How often to exercise??

cinner506

I exercise 6 days a week!

3 days of zumba which is 60 min a session
2 days of yoga 30 min a session and cardio 45 to 60 session
1 day of bike Stationary) 60 min sessons
Sundays are my rest days

Gallowmere1984

When I was a newbie, though, I was searching for any type of sign that I could ever have a chance of becoming one these "active/healthy people" on MFP. Someone telling me 6 days a week (at the beginning, not the way that others have told us that they worked up from 2-3 days,) would have made me feel totally inferior and hopeless. Or, it would have challenged me to go 6 days a week for the first 2 weeks and then feel dejected/frustrated when I felt tired/sore/unmotivated and didn't see the scale move the way that the Special K commercial told me that it would.

*Have you seen all the "why am I not skinny after 3 weeks of working out like a dog" threads lately??!*

I think it's better to help newbies set realistic early goals like what we all started doing. 3-4 times a week is a great goal and totally doable for most people, versus the zero that they (and most of the population) were doing before. As you get more fit, 5 days a week is average for most "active" people and I would consider 6 days (as long as you're not doing "f-ingarounditis and leisurely walking/pedaling while watching "The Kardashians") to be elite/superdedicated. However, I stand by that 6 days a week for someone starting off is unrealistic, unsustainable and setting that person up for injury and quitting.

OP, don't forget that 3 days of elevated heartrate, DOMS-inducing *work* is far superior to 6 days of half-hearted "showing up" where you barely break a sweat!

DOMS isn't an indication of a good workout. Higher frequency training has also been shown to be more optimal for natural muscle growth.

You are correct in saying that in fitness MORE isn't BETTER and that adequate rest needs to be emphasized to continue to progress, but 6-day a week training splits do work/produce if done properly as they do provide enough time for each muscle group to fully recover before the next workout (only problem you would run into is fatiguing your CNS, which is why lower volume/non-failure training is something I would highly recommend if you plan on following a 6-day split).

I would agree with this. I don't like failure training for a couple of reasons. Not the least of which is a psychological one. If you can accept failure on one lift, what's to prevent you from accepting it on another? Or accepting it when it matters? 'Failure' to me, is an unhealthy mindset to propagate in any activity. The other reason being exactly what was said about the CNS.

jehavin

Yes, but to most people, DOMS (especially when attempting a new lift or intensity,) can be a good indicator that you are working the desired area. If you get it time and time again in the same area, then something is wrong. However, my point was that if you can "feel" the workout, then you are on the right track, versus when people doing the same 20 min cardio or 15 rep bicep sets with no physical strain and then wonder why they haven't seen growth/gains. They are not cuing into physical cues of whether or not their workout is pushing their boundaries to create growth.

jehavin

I'm not sure what you mean by failure training, but I am an advocate of "rep to failure" and "one rep max" as a good indicators of progress as well. If you never "try" incremental increases or push your muscles to the point of failure, you will never hit PRs or increase your reps. I think that's why a lot of people, (especially women,) find that their workouts "don't work," because they don't push their thresholds often and strategically enough.
OP, if you ever do get into lifting, I highly recommend the 5/3/1 model, which does incorporate both of the techniques I talked about above.

Gallowmere1984

Yes, but to most people, DOMS (especially when attempting a new lift or intensity,) can be a good indicator that you are working the desired area. If you get it time and time again in the same area, then something is wrong. However, my point was that if you can "feel" the workout, then you are on the right track, versus when people doing the same 20 min cardio or 15 rep bicep sets with no physical strain and then wonder why they haven't seen growth/gains. They are not cuing into physical cues of whether or not their workout is pushing their boundaries to create growth.

I agree completely. People REALLY need to understand that low intensity generally yields low results. By the logic of the high rep crowd, I could pick up a 1 lbs. paperweight 400 times and get the same results as picking up 400 lbs. one time. It just doesn't work that way. The same goes for cardio. Luckily, the long slow cardio is gradually going the way of the dodo, and people are figuring out that you actually have to break your *kitten* on that machine to see real results.

