FREE GUIDE: How Much Exercise Do You Need Every Week? (Plus One Smart Way to Do It)

Sedentary lifestyles, longer hours of work, and lack of fitness are the leading causes for the increasing experiences of bloating, obesity, potbellies, and heart diseases among millions of people in the world. Another contributor to it is a lack of proper sleep schedules and all this has heated the race to the top.

Even before we discuss how much exercise or physical training do you need every day, we need to bring up a few stats for the rising trends of obesity and sedentary lifestyle around the world:

1. The number of obese people has tripled since 1975 around the world.

2. In 2016, the total number of obese people was over 650 million.

3. Out of them, 39% were above 18 years of age.

4. Obesity is more life-threatening than skinniness or being underweight.

5. 38 million children (aged below 5 years) are overweight.

In the light of the above stats, it makes sense to know that improper choices of lifestyle, dietary, and sleep patterns are at fault. But there is another factor- of regularly working out that is causing the most damage, even if most people do not see it. Some people even worry about how many hours of fitness they should do, even when they are not even mentally prepared to keep themselves fit.

Why Are You Unfit?

It is not too difficult to know why someone is unfit. There are four major reasons for it as we have mentioned above, and one or more of these factors could affect why your body shape is far from perfect. Here are these factors in detail:

Sedentary lifestyle: Sitting for long hours at work

If you sit for 5 to 12 hours a day at work, you might be affected by one or more health ailments. This could be made all the worse by several unhealthy eating habits, alcohol abuse, binge eating and an undisciplined lifestyle that most of us are guilty of.

Sitting in the same position for extended durations of time can be harmful to your health. You could find yourself courting the risk of many chronic illnesses like heart diseases, cancers, obesity, and diabetes. Keeping in mind the challenges associated with a desk job, we’ve compiled the following expert tips to boost your health and fitness without disrupting your work routine.

Body posture

Most office folks are prone to poor posture. If you’re using a computer, you’re going to be drawn to the screen. This allows you to crane your neck forward and thus putting a strain on your vertebral column. If you multiply this effect over 350 days a year, you can imagine the huge loss your body could be subjected to.

This is similar to holding a heavy object like a bowling ball all the time. By keeping your arms vertical and aligned with your body, you can free up your muscles. When you’re sitting at a desk, your head is acting as the bowling bowl that strains your neck and spine when you lean forward.

How to fix bad posture?

If you are suffering from back pain, here’s how you can correct a body posture. You can start by keeping your spine and neck at 90 degrees by sitting straight against your chair. Persisting with this method would help you have a better posture.

You can spend a few minutes each day to suck your belly button in and keep your back straight. An erect posture makes you look more confident and assertive. Another benefit of keeping a neutral back is that it keeps you away from developing a potbelly.

Sleep patterns

Maintaining a proper sleeping routine is important because it can make all the difference between health and illness. All living bodies need sleep to repair body cells and to rejuvenate the cardiovascular system so you could wake up refreshed.

If you are tired or ill, you would need to sleep longer than usual. We recommend turning off all distractions like TV, mobile phones, etc., and have at least a couple of hours between your dinner and the time you go to sleep.

Unhealthy eating

To avoid cola drinks and fast foods, you may keep a few healthy snacks with you such as trail mix, baby carrots, and a dip (hummus or peanut butter) or fruits with you at all times. These can be easily carried around in zip lock bags, paper bags, or plastic containers.

It’s important not to rely on restaurants and local food joints for your nourishment. Bringing your lunch means that you’ll not only be eating healthier but you’ll save a lot of money too. You should also switch to have a healthy breakfast to start your day and go for easy no-equipment workouts at home.

After discussing three of the most common scenarios that could be holding you back, it is time to know how you may get started with a regular workout plan. But before that, we shall discuss the ideal or recommended exercise per week that you should commit yourself to.

What Is the Recommended Exercise Frequency per Week?

Should you exercise every day or take a day off?

You should work out every day for six days a week and take one day’s rest. You may start working out four days a week if you are a beginner or if you think you have a hectic schedule.

However, the situation might be a bit different if you are in for some specialized training schedules. If you are going for advanced training exercises like HIIT, Strength Training, etc., we ask that you assess your fitness levels and willingness to work hard first.

Note: The key is to stay consistent with your fitness and workout goals. If you do so, better results won’t be too far away.

A 4-Week Workout Plan for Weight Loss

1. Monday (Body Weight or Strength Training Exercises):

i. Cardio: Burpees, Jump Rope

ii. Strength Training: Squat, Planks, Overhead Triceps Extensions

2. Tuesday (Flexibility Training):

i. Forward Lunges, Side Lunge

ii. Crossover

3. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday:

a. Total Body Resistance Exercises (TRX)

4. Saturday (High-Intensity Cardio

i. Burpees

ii. Kickboxing

5. Sunday:

a. Rest

If you’re already working out but not getting significant results anymore, you might need to revamp your routine a little bit. You should also take it easy for the first few days because we are all different and our bodies may take their own time to respond.

