Workout Frequency: How Often Should I be Hitting the Gym per Week?
Creating an effective gym workout program can be challenging. A key starting point is determining how much time you can realistically commit to training.
If you want to see significant changes, I would recommend working out at least three to four times a week in the gym. This is minimal. I understand many of us don’t have that time to dedicate on a weekly basis to working out or hitting the gym. That’s OK. The important thing is that you are realistic with yourself.
Set SMART goals
I suggest setting goals starting on the lower end of your bigger picture. Why? Because you want to start with attainable goals that you can reach.
Don’t start out trying to go from not working out at all to working out five to six times a week. This intensity will most likely shock the body in a not so good way and may deter you from continuing because you went from zero to sixty in no time.
If you are someone who has, three hours a week to dedicate to the gym, I would suggest starting out with total body workouts. There are tons of benefits to total body workouts.
Some of these total body workout benefits include:
Overall tIme saver
Allow muscles to fully recover
Allow you the time to do other things to stay fit and to try new things
Decreased central nervous system fatigue
Looking to build muscle or lose a good amount of body fat?
If you are someone who wants to build a substantial amount of muscle or lose a good amount of body fat (30-50+ pounds), I would recommend being in the gym four to five times a week. Why Because in order to build muscle, we need to focus on hitting specific muscle groups one to two times a week and when you train by doing body part splits, your workouts are going to inevitably be more thorough.
Meaning you will be hitting the smaller parts of your shoulders, glutes, quads, etc, in a more specific isolated way thus helping you build muscle faster. If you want to lose body fat, you need to be exerting more calories everyday then what you are taking in.
How to take in less calories:
Eating less than your caloric maintenance
Working out consistently in order to build muscle
When we build muscle, we increase our RMR (resting metabolic rate) which means we put our bodies in a position to burn more calories at rest. Therefore, getting to the gym as frequently as possible in order to burn calories for the day AND build more muscle in the long run becomes even more important.
Workout frequency depends not only on your goals but also your priorities, job, family, time and more importantly, what makes you the most HAPPY! 😊
Hitting the gym three times a week doing total body workouts may be best for you. Yes, you can still get results if you only have three hours a week to spend in the gym. This just means more time has to be allocated to meal planning, counting macros and sticking to your schedule.
We have heard that six packs are made in the kitchen and this is 100% true!
The importance of nutrition becomes even more emphasized if you have less time to dedicate to working out.
My suggestion? Think about your goals, how much time YOU can dedicate to the gym & make your decision based off that.
Remember, if you think you have about 3 to 4 hours a week to set aside for your workouts, start with three and work your way up to four. Error on the side of less so you build your confidence up when you achieve these attainable goals and feel like the boss babe that you are!
Keep in mind what works for us now may not work for us next year or even next month. That’s ok! What’s important is that we learn to speed up and slow down when necessary and listen to our bodies along the way.