How many times a week should I exercise and what is a good time to exercise?

How often you exercise depends on many factors, such as your activity level, age, fitness goals, and more. If you're new to exercise, you may be wondering, "How often do I need to exercise?" and "Is 3 days a week enough?"

Jogging is a sport that many people practice today - Illustration photo

Exercising 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week supports good health. Experts recommend doing at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week or 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. You can also reach your fitness goals by doing 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity or 25 minutes a day, 3 days a week.

The ideal workout plan includes a combination of cardio and strength training, spread throughout the week. The best weekly workout schedule for you is one that you can stick to consistently.

Overall recommendations for weekly physical activity

Keeping your body active helps support good health by improving fitness and reducing your risk of certain chronic diseases.

Different types of physical activity include:

- Balance: These exercises can help prevent falls and reduce the risk of fractures. Examples include standing on one leg and tai chi.

- Cardio: Also known as cardiovascular exercise or endurance exercise, cardio increases your breathing and heart rate. Cardio strengthens your heart and lungs, which can reduce your risk of heart disease. Exercises include cycling, jogging, swimming, and walking.

- Flexibility: Stretching helps increase agility and expand range of motion. Yoga helps improve flexibility.

- Strength training: This helps strengthen muscles. You can lift heavy or light weights or use resistance bands.

You can do a combination of these exercises during the week. For example, jogging or running for 25 minutes 3 days a week, then adding 2 or more days of weight training. You can add a light stretching session after those sessions to help improve your flexibility.

How often you exercise depends on your fitness experience and the time available. Start with a small goal if you are new to exercise.

How to combine exercises?

Doctors recommend focusing on cardio and strength training. Aim for 2 or 3 days of cardio. Spend the other 2 or 3 days doing strength training.

It's possible to combine cardio and strength training if your schedule doesn't allow for at least five workouts per week. For example, you could run for 20 minutes and do strength training for 25 minutes.

Physical

Strength training helps keep your muscles strong and should be done at least 2 days a week. Strength training exercises can include:

Bodyweight exercises (crunches, push-ups, planks); resistance bands; weight training; yoga. Try incorporating different types of strength training that work all major muscle groups such as abs, arms, back, chest, hips, legs, shoulders.

Cardio

Typically, cardio workouts are more intense than other types of workouts. What you choose to do for cardio depends on your preferences. Research has found that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and Tabata are among the most effective and efficient cardio workouts.

HIIT, or interval training, is a short, high-intensity workout. Tabata is a more intense version of HIIT that you can do with or without weights. Tabata involves working for 20 seconds, resting for 10 seconds, then repeating for a total of eight rounds. You can get a quick sweat session in just 25-30 minutes.

“Most importantly, you want to think of HIIT as working in bursts of effort that bring you to that feeling of [discomfort] and then giving yourself enough recovery time to repeat those efforts,” says one health coach.

Other examples of cardio exercises include:

Cycling, doing yard work (e.g. pushing a lawn mower), jogging, playing basketball, tennis, running, swimming, aqua aerobics, walking.

Try to increase the intensity of your cardio if you work out 3 days a week. Conversely, you can choose lower intensity cardio if you work out for a long time.

Elderly people doing morning exercises in Hanoi - Photo: NAM TRAN

Exercise frequency and intensity may vary depending on health and fitness goals.

Aim for 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, broken up into five 30-minute sessions per week. Alternatively, you could opt for 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week.

Examples of weekly exercise sessions include: Brisk walking for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Jogging for 25 minutes, 3 days a week. Strength training for 2 or more days. A combination of moderate and vigorous exercise for 2 or more days a week.

If you want exercise to help you lose weight, you usually need to create a calorie deficit. Exercise burns calories, and should be supplemented with a balanced, reduced-calorie diet. You will need to increase the time or number of days you exercise to lose weight. Some evidence suggests that exercising 60 minutes a day, 5 times a week can help you lose weight.

On average, a 70kg person can burn: 280 calories when walking briskly for 60 minutes; 330 calories when dancing; 510 calories when swimming; 590 calories when jogging....

Should I exercise every day?

It is possible to exercise every day, as long as you do not overdo it. Listen to your body and take at least one or two days off each week to help your body recover and be ready for the next workout.

During your days off, you can: do light stretching; drink enough water; prepare healthy meals; take a light walk around your neighborhood.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nen-tap-the-duc-bao-nhieu-lan-trong-tuan-thoi-gian-tap-the-nao-la-tot-2024102408582762.htm