How often should you train in the gym?

Author: Timko Ilya - the ruler of the entire site and fitness trainer | more details >> Rod. 1984 Trained since 1999 Trained since 2007. Author and creator of the site tvoytrener.com. CCM in powerlifting. Champion of Russia and South Russia according to AWPC. Champion of the Krasnodar region according to IPF. 1st category in weightlifting. 2-time winner of the Krasnodar Territory championship in t/a. Author of more than 700 articles on fitness and amateur athletics. Author and co-author of 5 books.

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I get asked this question quite often. And this is not an idle question. Indeed, the number of workouts per week (density) greatly influences the results. And humanity (and me personally) has long determined the optimal number of workouts per week. This is what we will talk about.

Training in numbers: what, who, how many?

In one of the previous articles, we discussed in detail what time is best to visit the gym. Then we clearly understood for ourselves what physical activity should be performed at this or that time of the day. Today we will continue the “debriefing” and find out how many times you need to go to the gym in order to achieve the best results.

Each organism is individual - some recover very quickly, while others require a long time to recover. It is very difficult for a beginning athlete to determine the supercompensation phase. Contact the specialists who work on our site. They will definitely take into account the characteristics of your body and draw up a competent training and nutrition plan. Individual training will save your time and money! Go to the individual trainers section.

When any questions arise, most people (especially young people) run to a search engine for answers. They say that the Internet has answers to all questions, but few people think about its quality and veracity. So someone once said that you need to go to the gym three times a week and away we go. Almost every resource has the same answers, as if they were carbon copies. Actually, we could not think for a long time, but just say right away: they say, comrades, go to the gym three times a week and you will be happy. But we don’t like such a superficial approach, so we will now delve into the essence of the issue very carefully and in detail.

Let’s start, perhaps, with something visual, with statistics, which tell us the following (see figure).

As you can see from the chart, most people (about 80%) go to the gym three times a week. Moreover, you can even easily guess that the evenings (from 18 to 21 hours) of Monday, Wednesday and Friday are dedicated to sports. It is precisely at this time that there is the largest influx of people in gyms and fitness centers, so there is, literally, nowhere for the apple to fall. And this trend is easily explained:

A common habit.
Convenient to combine with work or study.

In reality, if a person is really determined to get serious results, and not go to the gym for show, then the question of the number of workouts per week needs to be approached seriously.

When a person subjects his body to training, the various processes together can be divided into several types. There are only four of them:

Work of the heart and blood vessels.
Development of muscle strength.
Endurance training.
Development of muscle elasticity and flexibility.

Now let's look at each type in more detail.

Cardiovascular system load

This type of load provokes the development of lungs, veins and arteries, which are responsible for transporting oxygen to organs and tissues. Over time, the heart becomes more resilient and able to pump more blood with fewer contractions. As a result, your heart rate decreases, which means your heart will pump more efficiently and easily.

All exercises that use a lot of oxygen (aerobic) strengthen the cardiovascular system. And you need to pay attention to this when you create your training plan.

Developing endurance and muscle strength

As soon as you stop actively using your muscles, they begin to shrink, shrink, that is, shrink. Muscle strength is necessary for a person in any everyday situation: to lift children, carry bags, stand straight or lie horizontally. Good endurance makes it possible to perform certain actions for a longer period of time without feeling tired. All these qualities are needed in order to be mobile, agile and functional, which is especially important in old age.

It is also important to remember that active muscle tissue uses much more calories than inactive muscle tissue. So this is great news for those who want to lose weight. All exercises aimed at overcoming resistance develop a person’s muscles.

Flexibility

Flexibility is no less important than other indicators, but is often not taken into account during training. But it is precisely this that determines the degree of joint mobility. Without flexibility, a person will not be able to perform even the simplest tasks and movements. Also, due to flexibility, the risk of injury is reduced and eliminates premature lower back pain. So stretching and yoga are mandatory attributes of the training program.

All of the above is the basis for determining the volume of training and specific numbers (how much time you need to train per week).

Let's look further, so now it's time to determine the correct mechanism for building a workout in the gym.

Dependence of the number of visits on the purpose of the classes

The answer to the question of how many times you need to go to the gym is not least determined by the purpose of these trips. If your goal is to lose weight, you need to maintain a fairly high level of activity and maintain a healthy diet.

You can choose to engage in the following sports to burn calories:

Cardio exercise: treadmill, exercise bike. The optimal duration of classes is 30-40 minutes.
Strength exercises, during which light weights are used, and the exercise itself occurs at an accelerated pace. Such physical activity will help start the process of burning fat and strengthen muscles.

4-6 visits to the gym are allowed

per week with a mandatory minimum of one day off.

Building an ideal training process

To determine for yourself how many times a week you need to go to the gym in order to get optimal results, you need to remember some basic principles (due to which you will be able to squeeze out the maximum that they can give from your workouts).

First of all, these principles relate to the frequency, intensity and complexity of classes.

There are a few more points that should not be forgotten when drawing up a training complex, since it must necessarily include the following types of loads:

warm-up;
stretching;
cool down (cooling muscles).

Now let’s look at each element in more detail and try to find the answer to today’s most important question.

Warm up (warm up muscles) and cool down (cool down muscles)

This type of activity can be safely included in exercise sets, but not performed at such an intense level. For example, if you plan to run on the treadmill for 45 minutes, then you can walk on it at a moderate pace.

Remember, warming up:

Increases blood flow to muscles;
Reduces the chances of muscle or joint injury;
Passes within 5-10 minutes at minimum intensity.

