Whether you’re brand new to fitness or have a little bit of experience, chances are you’ve asked yourself this question at one point or another: “how many days a week should I workout?“.
It’s definitely a valid question, and it’s a topic that’s worth learning more about.
Because, let’s be honest.
If you’re going to go to the gym multiple times a week and grind your tail off.
Several weight lifting workouts.
Multiple cardio sessions.
If you’re going to put in all that work, why wouldn’t you want to optimize that process?
Or at least have a general understanding of what to do.
Who wants to spin their wheels and be unsure about how often they should work out?
Lucky for you, you don’t have to worry about that.
Because in this article I’m going to answer the exact question you’ve been asking for so many years: “how many days a week should I workout?”.
All I ask of you is that you read this entire article from start to finish.
Because, if you soak in all the information that I’m about to present to you, you’re going to be much more informed so you can start crushing your workouts and finally get awesome results.
You ready? Let’s do this.
How Many Days A Week Should I Workout: An Important Note
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty details of how often you should be working out, there’s an important note that needs to be discussed.
Because, candidly, if I didn’t mention this I’d be doing you a massive disservice.
So here we go.
I Need You To Stop Thinking This
What I’m about to say is super important, so listen up.
Way too many people think more is always better when it comes to working out.
And, to be totally honest, I don’t blame them.
I mean, it makes sense.
It’s logical to assume that the more someone works out, the better their results are going to be.
That they’ll lose more weight, build more muscle, and get more toned and defined.
It makes perfect sense.
You probably think that all those Instagram booty influencers you follow do hip thrusts seven days a week.
You might assume that your skinny friend runs five miles around her neighborhood every single morning at the crack of dawn.
And while I definitely know some gym rats that go overboard with their training, I can tell you from first hand experience that working out all the time is not needed to get great results.
No matter what your goals are.
I mean, take one of my female online coaching clients as an example:
She was able to lose 12 pounds in 12 weeks and get that “toned” back that so many people want in their weight loss journey.
But here’s the thing.
She didn’t lift weights for hours on end or do cardio everyday to lose the weight and get more defined muscles.
She did three weight lifting workouts per week, ate in a calorie deficit (eating fewer calories than she burned), and got around 7,000-10,000 steps each day.
That’s it. Nothing special or magical.
More is not always better.
Quality Over Quantity
Now that you know (and have proof) that you don’t need to be running yourself into the ground with your workouts to get good results, I want to elaborate a bit more on this idea that more is not always better.
I’m a big believer in getting more out of fewer total workouts.
I would rather you workout only 3-4 days a week and crush those workouts than train 6-7 days a week while just going through the motions.
Not to mention, you’re much more likely to be consistent with your workouts when you don’t have to commit to doing so many of them.
Wouldn’t you rather commit to four workouts a week and get them done without fail than commit to six but only get four done?
The former is going to make you feel really good because you’re actually keeping a promise you make to yourself.
The latter is going to leave you feeling less accomplished and disappointed that you didn’t live up to your own expectations.
Most people bite off more than they can chew then feel defeated when they don’t live up to the unrealistically high standards they’ve set for themself.
Stop shooting yourself in the foot.
If you know that you can only realistically get to the gym three days a week, why are you committing to five workouts that you know from the get-go won’t get done?
Become the person that’s relentlessly consistent with a realistic workout frequency, rather than being inconsistent with a less practical workout schedule.
How Many Days A Week Should I Workout: The Sweet Spot
Now that you know that more is not always better, it’s time to discuss exactly how many days a week you should be working out.
I’m going to divide this section into two parts: workout frequency for weight lifting and workout frequency for cardio.
Because, as you’ll soon notice, there are some key differences between the two.
Let’s start with the weight lifting side of the equation.
Weight Lifting Frequency
In my experience working with both in person and online coaching clients, I can confidently tell you that the vast majority of people should be lifting weights anywhere between 3-5 days a week.
Later on in the article I’ll give you more specific suggestions and guidelines about how often you should be lifting weights whether you’re trying to lose fat or build muscle.
But, for now, I just want you to know that lifting weights 3-5 days a week is plenty for most people.
Now, if you’re the type of person that doesn’t like working out very much (like most people), you’re probably thrilled that I didn’t say that you should be lifting 6-7 days a week.
I’m sure you’re happy that I gave you a much more realistic and sustainable range to fall into.
On the other hand, if you’re the type of person that actually likes exercise, you might be thinking something to the effect of:
“If I should only be lifting weights 3-5 days a week, what should I be doing on all those other days? I like staying active and moving my body!”
I get it and I hear you.
There are plenty of people that like working out more often than that.
Usually because exercise is a stress reliever for them.
But here’s my proposition to you.
Instead of adding more weight lifting workouts to your routine, I would strongly recommend sticking with 3-5 weight lifting workouts and having the additional exercise come in the form of low intensity cardio.
In a minute you’ll really understand why that’s the case.
But right now I want to briefly explain why you should not be lifting weights more than five times a week.
Stop Overlooking Recovery
I get it.
