How Often Should You Exercise?

This is one of the more common questions I get from people, and one of the more important items I had to resolve when setting my own routine. I think it comes from fear. We’re afraid that we’ll have to spend out entire life in the gym and we’re worried that we might be committing ourselves to something we can’t sustain. So most of us, myself included, are scared that the answer might be “every single day”. We don’t want to exercise every day. We want time to go on with our lives.  Well, the truth is both better and worse than we imagine.

First, Exercise Is Not The Same As Physical Activity

Being physically active just means moving around instead of sitting on your butt all day long.  It means walking to the store, biking to the office or doing a bit of gardening.  It is not the same as exercise.  When you work out, you’re challenging your body.  You’re doing things that you don’t normally do in order to improve your physical ability.  Being physically active is not necessarily challenging.  For example, I just took a 30 minute walk.  Was it physically active?  Of course.  Was it exercise?  Not at all.  The walk didn’t challenge me, nor will it really improve my physical ability.  However, all that said, you should be physically active EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Yes, you heard me right, you should be doing something physical every single day and hopefully multiple times a day.  That could be walking, gardening or a slow bike ride.  What ever it is, you should strive to be physically active at all times.  However, this doesn’t answer the basic question of how often should you exercise.  After all, we just said that exercising is not the same as being physically active.

So How Often Should You Exercise?

The best answer I found to that question is around 5 times a week.  Any less and I feel like I’m not challenging myself enough.  Any more and I risk over exercise and injury.  That said, exercise doesn’t have to be at the gym nor does it have to be a structured workout.  For example, a hike that involves a lot of up hills can be exercise.  Fast paced dancing can be exercise.  A jog outdoors can be exercise.  Even playing soccer with friends can be exercise.

My personal rule of thumb is to get at least 3 resistance training sessions every week.  That means weights and a structured workout to make sure I am working out all areas of my body.  During those days, I’ll also do a light cardio session, usually 30 minutes in the elliptical.  The other 2 or 3 days I keep pretty flexible.  Maybe I’ll go biking with friends or maybe I’ll go hiking.  Maybe I’ll feel like doing sprints at the local track or maybe I want to hit the pool for some laps.  I might go dancing with my wife or I may go running with the dog.  Whatever it is, it needs to be physically challenging or else it’s not exercise.

Remember

Be Physically Active Every Single Day – Walking, gardening, slow paced biking, what you do it, make sure you do it all day as much as possible.

Workout Every Part Of Your Body At Least Once Per Week – That means weight or resistance training and it means a structured workout.  However, this can be done in 2 to 4 sessions which means you don’t need to “workout” every single day.

Exercise, or Challenge Yourself Physically, At Least Two or Three Times A Week – Fast paced dancing, hiking, team sports (baseball and golf don’t count!), jogging, sprinting, what ever it is, it should be challenging.

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Working out is something you do 2 or 3 times a week, usually at the gym.  Exercising is an almost daily activity.  Being physically active is a lifestyle.