When it comes to fitness, every body is not created equal. Some require more time and more work, while some require heavier weights and higher impact workouts. So how do you determine what is the right amount of time for you to workout each day?
Step 1: Figure Out What Your Exact Goals Are
Whether you are trying to lose weight, gain muscle, or increase your endurance, you’ve got to make your workouts revolve around that specific goal. You don’t want to do hours of cardio if you’re trying to build muscle and you don’t want to do powerlifting when your goal is to run a half marathon. By focusing on the right workout for your goal, you will save an abundant amount of time and see quicker results
Get it? Got it? Good! Let’s Go
Ok, now that you know what you want to accomplish, let’s figure out the amount of time you need to be spending on your training.
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Trying to Increase Your Overall Endurance?
Aerobic activity should be done for a minimum of 20 minutes, 3-5 times a week to get the most benefits. Cardio activities elevate your heart rate, burn calories and help you lose the fat surrounding your muscle definition. Running, walking, cycling and rowing are common forms of aerobic exercise.
Trying to Lose Weight?
HIIT or, High-Intensity Interval Training should be done for a maximum of 20 minutes and no more. Due to the extreme nature of HIIT, you shouldn’t exceed 20 minutes of activity. Any more than 3 days of HIIT a week can lead to overtraining.
Trying to Build Muscle?
Weight Lifting sessions should last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour depending if you are doing a full body routine or a split type of plan such as leg workouts on Wednesdays, tri’s and bi’s on Tuesdays, etc. The amount of days will depend on what type of weight lifting plan you choose.
Trying to Improve Your Distance Running?
Training to run long distance can be challenging but if you really want to succeed with this, you should be putting in 20-30 minutes per day as a beginner and increase this amount by 10 percent every 2 weeks.