You’ve heard it a million times from every single fitness influencer under the sun.
“Recovering from your workouts is just as important as getting them done in the first place!”
Now, to be fully transparent, there are plenty of cliches in the fitness industry that are completely overused.
With that said, this is one of those true statements that actually has a lot of merit and is worth talking more about.
Here’s why.
With any good weight lifting program, the overall goal is to get progressively stronger over time.
Whether your goal is to get lean and defined, pack on muscle tissue, or improve your athletic performance.
At the end of the day, we lift weights to increase muscle strength and size.
While also making our bones, ligaments, tendons, and joints more resilient over time.
But, here’s the thing.
All of that is only going to happen if you give your body enough time to properly recover.
Rest days are not optional. They’re an integral part of any well-put-together training program worth its salt.
You’re simply not going to be as strong as you can be if you don’t take at least 2-3 days off of weight lifting each week.
Not to mention that your risk of injury will go up significantly if you don’t take rest days.
Trust me, I used to be the gym rat that lifted weights six days a week without fail.
But once I added just one more rest day to my routine, my training performance sky rocketed.
And I actually built more muscle and got better results overall.
Something You Might Not Know
Now that you know you need to be taking rest days, here’s something you might not know about about them.
Rest days don’t inherently mean you sit on the coach and eat potato chips all day long.
Sorry if I just rained on your rest day parade.
Rest days are simply dedicated days to take away from strenuous weight lifting.
It doesn’t mean you can’t stay physically active.
In fact, there’s actually some benefit to having “active recovery days.”
These are days where you include some low intensity exercise (low intensity cardio, mobility work, stretching, etc).
As I dive into how often you should be doing cardio, you’ll have a much better understanding of why that’s the case.
Cardio Frequency
I’m going to keep this section somewhat brief.
Because later on I’m going to discuss exactly how much cardio you should be doing based on your specific goals.
But, for right row, here’s what I want you to know.
I’m a big believer that the majority of your cardio should be relatively low intensity.
There are many reasons for that, many of them having to do with recovery.
There are many different types of low intensity cardio.
And the intensity of a given cardio session really depends on your current fitness level.
For one person, low intensity might mean simply walking at a moderate pace around their neighborhood.
For someone else, it might mean jogging.
Generally speaking, for most people, low intensity cardio consists of exercise like walking on an incline on the treadmill, using the elliptical, swimming, cycling, etc.
It is much easier to recover from low intensity cardio than it is to recover from high intensity workouts.
So, because of that, low intensity cardio frequency can range from anywhere between 2-7 cardio session per week.
I know that’s a very general range.
But like I said, later on I’ll dive into the details of what you should actually be doing for cardio based on what you’re trying to achieve.
How Many Days A Week Should I Workout: Specific Guidelines To Follow
Okay, so now that you have a very general understanding of how many days a week most people should be lifting weights and doing cardio, it’s time to get more specific.
Because I want you to walk away from this article knowing exactly what you should be focusing on based on your individual goals.
Whether your primary goal is fat loss or muscle gain, I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to be doing.
I am going to talk about each of these goals individually.
If you want to learn how to do both, make sure to read this article about how to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.
Alright, without further ado, let’s get into it.
Specific Guidelines for Fat Loss
Something to Consider
If your primary fitness goal is to lose body fat, I’m a firm believer that it makes A TON of sense for you to lift weights either three or four days a week.
Here’s why that’s the case.
Remember how I mentioned that most people should be lifting weighs anywhere between 3-5 days a week?
Good, glad you’re paying attention.
If your goal is weight loss, you’re most likely going to be incorporating both resistance training and cardio into your over workout routine, right?
Now, stay with me.
If you choose to lift weights five days a week AND do multiple cardio sessions a week, that’s a lot to balance and fit into your day-to-day life.
I mean, five challenging lifting sessions coupled with three to five 30-45 minute cardio sessions on the elliptical ain’t exactly easy.
And remember how I said consistency is key to getting results?
If you try to balance all of that lifting and cardio in your weight loss plan, chances are it’s going to be pretty difficult to maintain long enough to see results.
Which is exactly why I love 3-4 weight lifting workouts a week for weight loss.
It allows you to resistance train enough to reap all the amazing benefits from it without doing too much to where you burn yourself out.
It’s sort of a happy medium between too much and not enough.
And that happy medium is where INCREDIBLE results can be made.
How to Structure Those 3-4 Weight Lifting Workouts
Now that you know how often you should be lifting weights, what exactly should those workouts look like?
Should you do full body workouts? Should you train specific body parts in different sessions?
Well, generally speaking, here are the two main ways that I like to set up programs for either three or four workouts a week:
3x/Week Workouts
- For 3x/week workouts:
- Day 1: Lower Body
- Day 2: Upper Body
- Day 3: Full Body
And here’s an important point about how to structure these workouts.
Make sure you are taking at least one rest day in between each of these sessions.
For example, you could do the lower body session on Mondays, the upper body session on Wednesdays, and the full body session on Fridays.
