How many days a week to exercise?

lauriehouse

Turning over a new leaf, because I really wanna lose weight, about 25ish pounds.
I just started using FitStar in the mornings, doing half hour work outs.
Today is day two and I'm a little sore. I'm wondering if I should push through the soreness and do another work out tomorrow? I want to try and do work outs five days a week, but not sure if that's too much to start out with?

Thanks for the help!

kshama2001

"Working out" to me means lifting weights, which should not be done on consecutive days. Other types of workouts can be done every day. I do something every day. Right now I am mostly gardening, but I try to get in some walking, yoga, and weight lifting, and this time next month I will be swimming, woo hoo!

dhimaan

Nothing wrong with taking a rest day especially in the beginning. I am old school (more experienced) and prefer to workout through pain if I had to. To each his own.

tiffanylacourse

Working out and pushing past the muscle soreness is okay. Working out and pushing past actual physical pain is a whole other thing.

If you're sore, do the workout. If you're in pain, do not.

Best of luck! :flowerforyou:

brb_2013

Depends on you. If you push through the pain, will you end up so miserable that you end up taking a whole week off and have a hard time starting again? Or would you be better off taking two days rest between workouts for a week or two to help get used to it? I'd prefer route 2 for myself but if you know yourself enough to know at what level you'll be burnt out then go for the workout. Just a few weeks ago, I'd set out to do strength training 3 days a week, but got so sore my first workout that I only managed two that week, about 4 days apart. But then now two weeks later I'm doing it every other day with no problems, no excess soreness. But that first one was so bad I could barely walk and I know myself, knew not to push through but to rest so I could go at it again with all my energy.

I also alternate, I do a cardio type workout on MWF then pick a weekend day (maybe lol) which can be as simple as a walk or more work like my M5 elliptical type thing. Strength routine on T/Th/pick a weekend day, and I also do pilates on those days if work allows. I figure different bits get rest on different days. I'm not perfect, but I've gotten at least 4 total workouts a week for the past 3 weeks!

srecupid

I'm bad I do it usually only when I get the itch. But I keep my exercise bike next to my PC so I get the itch pretty often because I'm thinking that instead of browsing myfitnesspal I should be using the bike.

Francl27

I only take full rest days when my legs get extremely sore for going up the stairs. Otherwise, I still aim for a 2 miles walk at least.

sympha01

If you are newer to exercise, then the concept of absolutely NEEDING rest days probably does not apply to you, but only because it is extremely unlikely that you are working hard enough that your body can't recover sufficiently each day.

Soreness is not especially related to a need to recover (again, especially if you are new to exercising regularly). Also, for what it's worth, you may find that gentle exercise actually relieves soreness (after the first 60 seconds of ouch). For many people, getting the blood moving and gentle stretching through exercise actually aids in relieving soreness.

Really, at this point I'd say it's more about managing your mental game. For some people, having a rest day or two a week is an important way to pace yourself over the week. For others, days off can make it hard to start up again the next day (I was one of these when I started). Do what works for you.

SezxyStef

that depends on if you are "sore" or "hurt"

If sore yes work through it and you will find you are not as sore the next day.

I work out a lot....anything from lifting to running to walking to biking to swimming to sports etc....

I take active rest days...so on Sunday I worked in the flower beds a lot and instead of my normal 3-5mile cardio I went for a 2 mile walk...

When I am sore from lifting ie 1st and 2nd day after deadlift day which I still do my bench press and squats...working out through the soreness often results in feeling "much better"

kshama2001 wrote: »

"Working out" to me means lifting weights, which should not be done on consecutive days. Other types of workouts can be done every day. I do something every day. Right now I am mostly gardening, but I try to get in some walking, yoga, and weight lifting, and this time next month I will be swimming, woo hoo!

not so much...

Working out is (per cambridge dictionary) "to exercise in order to improve the strength or appearance of your body

and you can lift 2 or 3 or even 4 days in a row (I lift 4 days in a row) you just shouldn't work the same muscle groups on consecutive days.

tiffanylacourse

SezxyStef wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

"Working out" to me means lifting weights, which should not be done on consecutive days. Other types of workouts can be done every day. I do something every day. Right now I am mostly gardening, but I try to get in some walking, yoga, and weight lifting, and this time next month I will be swimming, woo hoo!

not so much...

Working out is (per cambridge dictionary) "to exercise in order to improve the strength or appearance of your body

and you can lift 2 or 3 or even 4 days in a row (I lift 4 days in a row) you just shouldn't work the same muscle groups on consecutive days.

Great clarification!

RoxieDawn

Day 2 a little sore? Is it too sore to keep going with another workout? Only you can decide that. I have had DOMS so bad that I had no choice but to stop for 3 days..

You can moderately return to exercise again, like just walk, or deload the next workout or even workout another body part.

BreakAway47

Here is what I do. I tend to do one hour workouts every other day so I if decide the next day I am too sore or just have no motivation. Anything I do the follow day is just a bonus to me and its like a reward to get the next day off. I put extra effort into the day I workout so I feel I deserve the rest the next day if I chose to take it. I just make sure on the days I take off that I monitor my food I tend to eat out of boredom more on those days.

jessiethe3rd

I lift every other day (muscles need rest and fuel to grow...) and sometimes I cardio on a rest day. Arms I train often. I train legs after a upper body day only once a week (and I train legs to excessive failure.).

Cardio is overrated... At least for my specific goals right now.

Being sore is okay... But there is a perfect point to hit muscles again. It's shortly after your muscle recooperates and is overcompensating. Thats the best time to really smash up the muscle because it leads to gains.

Make sure you rest your muscles! Everyone get's over excited when starting a new workout plan. Focus on your goals and results. 3 months of continous focused training is better than trying to conquer the gym in a week.

Slow & Steady

eandasher

I use to do more rest days which to me.. walking 1 mile with my dog... Consider this, you are going to be sore no matter what. This is part of working out, if you workout a lot you will always have some soreness. So if you're going to be sore if you do nothing for the next 2-3 days anyways you might as well workout in that same time frame. The soreness will be there either way....but to each his own... I do my best to help my body recover take baths with Epsom salt 1-3 times a week, drink 1-1.5 gallons of water everyday, get 8-10 hours of sleep every night. Good luck it's not easy, but you have to decide this is something you wanna spend time doing. also note my soreness tends to go away if I do 30minutes of stretching jog for 2.5 miles, and then workout another 20minutes I do this just about every morning now. So moving blood though your body helps you not be as sore