There are many important benefits to exercising. It promotes overall health, helps a person maintain a moderate weight, relieves stress, and promotes restful sleep.
Because of this, there is a difference in what people want to achieve through exercise. Some people can use exercise as a weight loss technique, while others want to increase their strength.
This article explains how many times a person should work on their specific goals.
It is advisable to consult a doctor before starting any exercise or strength training program, as they can give advice on how to exercise safely and reduce the risk of injury.
How Often to Work out for Weight Loss
At its most basic level, weight loss is about solving a math problem.
A person should burn more calories on a daily basis. Some of the ways in which a person can accomplish this include:
Eat fewer calories each day than they burn.
Increasing their physical activity to burn more calories
Their muscle mass increases so they burn more calories at rest.
There is controversy over whether exercise alone is enough to lose weight.
For example, some research suggests that exercise may begin to compensate for the body by adjusting its metabolism as a means of maintaining body fat.
Exercise still plays a role in weight loss, but for maximum benefits, one should combine it with a healthy calorie-controlled diet that reduces its calorie intake.
Researchers also note that continuing to exercise after weight loss can help prevent people from regaining weight.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends combining cardiovascular training and strength training to improve health and burn calories.
Cardiovascular Training
The AHA recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of full activity throughout the week.
A person can also engage in a mixture of moderate intensity and full activity if they wish.
Examples of moderate-intensity activities include:
- Speed at a speed of at least 2.5 miles per hour (miles per hour)
- Dance
- Gardening
- Cycling less than 10 miles per hour
- Tennis
- Water aerobics
Examples of great activities include:
- When hiking, especially upwards or when wearing heavy packs
- Jumping rope
- Is running
- Swimming
- Taking aerobics classes
- Hard yard work, such as digging
Ultimately, a person can reap the greatest health benefits by engaging in at least 5 hours of physical activity a week.
Strength Training
Strength training involves the use of resistance to build muscle.
Muscles can help make the body more metabolically active, increasing the rate at which it burns calories.
The AHA recommends at least 2 days a week of moderate to high intensity resistance training. Examples of resistance training methods include:
- Weight lifting: This may include the use of weight machines or free weights for exercise such as biceps curl, bench press, and leg press.
- Use body weight for resistance: Examples of exercise include lung, squats and triceps dips. No one needs equipment to do this.
- Use of Resistance Bands: Resistance bands are elastic bands that help to increase the amount of muscle that a person needs to work. Resistance bands vary in tightness, with stiffness increasing the intensity of the workout. One can perform exercises such as squats, lunges, biceps curls, and triceps extensions using a resistance band.
Anyone who is new to exercise and is not sure where to start will want to consult a certified personal trainer. A trainer can advise an individual on which exercises are best for his or her health and fitness level, as well as how to perform them correctly and safely.
Full Body Training
A complete physical training program involves working out each of the larger muscle groups in one session. These muscle groups are the abdomen, arms, chest, hips, legs, shoulders and upper and lower back.
A person can accomplish this by using free weights, their body weights, machine weights, or a combination.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), people can do the following exercises to work large muscle groups.
| Free weights | Weight machines | Body weight exercises | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chest | supine bench press | seated chest press | wide arm pushups |
| Back | bent-over barbell rows | lat pulldown | pullups |
| Shoulders | dumbbell lateral raise | shoulder press | arm circles |
| Biceps | barbell or dumbbell curls | cable curls | reverse grip pullups |
| Triceps | dumbbell kickbacks | pressdowns | dips |
| Abs | weighted crunches | seated machine crunches | prone planks |
| Quadriceps | squats | leg extensions | lunges |
| Hamstrings | stiff-leg deadlifts | leg curls | hip-ups |
These are just some of the sample exercises that a person could include in a full body training session.
A person will typically perform 2–3 sets of 8–12 repetitions.
