How Often Should You Exercise?

A question I frequently get asked is “How often should I exercise?” My answer is everyday! Now, don’t be scared thinking I am telling you to push your body to exhaustion every single day. To me, exercise is any type of movement that makes your body feel good! That can include walking, running, lifting weights, doing housework, yard work, and the list goes on. Basically anything where you’re not just sitting around and being sedentary with your body can be counted as exercise!

With that said, you should do strength training for all major muscle groups about 2 to 3 times a week. The major muscle groups are shoulders (so you can lift things overhead - think putting suitcases in the overhead bin on airplanes), arms (so you hold those stacks of books in your arms), chest (so you can push open a heavy door for instance), back (so you can pull down that heavy garage door if your garage door opener doesn’t work), core (so you can have great posture and be stable when you move your body in all directions), butt/glutes (so you have the power to walk up that steep hill), thighs (so you can ride a bike uphill with your kids), and calves (so you can jump around with your kids). As an added bonus, not only do muscles provide you with the ability to do activities of daily living with ease, they also give your body shape and definition so you can look good!

In addition to strength training, you should also do cardiovascular exercises for 150 to 300 minutes a week depending on your weight maintenance or weight loss goals. A good cardio exercise is anything that makes you feel good and gets you to the point where you get a little uncomfortable maintaining a conversation with someone because you’re getting breathless. Think of your best friend calling you and wanting to chit chat when you’re doing your cardio exercise and you telling him/her you’ll call back later when you can talk with more ease. That’s the feeling you want.

Now, if all this sounds like it will take up a lot of time, just know that there are ways to combine strength training and cardio together. You can consult a personal trainer (me raising my hand right now) for ways where you can effectively create an exercise routine that combines strength training and cardio and be able to fit into your busy life. Ultimately, the key here is to never stop moving your body. As long as you keep going and never give up, you will always be making progress towards your health and fitness goals.