It is important to remember that cooling:

Prevents blood from pooling in the extremities;
No more than 5 minutes pass (the intensity level should gradually decrease).

Stretch marks

You need to stretch your muscles both after the warm-up and after the cool-down. Its role is very important, since it is thanks to stretching that the risk of injury is reduced, and the feeling of stiffness after exercise disappears and at the same time flexibility develops.

Important : A very common mistake is to stretch before warming up. Such actions are fraught with injury, since the muscles first need to be warmed up and only then stretched.

How often should you train?

People are advised to be active daily and do light aerobic exercise 3-5 times a week (cycling, swimming, brisk walking). Those who lead a sedentary lifestyle need to get used to working out in the gym gradually, starting from 2 times a week.

The most effective way to work would be:

Monday – training in the gym;
Tuesday – aerobic exercise;
Wednesday is a day of rest;
Thursday – classes in the hall;
Friday – aerobic exercise;
Saturday and Sunday are rest days.

The purpose of our site is to provide qualified assistance in drawing up training plans. Go to the section with ready-made workouts or order an individual training plan from a specialist!

How long should you train?

According to scientists, a person should spend at least 20 minutes a day on sports (warm-up and cool-down are not taken into account). The maximum interval between exercises is 1 hour. For those who are just starting to go to the gym, it is important to first increase their time under load from 10 minutes to 20-25 minutes. It's best to start with exercises that you can do at home, such as push-ups, squats, abs, etc.

How difficult should it be?

Some athletes in the gym work hard, so their training time stretches over long periods, while others, on the contrary, work with high intensity and therefore invest in a record time. So it turns out that intensity is an important factor that influences the amount of time required, the intervals between classes and the number of approaches.

Beginners are advised to start with low-intensity physical activity. After this, you need to gradually increase the duration of training (the total amount of time under load), and only then can you increase the intensity.

Each athlete must determine for himself how often and for how long to train. This figure is flexible enough in itself, so everyone has everything they need to derive the optimal value.

So it turns out that to answer the question of how many times you need to visit the gym, you must first analyze all the parameters listed above, and then come up with something that is suitable for you.

There is an option to take the simple route and give instructions to train everyone and everything for one hour 3 times a week. Only the results from this approach will be small. And why all? Yes, because there is no adjustment in them to their goals, their body and their daily routine.

Now is the time to move on to considering the physiological side of training.

Optimal frequency of visits to the gym

The most important principle to understand is that regularity is more important than quantity. If you start going to the gym twice a day every day, but after a month you quit, your workouts won't do you any good. And on the contrary: regular training, even just 1-2 times a week, but throughout the year, will be very effective.

Let's look at how many times you need to go to the gym if you have just recently started exercising.

The number of training sessions should be calculated based on the following factors:

physical training;
planned load level;
the purpose of going to the gym.

The optimal frequency, which is recommended by many trainers for those who are just starting exercise or resuming them after a long break, is 2-3 times a week.

. A sharp increase in the number of workouts will only lead to negative effects:

rapid loss of interest in activities;
lack of time for muscle recovery;
increased fatigue.

If you no longer consider yourself a beginner in sports, you can safely purchase passes for 4-5 visits

in Week.

How often should you train in the gym?

| |

Author: Timko Ilya

- the ruler of the entire site and fitness trainer. Date: 2012-08-19

All articles by the author >

I am often asked: “How many workouts per week do you need to achieve maximum results?”

My answer is this: the “distance” between workouts should be such that you have time to recover from workout to workout. Otherwise, your fatigue will accumulate and will not allow you to progress in your classes. And the rest of the time you will feel lethargic and overwhelmed.

How quickly you recover depends mainly on three factors:

1. How hard did you work out in training?

It’s clear that the more tired you are in class, the more time (other things being equal) you need to replenish energy, muscle structure, and so on. That is, the less often you train, the more you can load yourself without the risk of overtraining. Read more in the article Recovery phases after training.

2. Your lifestyle

This includes: your job, how you relax, your daily activity level, and much more. In a word, everything that you do outside the gym. Your lifestyle can either speed up your recovery or slow it down.

3. Features of your body

This is, first of all, your metabolic rate. The higher it is, the shorter the recovery. You cannot directly influence this factor. But, as a rule, the more active you are in life, the higher your metabolism. With age, his speed decreases. If you are no longer young, this will also have to be taken into account.

I hope that now you understand what goes into how quickly you can recover after a workout in the gym.

Before we go further, I want to say that everything above and below applies equally to those who want to gain weight and to those who want to lose weight. That is, the frequency of training does not depend on your goal.

Well, how many times a week should you train??!!

Who the hell knows) I’ll say this, the minimum amount is twice a week. This means that at this frequency you can count on at least some result. This is how 60% - 70% of amateurs who visit the gym or any other training train. But you shouldn't look up to them. Either laziness or lack of time prevents them from walking more often.

Three times a week is considered optimal for amateurs. With this situation and average volume training, most people manage to recover. Almost all other people train this way.

Approximately 5% exercise more than 3 times a week. Usually this is 4 and 5 times. This approach requires certain knowledge and experience. It is necessary to strictly dose the volume of load in each workout. After all, the more often a person trains, the less the amount of work for each individual workout should be. Plus, your lifestyle should allow you to constantly rest fully. For example, you can see a set of exercises for gaining weight for 5 workouts per week.

conclusions

If you come to the gym for the first time or for any other workout, start with 2 times a week. Then, after one or two months, you can and should switch to 3 workouts a day. If this doesn’t seem enough to you, or you want to experiment, try more frequent training. But remember that in this case it is better to reduce the amount of load per lesson.