How much exercise is enough exercise?
When it comes to exercise and trying to workout (no pun intended!) how much you need to do on a weekly basis, it can be hard to find the right answer for some people. The truth is there is no golden rule. It really comes down to your long term goals and what success looks like for you. What we all need to understand first before setting a weekly exercise target and type of exercise target, is what it is we want to get out of training in order to achieve results. Once you have thought this through you’ll be able to then put together a realistic set of short term goals.
It’s important to note when considering your goals that not everyone’s goal is to lose weight. Exercise goals are not only for those who want to achieve weight loss. Yes exercise does help with weight management, however if losing weight is not your goal then find one that’s suitable. You may have had a weight loss goal in the past and achieved it, so that would now mean those targets around diet and exercise need to change as you work towards your new goal.
Let’s now look at a couple of examples of how exercise goals may be different for different people:
If you think about an elite athlete whose goal is to win gold at the olympics. This person is going to need a much broader and intense training schedule compared to the average person who just wants to be fitter. They’ll be most likely required to exercise daily and in most cases twice daily.
Someone who does walking 2-3 times a week and now wants to increase their fitness. This person will need to include different types of exercise that challenge them differently, and increase their exercise to approx 4-5 times per week.
As you can see different goals require different levels of exercise and different types of exercise to achieve desired results.
For most of us who want to stay fit and healthy a general rule of thumb is aiming to vigorously exercise at least 4 times a week. Around this, 30 mins a day of walking is also recommended. However as I said this is a rough guide and it all comes down to your short and long term goals.
Key takeouts when you are trying to find what works for you:
Set short term goals
Set long term goals
Consider what type of exercise is required to achieve your goal (running, bootcamp, teamsports, stretching etc)
What fits in with your day to day schedule
Make it work for you!
For more information on training and getting into some of our bootcamp or yoga sessions follow the link here to contact me.