Gallowmere1984

I'm not sure what you mean by failure training, but I am an advocate of "rep to failure" and "one rep max" as a good indicators of progress as well. If you never "try" incremental increases or push your muscles to the point of failure, you will never hit PRs or increase your reps. I think that's why a lot of people, (especially women,) find that their workouts "don't work," because they don't push their thresholds often and strategically enough.
OP, if you ever do get into lifting, I highly recommend the 5/3/1 model, which does incorporate both of the techniques I talked about above.

I'm not saying don't push. I'm saying don't make it a habit of doing silly stuff like on sets, just keep doing reps until you fail one. Failure training is generally a child of the high rep goofballs, and as such, it annoys me. As for the 1RM, obviously I am a fan of knowing that, as it's what everything one does in strength training is built on. If you never know how much you can do, how can you know if you are doing enough?

monty619

all day erry day

jayche

I'm not sure what you mean by failure training, but I am an advocate of "rep to failure" and "one rep max" as a good indicators of progress as well. If you never "try" incremental increases or push your muscles to the point of failure, you will never hit PRs or increase your reps. I think that's why a lot of people, (especially women,) find that their workouts "don't work," because they don't push their thresholds often and strategically enough.
OP, if you ever do get into lifting, I highly recommend the 5/3/1 model, which does incorporate both of the techniques I talked about above.

Jim Wendler advocates ONE set of rep maxes per workout/day 4 days a week with a deload week after every 3 weeks. While he is training to failure he is most certainly providing his CNS enough rest inbetween workouts to compensate for that fact. It is fine to push yourself to the absolute limit on sets, but to be doing it for every set and every time you train is very discouraged for optimal results in natural trainees.

Progressive overload =/= training to failure. Progressive overload simply means you're making your last workout harder than your last to promote further muscle/strength development and growth. To do this you don't have to go to failure.

Additionally, a low-volume/frequency training method with % based progression model would not be the best idea for a novice. Especially one like Wendler's where there is a deload at the end of every 3-week cycle. A better recommendation for a beginner in strength training would be a workout routine with a linear progression scheme and higher frequency training like Mark Rippletoe's Starting Strength.

jehavin

Thank you for clarifying. I always start with my warmup set, do a mod weight set, then my (3) rep max followed by another mod set and then my warmup weight rep to fail. If I'm correct, that follows the 5/3/1 set up except that I pushed my max to the middle. Not sure if that means that I am doing something detrimental according to your logic, but I really do like his/that program's progression. Either way, it worked for me, until my pregnancy caused me to drop my max weight so that I'm not straining but I look forward to resuming it.

Okay, so that officially derailed the thread. Sorry, OP.

Gallowmere1984

Thank you for clarifying. I always start with my warmup set, do a mod weight set, then my (3) rep max followed by another mod set and then my warmup weight rep to fail. If I'm correct, that follows the 5/3/1 set up except that I pushed my max to the middle. Not sure if that means that I am doing something detrimental according to your logic, but I really do like his/that program's progression. Either way, it worked for me, until my pregnancy caused me to drop my max weight so that I'm not straining but I look forward to resuming it.

Okay, so that officially derailed the thread. Sorry, OP.

I think it was derailed long before this post. xD

However, you have found something that works for you. Until it stops working for you, there is no reason to alter it, regardless of what Wendler, or Rippetoe, or anyone here thinks.

nicnak8585

No worries for Derailing the thread, it was a good read :laugh:

alfredapittman

I usually walk 5-6 days a week and alternate work DVD's when I can. It all depends on the time you have and what you like to do.

Lifting_Knitter

At the beginning,i was doing 2 miles or 45 minutes and now i do 20 minutes or 2 miles. And i've recently added 20 minutes of strength training. So overall 20 - 40.

kdeaux1959

Depends on your goals. For moderate weight loss, 3 times per week with weight training and aerobic activity would be good. With weights, work a full body workout working the larger muscle groups in compound activities (activities that require several muscle groups rather than just isolating biceps, etc.)

For muscle building, you may want to work out more often.. Just don't work the same muscle groups two days in a row.

If you don't want to deal with any weights, about 3 45 minute aerobic sessions per week should suffice. Personally, I was a bit more aggressive than that but then again, I had a long way to go.

Just remember, if what you are doing does not work, change something.