4x/Week Workouts
- For 4x/week workouts:
- Day 1: Lower Body
- Day 2: Upper Body
- Day 3: Lower Body
- Day 4: Upper Body
A few things to note with these 4x/week workouts:
- Similar to the 3x/week workouts, you’ll want to spread out these sessions a bit throughout the week. An example would be doing the first lower body session on Mondays, the first upper body session on Tuesdays, the second lower body session on Thursdays, and the second upper body session on Fridays.
- Note that each of these workouts should be different. Meaning, the leg workout that you do on Monday is different than the one you do on Thursday. Similarly, the upper body workout that you do on Tuesday is different than the one you do on Friday. Each workout includes different exercises. However, week over week, you should follow the same set of workouts for at least 4-8 weeks. This means that the lower body workout that you do Monday of week 1 is the same lower body workout that you do on Monday of week 2 and so on.
Example Upper Body Workout
Just to give you an idea of what a workout might look like for 4x/week sessions, here’s an example upper body workout for you try on for size:
| Exercise | Sets x Reps | Rest | Notes |
| 1. Reverse Grip Barbell Bent Over Row | 3×6-8 | 3 mins | Brace your core as if someone’s about to punch you in the stomach. Visualize pulling your elbows to your hips on each rep. |
| 2. Incline DB Bench Press | 3×6-8 | 3 mins | Keep your chest tall by sending your shoulders down to your back pockets. Keep your elbows slightly tucked in. |
| 3. DB Lateral Raise | 3×8-10 | 2 mins | Visualize pushing your hands out to the corners of the walls. Since the rep range is 8-10, go a bit heavier here than you normally would on a higher rep set of lateral raises. |
| 4. Cable Face Pull | 2×12 | 90 secs | Think about pulling the center of the rope towards the bridge of your nose. |
| 5a. DB Hammer Curl | 3×15 | NA | Visualize jamming your forearm into your bicep as you curl the dumbbells up. |
| 5b. Rope Cable Tricep Pushdown | 3×15 | 90 secs | Think about extending your elbows while keeping your shoulders in place. |
What About Cardio?
Okay, so now that you know how to set up your weight lifting workout routine for weight loss, where does cardio come into play?
Well, if you’ve read some of my other articles, you already know that I’m a HUGE fan of having roughly 7,500-10,000 steps/day as your cardio baseline.
Meaning, as long as you get those steps in, you technically don’t need to do any additional cardio.
However, doing some extra low intensity cardio can help improve heart health and increase your weekly caloric burn.
Which would make it a bit easier for you to stay in a calorie deficit for weight loss.
And, like I mentioned earlier, these low intensity cardio sessions can be as simple as walking on an incline on the treadmill for say 20-40 minutes (which would help you get more steps in) or doing any other form of low intensity activity.
To make it relatively easy to balance this with weight training, should you choose to do this extra cardio, I’d recommend keeping it to about 2-4 days a week.
That will allow you to get all the amazing heart health benefits without having it interfere with the rest of your workouts.
Specific Guidelines for Muscle Gain
Believe it or not, if your primary fitness goal is to gain muscle, the guidelines that I’m going to give you aren’t drastically different than the weight loss training advice.
The main difference revolves around cardio.
Weight Lifting Workouts for Muscle Gain
Even if you’re not trying to lose fat and instead care more about putting on size, I’d still recommend training 3-5 days a week.
Candidly, within that range, 4-5 weight lifting sessions a week is probably better than three simply because it’ll allow you to get more volume in for each muscle group.
If you choose to lift weights 4x/week, the lower, upper, lower, upper workout split mentioned earlier is a great option to train each muscle group twice a week.
If you decide that you’d prefer to workout 5x/week, here’s how I’d consider structuring those workouts:
- Monday: Push (Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps)
- Tuesday: Pull (Back & Biceps)
- Wednesday: Legs
- Thursday: Rest
- Friday: Upper Body
- Saturday: Legs
- Sunday: Rest
Should I Do Cardio For Muscle Growth?
The million dollar question.
Will cardio hinder your ability to build muscle?
Generally speaking, no.
As long as the cardio is relatively low intensity and not overdone.
If you’re in a dedicated muscle building phase, here’s my recommendation.
I’d suggest continuing to get 7,500-10,000 steps each day as a good baseline level of cardio.
This will help you maintain a healthy heart, and it can even potentially help a bit with digestion after some of your meals.
Other than steps, I would try to minimize additional cardio while in a building phase.
Muscle growth isn’t easy. And you want recovery to be allocated to your weight training sessions so you can increase performance on them and get stronger.
Too much cardio in a muscle building phase can interfere with the quality of your lifting workouts which is the last thing you want when trying to put on lean tissue.
Wrapping Things Up
Well, there ya go.
If you’ve ever asked yourself the question, “how many days a week should I workout?,” then you now have your answer.
I hope you found this article helpful!
If you’d like all of the guesswork taken out of how to actually create your workout program (and your nutrition plan), you can apply to my 1:1 online coaching program here.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have and we’ll chat soon!
