Figuring out how you should schedule your workouts every week is no easy feat. However, if you know your goals, and where you want to get to, it can be easier than you think.
No two people will have the same exact schedule, as everyone has different exercise goals. A professional athlete will have a specific schedule, style, and routine, but if you just want to feel and look good, then you do not need to make things complex.
You do not even need to follow a program, although you can if you want to as it can be beneficial to you, depending on your goals.
So, instead of lining out a specific schedule for you, as we do not know your specifics, we will tell you what you need to consider to best formulate your schedule around what you need.
Realistically, you might want to have a 3 day workout split. However, realism is important, and what is realistic for one person is not for another, you do not only need to consider what you want from your workouts but how they fit around your lifestyle.
Generally, you should work out a good 3 times per week to stay consistent and get the progress you seek.
However, make sure that you can actually fit it into your life, if you cannot then you may struggle in other regards. If you find yourself strapped for time, your workout may become stressful, and you may feel less eager to do it.
You should try to space out your workouts throughout your week, instead of fitting them all into a couple of days, or your weekend. You are better off having a schedule for; Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, instead of Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
This is because you need to allow your body to recover and adapt, it will enhance your performance to space them out like such.
Yet, if your lifestyle only allows you to fit two workouts into your weekend, it is better to do this than nothing at all!
The length of your workouts is totally dependent on you, they can be as brisk as 20 minutes or as long as 1:30 hours.
However long your workout is for depends on the intensity of your workout as well. If you perform high-intensity, interval-led training then it should never exceed 20-25 minutes, otherwise, you will exhaust yourself.
Alternatively, a yoga class or a steady session of cardio can go on for 75 minutes or so.
You should also vary your workouts throughout the week for the best results.
On this topic, let’s remember you should be getting variety in your workouts. No matter your goals, you should include four primary elements in your workouts.
CARDIO. This includes running, fast walking, cycling, body combat, dancing, kickboxing, equestrian sports, and so on.
RESISTANCE TRAINING. This includes weights, resistance bands, gym equipment, or even your own weight.
FLEXIBILITY. This includes yoga, pilates, and learning to stretch and mobilize your joints and muscles.
RECOVER. Rest days, foam rolling, or even a massage to aid in body repair after your workout week.
You can do all of these on individual days, or if you are tight on time, you can combine these into multiple days to be able to fit all of them in. However, it works for you. Just include all of these to best get good results from your workouts.
You do need to take a rest day. Exercise can be addictive, it feels so good, releasing those endorphins that we want to do it every day. However, you can have too much of a good thing, and if you do too much you can tear your body down.
If you do not rest properly you can overtrain your tissues, making you more likely to get injuries, do hormonal damage, have a negative effect on your sleep, or just completely damage your overall performance.
Rest days should include nothing, and at a bare minimum, they should include a light walk or chilled yoga. You can do some light workouts though.
Depending on your fitness level, you could do a really low-impact exercise such as really light pilates, low-impact yoga, or a chilled cycling session. However, it does depend on you.
Should you be super active, and you enjoy stretching, foam rolling, and sleeping, then you may get away without a proper rest day, and just do something low-key. Otherwise, you should take a full official day off to actually rest up.
