General Workout Questions

vim_n_vigor

I am working on building up my new routine with a new baby in the house. I have been fully cleared for exercise, so there is no issue there.

I like to do a combination of weights and cardio, and am now struggling to fit them in my schedule. The baby still isn't sleeping well most nights, so I am going to bed pretty early instead of adding in a workout. I realize this is something I need to work through on my own, and it does lead to my question.

When doing weights, how many days is the most I would consistently want between workouts? I'd at least like to start this as my goal for workouts a week until I can get into a more set routine over the next few months.

I can get a few miles of walking in during most days at work, and for now, I am ok with that being my cardio to start up.

SideSteel

What are your goals?

Would an equivalent or relevant question be "What's the fewest number of days I can lift and get reasonable results" rather than "what's the most number of rest days I can have between workouts"?

Not that it matters entirely, I'm just trying to wrap my brain around the question before I chime in.

vim_n_vigor

Fair question.

Short term - my goal is to really just get back to working out, and for probably the next 1-3 months until the baby is sleeping better, the question probably is what is the most number of rest days I can have between workouts.

Long term - I am going to work back up to lifting approximately every other day with a cardio day in between.

SideSteel

Well generally I'd say anything is obviously better than nothing, but I think if you could attempt to train 2xweek full body you'd probably get enough stimulus to retain LBM/potentially get stronger.

In order to get at least 1 rest day between sessions I believe that would put your max rest days at 4.

Train-Rest-Rest-Rest-Rest-Train-Rest Repeat.

EDIT: In doing so, you'd then only rest 1 day in between when the next week starts. If you rest 4 days in between every workout, you're then not training 2/week.

Now COULD you make progress training less than twice per week? I would imagine there's no hard cutoff at a given frequency, but 2/week seems to be regarded as an acceptable training frequency and I think it's a reasonable minimum target. Treat that statement as my opinion.

vim_n_vigor

Thank you. I was thinking that two times a week would be the minimum I'd want to do. I'll set my base as getting 2 lifting sessions in a week and try for more!