Recommended fitness frequency for women

For the vast majority of ordinary women, exercising 3-5 times a week for 30-90 minutes each time is the most cost-effective option. The specific number of times can be flexibly adjusted based on your fitness goals, physical foundation, and life rhythm. There is no standard answer that "you must practice 6 times a week to be effective."

In fact, the fitness circle has been arguing about frequency for almost ten years, and no one can convince the other of the two schools of thought. The radicals believe in "high-frequency results." I used to know a female bodybuilder who was preparing for competitions at the gym. She could really practice 6 times a week or even twice a day. She walked the shoulders, back, legs, chest, arms and core in a circular motion. She even did low-intensity aerobics during her aunt's period. Her goal was to win rankings in competitions. This frequency was reasonable for her. The other school of life holds the completely opposite view, and believes that "the frequency that can be maintained is the best frequency." My best friend is an Internet operator and has a 3-year-old child. She can only squeeze in 2-3 nights a week to go to the gym. After each 40-minute strength training, I walk 20 minutes home. My body fat rate has been stable at 22% for almost two years, and my waist and abdominal lines are much better than when I practiced hard 5 times a week.

Damn, to be honest, I have seen too many little girls who have just entered the trap fall into the trap of frequency. As soon as I got my fitness card, I set a KPI of five exercises a week. My legs were so sore on Monday that I had to hold on to the handrail when walking down the stairs. On Wednesday, I had to go to the gym feeling sleepy after working overtime at 10 o'clock. Some people even fainted in the locker room due to hypoglycemia. As a result, they didn't dare to go to the gym for half a month and simply put the card to expire. This is not self-discipline, it is purely self-inflicted. Think about it, after getting off work and squeezing in the subway for an hour, carrying a gym bag and being crowded with people, you are sweating. When you get to the gym, you have half your life left. The movements you perform hard are all deformed. Not only are they ineffective, but they can also easily hurt your joints. Why bother?

If it really needs to be adjusted based on goals, there is no fixed template. If you just want to improve the back pain caused by sitting for a long time and have no basis for exercise, then 2-3 times a week is enough. Even if you don't go to the gym, walk around the neighborhood twice after get off work and do 15 minutes of shoulder and neck relaxation following the video at the company at noon. Just make up for it. Moving is better than sitting. If your goal is to gain muscle and shape your body, and want to develop obvious hip lines and tight arm lines, you must arrange strength training at least three times a week. According to the over-recovery principle of exercise physiology, the same muscle group needs about 48 hours of recovery time after training, so training the same part twice a week is just stuck at the over-recovery node, and the muscle-building efficiency is the highest. For example, after practicing the glutes and legs on Monday, and then training the buttocks alone on Friday, the effect is much better than if you only practice the buttocks once a week. If your recent goal is to lose fat, you can arrange 4-5 times a week, interspersed with strength and aerobics, such as lifting irons on Monday and Wednesday, doing Pamela dance or exercise classes on Tuesday and Thursday, and going hiking or walking in a park when you have time on the weekend. You don’t have to force yourself to exercise to exhaustion every time. As long as your daily consumption is greater than your intake, losing weight will be a natural thing.

By the way, there is another point that has been controversial for a long time: can I practice every day? Some people say that you must have 2-3 rest days every week, while others say that you can do it every day as long as you change muscle groups. In fact, both of these opinions are correct. I was obsessed with Pilates last summer. I went to a one-hour class every night after dinner. It focused on training the core and small muscle groups. I didn't have any problems for two months. On the contrary, my sleep quality was much better, and I didn't feel sore at all when I woke up the next day. But if you have finished training with heavy weights the day before, and you can't even lift your arms to comb your hair the next day, or you are so weak that you can't stand, don't push yourself to check in. Eating two more eggs a day at home is 100 times better than practicing hard until your movements are deformed. Fitness is to serve your life, not to add KPIs to you.

I have also fallen into the trap of frequency before. When I first started working out, I believed the saying on the Internet that "6 exercises a week is fitness, and 3 exercises a week is a joke." I persisted for two weeks, but my aunt postponed it for 10 days, and a bunch of acne broke out on my face.

Really don’t be fooled by the “standard frequency” of those fitness bloggers on the Internet. You are practicing for yourself, not to check in your circle of friends, and you don’t need to compete with regular gym customers to see who goes more often. The frequency that you can stick to for a long time, feel comfortable after practicing, and see a little positive change is the frequency that is most suitable for you.