Welcome to Start TODAY. Sign up for our Start TODAY newsletter to receive daily inspiration sent to your inbox — and join us on Instagram!Whether your goal is to lose weight, build muscle or improve your health and reduce your risk of disease and injury, exercise is a key piece of the puzzle. But there are a lot of variables to consider when it comes to designing a workout routine, which can make starting and sticking with exercise difficult.
One of the first things you may wonder is: How often do I need to work out to see results? Here’s what you need to know about exercise frequency, including how often to do strength training and cardio workouts.
How many times should you work out a week to build muscle?
While just one strength-training workout per week can help you start building muscle, as a personal trainer I recommend doing strength exercise at least 3 times a week. When designing a workout schedule, I like to include strength training every other day to see the most muscle gains without overdoing it. Giving a rest day in between each strength workout will allow your muscles to repair, rebuild and recover.
Because strength training generally focuses on large muscle groups, like the glutes, legs, back and arms, those muscles require a recovery day. However, if you’re strength training your abs or core, which consist of smaller muscles, you can technically work them every single day. However, unless you really enjoy exercising every day, I recommend tacking these core and ab exercises on to your regular strength training and thus performing them every other day for a total of 3 times per week.
Doing cardio exercise, like walking, biking, swimming or aerobics, can also help to build muscle, but the focus is more on cardiovascular fitness (unless you’re climbing hills or holding weights). If weight loss is also one of your goals, I recommend adding a cardio element to your strength-training routines to burn more calories, speed up your metabolism, and…
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