How Many Days a Week Should You Train?
This is one of the most common questions that we ask ourselves, whether we are eager to train and dedicate as many days a week as possible, or on the other hand, due to time or motivation, we go from time to time. We want to make sure that the days we have provide us with the expected results and we see the return on our investment of time and money.
To answer this question, we must take into account certain aspects such as the workout intensity, recovery times, your diet, your physical condition, injuries and even state of mind and vitality. Let's observe these factors in order to find a minimum of days and also for a maximum of days per week that it is advisable to train.
Number of Days per Week
Depending on the number of days of training, people can maintain their muscle mass, progress slowly or progress more quickly. But if we go too far, muscle overtraining can appear, this causes us to lose our muscle gains and it is the cause of injuries, remember lifting weights also requires giving your body a good recovery or rest.
- 1 day a week. It is not enough even to maintain the muscle mass, even if the workout is of great intensity.
- 2 days a week. It is a minimum amount to at least maintain the muscles already gained, remembering that this training must be of medium or high intensity.
- 3 days a week. People experience muscle gains from this number of days, of course it depends on each physique and genetics if that gain is significant or slow.
- 4 days a week. After working out 3 times a week for 3-6 months our progress may decrease or become stagnant. One way to overcome this is to add an additional day to your workout plan.
- 5 days a week. It is a good number and promotes muscle gains without overtraining our body.
- 6 days a week. Leaving only one day of rest can result in overtraining, although it also depends on the person, since some are not affected and on the contrary continue to obtain good muscle gains.
- 7 days a week. It is not recommended since you are not giving your body any recovery days.
Signs of Overtraining
In training, more is not always better, these are some signs that you are overtraining:
- You feel more tired than usual.
- You are more sore than usual.
- You can’t lift the same weight as usual.
- You can’t do as many reps as usual.
- Your joints hurt.
To overcome this, give your body 2 or 3 days of rest and good nutrition.
Types of Rest
When some people see it is their rest day, they take it very seriously and try to move as little as possible. However, this may not be the best way to recover your muscles. There are two types of rest:
- Passive rest: Also called total rest, it is when we do not perform any type of physical activity.
- Active rest: It is the one in which we exercise but at a slower pace than usual, with a low intensity both muscular and cardiovascular. They are called regeneration training or active recovery. This type of rest is essential for the body and with it we do not gain strength or resistance, we simply regenerate.
After a day of intense training or physical activity in which we have exposed our muscles to an effort, active rest is more beneficial for faster muscle recovery than total rest.
Conclusion
With the information seen above, we can advise you to workout a minimum of 3 days a week and a maximum of 6, that way we will see muscle gains and avoid overtraining and injuries. It is also very suitable to distribute your rest days between the training days so as not to accumulate them in a single part of the week.
For more information, talk to one of our Fitness Experts and get customized advice by submitting a request in our Mavyn website.