How often to exercise? Check what the research says

• How often do you exercise to stay he althy?
• How often do you exercise to lose weight?
• How often do you exercise your abs?
• How often do you exercise so that your back does not hurt?
• How often do you exercise at the gym?
• How often to exercise to improve your condition?

How often to exercise? This question is asked by people who want to lose weight and slim their stomach, train at the gym, those who want to improve their condition, get rid of back pain or simply lead a he althy lifestyle. Find out about the latest scientific research to find out how many times a week you exercise to stay fit and slim.

How often to exercise ? How many times a week we should train depends primarily on the effect we want to achieve and the activity we choose. To slim down the stomach, you even need daily exercise, but half of it should be strength training and half of it should be aerobics. The same goes for losing weight. However, if our goal is to improve overall fitness and reduce back pain, the activity may not be as frequent.

Find out how often to exercise to achieve the best sports and therapeutic results.

Contents:

1. How often do you exercise to stay he althy?
2. How often do you exercise to lose weight?
3. How often do you exercise your abs?
4. How often do you exercise so that your back does not hurt?
5. How often do you exercise at the gym?
6. How often to exercise to improve your condition?

How often do you exercise to stay he althy?

Most often it is recommended to exercise for he alth at least 5 times a week for 30 minutes. But will this solution be good for everyone? It turns out that it is. Minimum physical activityat least 150 minutes a weekis recommended by the US Center for Disease Prevention and Control¹ , a unit of the government's Department of He alth and Human Services. As its member Dr. Lisa Cadmus-Bertram from the University of Wisconsin explains, this thesis is confirmed by research conducted for years.

Among others, those conducted on a group of 64,000 people by scientists from Loughborough University² . The subjects were at least 40 years old and exercised 150 minutes a week. What were the results? Reducing the risk of cancer by 21 percent and cardiovascular disease by 41 percent.

If you work in a sitting position, get up at least once an hour and take a few minutes' walk. Even this amount of activity will reduce the negative effects of constant sitting.

However, it is worth adding important information:more important than the regularity of exercises is their duration . It can even be one or two workouts a week, as long as they last a total of at least 150 minutes. This principle is confirmed by a study by scientists from Loughborough: people training only on the weekends reduced their risk of cancer by 19 percent and cardiovascular disease by 41 percent - the same as those who exercised 5 times a week.

Although it is advisable to exercise 3-5 times a week, experts argue that even the slightest physical activity is better than none. What's more, some very intense workouts may be shorter - for example, it is enough to spend 75 minutes. demanding fitness exercises, and devote the remaining time to calmer strength exercises and stretching (at least twice a week).

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How often do you exercise to lose weight?

The desire to lose weight is a frequent motivation of people who start exercising. How many times a week to train to achieve the effect? Just enough to lead to a caloric deficit in your body, i.e. a situation when our energy balance is negative (i.e. we burn more energy than we consume from food). To lose weight, you must therefore use diet and exercise at the same time. Which training should I choose?

The one that allows us to burn as many calories as possible - intervals are perfect for this. One should also remember about the variety of exercises. Cardio training is best combined with strength training. During the first ones, we can burn 500-800 kcal in one training, although later the metabolism slows down. It is different with strength exercises - during exercise we will burn less fat, but this process will be longer and will last up to 36 hours after the end of exercise.

As for the frequency of weight loss exercises, there is no one golden rule. According to the recommendations published by The American Heart Association³ , losing weight will bring results if we train5 times a week for 1 hour , which is a total of300 minutes a week . In turn, experts from The American College of Sports Medicine⁴emphasize that exercising for an hour a day without a break may not always be feasible (we are often too busy), so you can divide the activity into six 10- series of minutes (or two 30-minute, three 15-minute, etc.),e.g. in the morning before work, in the afternoon and in the evening. The achieved results will also be satisfactory.

How often do you exercise your abs?

How often the abdominal muscles are trained gives rise to a lot of debate. Some say that the abdomen can be exercised every day, others add that it does not always bring good results, because the muscles need rest.

