One of the most common questions I receive from new athletes is “How often should I workout?”. My response is always the same “Depends on your individual goals, experience and recovery.
How often you should workout is an individual thing and can even change from month to month depending on what you have going on. But a good rule of thumb and what I preach to my new athletes is 3-4 days per week. I came up with this advice based on the following:
- Most of my athletes are just looking for all around health and fitness. They are not looking to deadlift 3 times their bodyweight or quality for the Boston Marathon. My athletes want to be able to hike 14er, keep up with their kids, feel comfortable in a bath suit and live long healthy lives. With 3-4 days a week, will see gains in strength (ie. build muscle) and aerobic conditioning (ie. burpees will start to get a little more manageable, not easier)
- Most of my athletes are mid-30s to 60s. Their bodies have a little wear and tear on them from playing sports and/or having too much of a good time in their younger years. Their bodies just don’t recover as fast as they used to. With 3-4 days a week they allow their bodies time to adapt to the intensity and recover between workouts.
- All of my athletes enjoy the challenge of pushing themselves and the results they see from it so much that they (myself included) need to be reminded that more is not necessarily better, quality is better. I would rather have my athletes give me 100% effort 3-4 times per week versus 60% effort 6-7 times per week.
-Matthew Kirkendall, Owner/Head Coach
