Q&A: How many days a week should I workout?

Hey guys, what's up? So I've just taken on a new client today, and we were in our metabolic kickstart call chatting, etc., and one of the first questions he asked was, how many days a week should I train? Now, of course, this is quite a frequent question that someone that works in health would get, you know, but the simple answer to this is I would start with at least 2. So many of us get into this sort of thing and we think, oh, I need to train every single day because I want to get results and I want to burn all the fat and I want to get healthy and fitter and leaner and blah blah blah. Like we want to get all the results and we want them instantly. So we think we need to do things every single day. The truth is, for most of us, we lead such a sedentary lifestyle relative to what we could be doing that literally 2 days a week will make a big difference. So if you're working out 2 days a week, that will be enough for most people to get started and start getting results. The catch, however, is of course it's not optimal and it won't give you profound results for an extended period of time. It won't be long before 2 sessions isn't enough, and then you're going to need to do a 3rd and a 4th and maybe a 5th and so on. So a formula that I tend to recommend that people use is my 3-2-1-2-3 method. Now what this basically means is, okay, well, I'm now committed, I'm going all in, I'm about to, to work on my health and, and start working on my health goals. Now the 3 literally stands for 3 resistance-based workouts per week. So 3 times a week, let's say for example, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we would do our resistance training. Now resistance training is basically like your weight training. It doesn't have to be done in a bodybuilder type fashion, but we want to throw something around that creates a bit of resistance for the body. This could be body weight, could be kettlebells, could be dumbbells, could be medicine balls, and could be resistance bands and so on. Like there are lots of different modalities we can use. For resistance training. And the reason for this is we want to stimulate the muscle mass that we currently have. Where possible, we want to stimulate the, the potential for increased muscle mass and of course the maintenance of it. So we need to make sure that we're using any muscle that we have in order to maintain strength, in order to maintain physical capacity, and also to give our body the stimulus it needs to not start losing it when we maybe reduce calories and so on in order to try and achieve our weight loss goals. So that's the first step. The first 3 literally stands for 3 times a week we do resistance training. The 2 stands for, well, ideally maybe twice a week I would do some form of cardio or conditioning. Now, this could be, oh, I went for a run, I went for a walk, I went for a jog, I went cycling, I went swimming, I did dancing, or I maybe did a circuit workout again using resistance training, but I did it in more of a circuit fashion where I was deliberately trying to influence and affect my, my cardiovascular system. So that would be our, our number 2. So for example, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we're doing our resistance, and then perhaps Tuesday and Thursday, or Tuesday and Saturday, I do my conditioning workouts or my cardio workouts. So that gives us 5 workouts a week. Now, you don't have to start at 5, but this is what we would be building up to over the first couple of months. And then of course we have the 1 to 3, because it's the 3-2-1-2-3 method. Now, on the 1 to 3, what we're actually looking at here is progression. What we want to see is a 1 to 3% improvement every single week. Now, the advantage is it doesn't necessarily have to come in the same form every week because you have weeks where you're up, weeks where you're down, and so on, and weeks where you literally just cannot lift the same amount of weight, you can't do the same number of reps, and so on, because of other external influences and factors that might be going on that are limiting your body's current capacity. So yes, it's nice to think, well, every single week I'll just add more weight. But sometimes the body won't allow that because of other external circumstances and even internal that are going on in the body that limit your capacity. So what we're actually looking at is that 1 to 3% improvement could come in the shape of increased reps, could be increased weight, could be reduced rest, could even be the fact that you improve your posture and your technique whilst you're doing some of the exercises. You improve form. And the way you execute it so that you get a better result in terms of function. So it's not necessarily always about adding more weight or reducing rest to make the workout harder and so on. There are other ways of doing it. It's about making an improvement in the way you apply yourself to your workout because that will also yield a positive benefit and, um, positive adaptation in the outcomes that you want. It's going to move you towards your goals in the same way And then of course, oh, the following week I actually feel like I've got a bit more energy, a bit more juice. I'm going to try to go heavier today, or I'm going to do an extra set, or whatever it might be in order to have that 1 to 3% improvement. So that is my answer on how many times per week you should work out. As I say, we can get started with 2, but ideally we're probably going to need to over time build that up to around 5 workouts mixed up a little bit between our resistance and our cardio. In order to get the maximum benefit. Yes, of course, there may even come a time way down the line in the future if you're not able to kind of, um, manipulate things well enough through those 5 workouts where we may even need a 6th. But for most people, that is not going to be the case. That's more when we want more extreme results, whether in strength or in aesthetic and so on. As the results get more extreme, so does the approach. But for the average person, anywhere between that 2 and 5 workouts is going to be the sweet spot. And as I say, 5 tends to work really well for most people to get their fat burning, their strength gain. They'll, they'll improve their fitness. The body will get leaner, it will get stronger. You'll feel fitter, you'll feel far more confident, both because of the changes that you see in your aesthetic, but also because of the changes that you'll feel and notice in your ability to actually do things, to get shit done. When your body starts to feel stronger and you feel more capable, automatically it will increase your confidence, your self-esteem, and your ability to get shit done. So that's my answer for tonight's question. As always, guys, if you have any questions of your own, drop them in the comments below. And if not, I look forward to seeing you guys in my next video. Take it easy, people, and I should chat to you soon.