When it comes to working out, whether it’s losing weight or gaining muscle, the majority of people believe they need to exercise every day and push themselves over their limits. Especially when it comes to weight training, they can be discouraged and upset with themselves if they aren’t sore everyday. I know because I used to be that person and
I struggle everyday not to be. The truth is, how often you should workout depends on MANY things including:
- your fitness goals (lose weight, gain muscle, tone up, maintain healthy lifestyle, etc.)
- the types of exercises you are doing
- your lifestyle
Even considering all of these factors, being sore EVERYDAY is actually really bad for your body. Your muscles need time to heal before they can work properly again, and you could potentially hurt your progress in the long run if your workouts are too intense, too often.
The other factor that can ruin our perfect workout schedule is life. Life happens! My preferred workout schedule is weight training 6 days a week with a rest day on Sundays, and when I first started lifting I was able to keep that routine for months. I felt the best I ever had, but then something called life with its family issues, school work, and grown-up responsibilities hit me like a train. Over the past month and a half I have only actually lifted about 3 times a week if I am lucky, I haven’t been to the gym in 4 days, and all I have been eating is pizza and ice cream, which is perfectly okay sometimes! We are only human, and our main goal of exercising should be focused on our mental gains even when we can’t put everything we have into our physical gains. So rest when you need to. Rest when you feel tired or weak, when you feel like you’ve accomplished an amazing few days at the gym, or when you need to just take a break and do life. Give your body time to heal and appreciate all that it does for you!
If anyone is interested in me blogging about my split (what workouts I do everyday for a week for weight training), or just different workouts you can combine to get the results you want let me know in the comments!
