How many days a week should I work out?

When someone inquires about training with us at Beyond Strength, we invite them in for a consultation.

 

And part of our consultation process involves having them fill out a short questionnaire before they even come in, helping us to get a really good idea of what they want to accomplish, what they’ve already tried, what they foresee as their biggest challenges, etc., so that we can point them in the right direction with regards to their training.

 

All pretty straightforward stuff, right?

 

But there are two questions that have led to more eye-opening conversations than maybe any other in recent times:

 

1. Outside of what you’ll do here at the gym, how physically active are you on a daily basis? Do you take part in other fitness activities regularly? But also think beyond structured fitness… are you deskbound or active at work and home? (BONUS: if you wear a fitness tracker, we’d love to know your average steps/day)

2. How many days per week can you realistically commit to working out? What does that ideal schedule look like?

 

“… it’s easy to see what happens to many people: either they overtrain because their workouts are excessive or they don’t rest enough, or they undertrain because they don’t work out enough…

Unfortunately there are too few in the middle. It is my hope that you will seek this important balance.”  – Dr. Philip Maffetone

 

And while we sometimes see folks who are going to their favorite HIIT class 6x a week and scratching their heads as to why they’re not seeing the results they’d expect,

 

 

we also see folks who don’t realize they’re actually sedentary.

 

And they’re even more shocked to find out that “working out” might not be enough…

 

 

If you just lift weights a few days a week and then sit at your desk all day for work… and then belly up to the table for dinner… and then hit the couch for some TV before bed… you’re not working out enough.

 

 

In fact, you’re living a sedentary lifestyle… even while going to the gym three days a week.

 

 

Yes, you could still be considered sedentary, even if you go to the gym 3x a week.

 

Reality: You should be working out   every    single      day.

 

 

But, let’s keep that question from our intake questionnaire in mind:

 

“… think beyond structured fitness… are you deskbound or active at work and home? (BONUS: if you wear a fitness tracker, we’d love to know your average steps/day)”

 

You don’t need to be IN THE GYM working out every day.

 

But you damn well need to be ACTIVE every single day.

 

 

Now, there are lots of ways this could shake out, and that’s what we sit down and plan with you when you come in to start your journey at Beyond Strength (claim your 10 days for $10 below), but here are a handful of things to get you started:

1. Aim for at least 7,000 steps a day, every day—and once you’re nailing that, up it to 10,000.

2. Weight train 2-3 times per week.

3. Beyond daily steps, low intensity conditioning at least 2 times per week

4. HIIT 1-2x per week

 

The consistent steps (movement) are to break our sedentary habits.

 

The weight training is to build muscle, or at least stave the loss of it as we age, which helps to increase our metabolism (i.e., burn more calories 24/7, not just at your fancy exercise class).

 

The low intensity conditioning work teaches our bodies to more efficiently utilize fat as a fuel source (bonus: even while you sleep), increases energy, improves cardiovascular and cellular health, AND makes us more resilient to the stresses of everyday life.

 

And the HIIT is the icing on the cake for IF and WHEN everything else is in check.

 

If you’re doing that and drinking at least 7 glasses of water a day and sleeping 7 hours a night, you’re going to feel   pretty    damn      good.

 

Walk.

Water.

Workout.

Sleep.

 

It might not be sexy, but the results are.