Simple weight loss exercises to do at home

You may start with simpler exercises like walking or jogging to get going with your fitness routine. We understand that you could be looking for specialized results like toning the lower body, or building lean muscles, or melting belly fat but you can always start with these simple exercises to get going.

Walking or jogging

Park at a distance from your workplace and walk the remaining distance on foot. If you’re using a garage, use the lower level so that you can climb more stairs. If you don’t feel odd doing it, try doing a few laps on these stairs- chances are no one will notice.

You can also use a bicycle to get to your workplace or consider taking public transportation instead of your vehicle. Getting off a couple of stops before and walking the rest of the way is a great idea too. The key is to do it every day and to ask someone else to join you.

Stair Climbing

Another simple exercise that you could do is climbing stairs. While it is a bit risky at times, you can get better results from it with a little caution. Doing this simple exercise at home could help you increase your speed, agility, and sharpness, besides boosting your metabolism.

Be sure not to do it if you have cramps in your feet, or if the staircases are wet. You should also not wear high-heeled footwear or loose clothes that could trip you over while you are doing this exercise.

How much exercise to lose weight?

An ideal workout frequency is four to six sessions per week. It comes out to about one session a day and one weekly off. Every session should be of 60 minutes (for beginners) and about 120 minutes (for professionals and experts). Please note that it would also depend on your fitness goal, schedule, and BMI too.

How much exercise do I need? How much exercise is too much?

We should do well with 120-150 minutes of physical activity, though beginners should not stretch themselves beyond 60 minutes. It is just as important to check for signs like obsession or injury.

How much exercise per day?

As a beginner, you should not exercise more than four days a week. If you are a fitness professional or expert, you may exercise every day but you should keep a day off every week.

Signs You Are Making Progress Working Out

Here are some telltale signs that indicate you are maximizing your exercise routine and that your workouts are working:

Heart rate

Some people make the mistake of relying on sweat being the only indicator of a tough workout. However, you may just be prone to sweating or you may be working out in a hot environment. A failsafe approach to determine whether you’re making the best out of your workout session is to check your heart rate and blood pressure.

Expert tip: Be sure to have a good quality fitness tracker band or smartwatch for the purpose.

It is important to have your heart racing throughout the workout. Whether you’re doing high-intensity interval training or you’re on a cardio machine, you should aim for a heartbeat that fluctuates between 75% of your maximum when you start and then build it to 100% as you progress. You can roughly determine your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220.

Intensity of exercises

After sticking to a workout plan for a certain period, it is normal to become comfortable with the workout. You don’t feel sore or tired while doing it. If this sounds a lot like your current routine, it’s time to up your intensity. If you’re weight training, add more weights and do more reps.

If your workouts require lighter weights (for safety and more movement), increase the number of repetitions by 10 or more. For cardio, you should move faster and incorporate interval training. The more effort you put into a workout, the faster results you may get.

PS: You should focus on getting your warmups in line before you start swinging your workouts. Severalfitness experts around the world believe that this is a crucial step to get the best results from your workouts every day.

Metabolism

Your digestion and eating habits can alone determine your health. They can also let you know about all the steps that you should take to stay fit and healthy. Instead of worrying about how busy you are and how hectic your lifestyle is, you should focus on making a positive change to your eating habits.

If you are working out properly, you would find that your metabolism rate has improved and you are now experiencing a much lighter body. You also feel that your body vitals like BP, heart rate, and blood sugar are all fine and that you feel supercharged every day.

Physical changes

This doesn’t mean that you should give up after a week of trying a new routine. Think about how long it took you to take your body to the level you’re at now and keep working at your regime. If you’ve been eating healthy and working out regularly for a few months with few results to show, you should consider reevaluating your routine.

You don’t have to jump into a super-intense routine if you’re still just a few months new to working out but you still need to progress gradually. The more regular and steady you are, the better results you may get over time.

To Change the Way You Look…

It is mighty simple (but not easy) to break your routine and get into a zone of fitness. People struggle with all kinds of prior commitments related to their personal and professional lives, and that makes their focus on working out a bit weaker. We would advise you to focus on reasonable leverage that you can draw from your workspace and use it to stay active during your work.

Even something as simple as a bit of walking around and going up to a co-worker’s seat can add up for a cumulative difference. They also help in normalizing your blood circulation and blood sugar levels. You can also consult a lifestyle expert to know how you may make subtle changes to your personal and professional lives for the maximum advantage.

Get Free Online Fitness Consultation on Your Smartphone

Working out as per a certain frequency and fitness plan is better when you work under professional guidance. You could exercise or train under expert guidance in a gym or at home, and the best thing is that you may even avail it for free on your smartphone using MevoLife’s online services.

Tip: These services are available online round-the-clock, on-demand, without any reservation, and from the world’s best personal trainers. These sessions may be availed through audio or video conferencing, and are available at a fraction of your gym subscription fees.

Home to some of the best virtual fitness experts from around the world, this portal is your one-stop solution to get qualified and personalized advice about your workout schedule. You would also benefit from allied services like online consultations with nutritionists, Zumba or Yoga trainers, and mental therapists. Here’s a link that you can use to get started with your first consultation today!