.5–3.5kg (3.3-7.7lbs), with aerobic exercise being much more effective than resistance exercise.'
Cardiovascular exercises may provide a superior calorie burn in comparison to resistance training workouts, but that doesn't necessarily make them the optimal source of exercise for weight loss. The review continues to explain that 'resistance exercise can reduce muscle loss associated with weight loss, which is important for preserving metabolic rate and aesthetic goals.' So prioritising your lifting days will also benefit your physique.
The consensus is that, should your goal be weight loss, focus on your nutritional choices to create a negative energy balance and stick to a training frequency you can adhere to long term, alongside those lifestyle interventions.
How Many Days a Week Should I Work Out to Improve Cardio?
Should you have lofty goals of running a faster mile or improving your aerobic capacity for your weekend tennis, three-to-five days a week could be key.
According to the University of Colorado Sports Medicine, 'Aerobic training three-to-five days per week will improve your cardiovascular fitness.' However, it warns that 'performing a high impact activity more than five days a week causes an increased risk of injury.' perhaps another excuse not to do endless burpees.
Training sessions needn't be hours long either to see benefits. Clinical exercise physiologist Erik Van Iterson Phd recommends a rather manageable '30-minute workout five or more days a week that raises your heart rate for the duration of the activity, or try three, 10-minute workouts, five or more days a week.' It seems our cardio goals are more easy to achieve than we thought.
We recommend three-to-five sessions a week to improve cardio.
How Many Days a Week Should I Work Out to Build Muscle?
Building muscle may be even easier to fit into your schedule, with only two days a week necessary for optimal results. But even one day a week is infinitely better than none.
A study by Brad Schoenfeld reported that 'when comparing studies that investigated training muscle groups between one-to-three days per week on a volume-equated basis, the current body of evidence indicates that frequencies of training twice a week promote superior hypertrophic outcomes to once a week. It can therefore be inferred that the major muscle groups should be trained at least twice a week to maximise muscle growth.'
Surely more is better right? Perhaps not, in two pieces of evidence it was also shown that the difference between three-and-six training sessions is negligible when volume is equated, perhaps nodding to the law of diminishing returns and allowing for an extra lie in.
We recommend two-to-five days of resistance training a week, training different muscle groups for optimal muscle gain.
How Many Days a Week Should I Work Out to Build Strength?
A study published in the European Journal of Sports Science aimed to investigate the effects of different training frequencies on maximal strength. Study participants were divided into two groups: one group performed all exercises in one session per week, while the other group spread the exercises across four sessions per week. The results showed significant improvements in strength for both groups, with the high frequency training group showing greater strength gains compared to the low frequency training group. The study recommended distributing training volume across multiple sessions per week for those aiming to increase maximal strength.
From a programming perspective it makes sense to hit your big lifts on separate days when you have had more time to recover, as opposed to squeezing them into one day.
On the other hand, another study published via SportRxiv, analysed data of 20-minute workouts that repeated just once per week. The results found that one workout a week can be effective for gaining strength. So if you're pushed for time and can only fit in one session, you can still see strength gains. However to maximise strength gains further, higher frequency may be necessary, according to the previous study.
We recommend two-to-four days of strength training a week, training different muscle groups for optimal strength gain.
How to Split up Your Resistance Training Workouts
Have a plan and stick to it. You can add your training focusses onto your calendar to keep organised.
Be Realistic & Recover Well
The number one priority when deciding how many times a week you should workout is making sure that it's a realistic number that you can adhere to long term.
'Team no days off' could be a thing of the past, a recent study found that high-intensity exercise can require up to 48 hours rest in order to recover optimally. Leading to the conclusion that perhaps when we think we have 'over trained', we have actually 'under recovered'.
It's important to remember; you can have the perfect programme, but a perfect programme never completed is rendered useless. So, choose a workout frequency that suit your experience, preferences and time constraints so that you can push yourself in your workouts, recover well and get results.
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