(Make sure to give yourself 48 hours in between them to recover!) So in a two- to three-day strength plan, this means you should aim to do full-body workouts. How: To build muscle mass, you should try to work each muscle group two to three times a week, says Tamir. It also strengthens your joints too, says Tamir.
Why: Strength training is a super important way to keep your body functional for the long haul, says Fagan: It helps prevent the bone loss and muscle loss that comes with aging. If four days makes more sense for you than five days, do that. Remember, it's important to be realistic about your own schedule when you're asking yourself how many days a week you should work out. If you want to improve endurance, skip a strength day. If you want to work out four days a week, think about your goals: If you want to add muscle, cut a cardio day. If you want to work out five days per week and are working on both strength and cardiovascular fitness, try three days of strength training, two days of cardio, and two days of active rest. What’s a good workout routine?Ī good workout routine will depend on your individual goals, but if you’re looking for general fitness, it should include some type of strength training and some type of cardio. Matching up your workout time to when you feel the best can make you more likely to want to stick with it, Fagan says. In that case, an afternoon or evening workout may be more likely to happen as scheduled.Īnd pay attention to your body too: Some people feel more energized in the morning, while others are dragging. For instance, if your mornings are super hectic with lots of last-minute changes, it could be self-defeating to plan on morning workouts, says Fagan. Again, there’s no right answer to this, but it helps to take a careful look at your schedule when figuring out when you should pencil in your workout. This might mean a 10-minute walk or a series of gentle stretches.Īnother important consideration is determining when you’ll work out. Setting a doable goal for how many times you’ll start working out each week can be helpful by making sure you don’t get burned out, says Fagan.īut shooting for a bit of movement each day, even if you’re not doing an actual workout, can also help you make working out a habit that will stick, she says. How can beginners turn working out into a habit? After you get used to that, you can consider gradually increasing the number of days. Instead, a good beginner workout plan is to try starting with two workouts a week.
And that can turn you off completely from working out. Of course, if you’re just getting started and don’t exercise currently, that might be too big of a jump at first, says ACE-certified trainer Sivan Fagan, owner of Strong With Sivan.