It's true that the abdominal muscles are made up of more red (i.e. slow twitch) fibers than, for example, the quadriceps, so they endure more repetitions. This does not mean, however, that they do not need regeneration. That is why The American Council of Exercise⁵recommends, as with any other type of exercise (e.g. for thighs and buttocks, biceps), that there should be a minimum of one day's break a week between workouts. Vigorous physical activity requires a 2-day break to help prevent injuries and increase the effects of exercise.

It is worth adding that in order to be effective, abdominal muscle exercises require variety. Abdominal crunches are most often performed, but they only work on the rectus muscle, and the oblique abdominal muscles (exemplary exercises: russian twist, sideways plank, bicycle) and the transverse muscle are also required to be trained.

Check: Plank - types. 21 variants of the plank exercise

Worth knowing

Exercise longer - you will protect yourself from cancer

In recent years, there has been more and more scientific research confirming the relationship between physical activity and cancer risk reduction. While there is still a lot to learn, the first results of the research are promising.

Dr. Christine Friendenreich of the University of Calgary measured the physical activity of as many as 73,000 postmenopausal women who had never exercised before. 300 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise was more effective at burning fat, which increases the risk of breast cancer, than the recommended 150 minutes. Application? The longer you exercise, the lower your risk of developing breast cancer. "We know that 150 minutes of physical activity a week is positive, but 300 minutes is even better," said Dr. Friendenreich⁶ .

How often do you exercise so that your back does not hurt?

People with back pain usually do not feel strong enough to exercise. Indeed - in an acute state, i.e. when the pain is very severe, it is recommended to take a few days' rest from sports. However, a complete lack of physical activity will not do you any good - chronic pains will not go away on their own. However, by doing the exercises, we will get back into shape faster, and above all -we will get rid of the pain.

The condition of your spine will be improved by swimming, cycling, Pilates, Nordic walking.

How many times a week do you exercise to help your spine? The most important thing is regularity, i.e. exercise3-4 times a week lasting about 30 minutes . Experts from Arthristis Research⁷in the UK, a medical organization dealing with joint diseases, recommend exercise for 6-8 weeks - they point out that although back pain should subside after just 2 weeks of exercise, longer activity physical condition will prevent ailments from returning.

Read: ADVANTAGES OF SWIMMING: strengthens the muscles and relieves the spine

What exercises are best to do? Stretching (including yoga or Pilates), walking, stationary bike riding, cross trainers and McKenzie exercises. During stretching, you should give up any exercises that cause pain, and stay in specific positions for about 20-30 seconds to relax muscles and joints. Each exercise should be repeated 5-10 times.

In addition, it is important to regularly strengthen the paraspinal muscles (also known as deep, stabilizing). The stronger they are, the more the spine is relieved. At least 1-2 workouts a week should be devoted to exercises for the deep abs, deep back and leg muscles.

How often do you exercise at the gym?

How many times a week should we exercise if we choose to train in the gym? When exercising in the gym, you will get the best results in moderation - the American College of Sports Medicine⁸recommends going to the gym2-3 times a week, if we are just starting to train with a load, and when we get used to the body to exercise, it can be4-5 times a week . A lot also depends on the selected training plan - if we use holistic training (involving all the muscles of the body to work), you should not exercise more than3 times a week . If the split, i.e. split training, we can go to the gym even every day (only we strengthen a different muscle part each time).

Advice for those who are slimming: we will achieve the shape of our dreams by combining strength exercises (performed first) with cardio exercises (performed second). As your fitness grows, you can add interval exercises.

How often to exercise to improve your condition?

How many times a week should people who want to improve their endurance exercise? Regularity is the key to success. You can start by changing your daily habits: replacing the elevator with stairs, 30-minute daily walks or 15-minute fast marches. Ifour expectations are higher, we can include aerobic exercises in the gym in our daily activities, starting with training on a bicycle, cross trainer or treadmill at a moderate pace. To improve your condition, aerobic exercise should be done3 to 4 times a weekfor 40-60 minutes.

See also: Exercises to improve fitness and endurance

It is very important to maintain a proper pulse during exercise - it should be 70-80% of your maximum heart rate. This is the optimal heart rate interval in which the cardiovascular system gets used to increasing training loads.