Maximising your training is crucial for progress, but how much is too much?
As a personal trainer in Tunbridge Wells, I often get asked this question so here’s a detailed guide to help you figure out your ideal training frequency.
Understanding Training Exposure
Simply put, this is how long you have been training for and at what intensity you have been exposed to at the gym.
If you’ve been training for a while in the gym but you’ve only been training once a week, you’re probably not going to want to jump to 6 sessions a week. This will overload the body, not give you much time to recover and stretch your time available.
However, I would encourage you to gradually increase the time you are training for per week. Add an extra day/session of training per week or increase your exercise volume per session.
Here are three ways you could achieve this;
An extra ten minutes at the end of a session on the treadmill,
Add another set of your favourite exercises
Scheduling another session during your week
Making the Most of Your Time
If you have a couple of days a week available to train and you’re only utilising one of them, then get that second session in!
What we want to try and avoid is overreaching. I’m a massive fan of ‘do what you can to fit around your lifestyle’. Many coaches will be harping on at you for not being in the gym 3/4/5 times a week and tell you that’s why you’re not making progress and although it is a factor, it might just not be viable for you.
Ultimately, health and fitness will need to fit around your lifestyle to start with, once it becomes a hobby and a passion, you’ll be able to make time a bit more easily.
How to Schedule More Exercise into your Week
Map out a full week from Monday to Sunday and work back via the non-negotiables.
Non-negotiables are things you simply cannot move during the week… Monday night baby class, weekly Wednesday morning work meetings, whatever it is, make sure they are put in first.
You’ll be amazed how quickly your week fills up!
From there, we now have the ability to fill in our optional extras such as going to the gym, going for a run or having a coffee and walking around the park with friends.
This method will help you maximise your time AND sometimes can help people to order their priorities, highlighting what they think is important to them and what ACTUALLY is important to them.
Importance of Recovery
‘Move more eat less’ – I’ve got a feeling if you’ve made it this far in the blog you’re at least relatively interested in fitness, so you would have heard this at some point.
While eating less is directly applicable to being in a calorie deficit (weight loss blog coming soon!) we need to make sure we are fuelling correctly and resting adequately to help with meeting our goals.
Many people will think training everyday will help you attack and reach your goals sooner and whilst that is true, recovery is equally as important. Giving your body the time and nutrients, it needs to recover from heavy exercise is key.
It’s a bit like running your car on the red light for too long… eventually it’s going to stop working because you’ve not fuelled up properly and our bodies are very similar.
If you keep pushing and pushing without fuelling properly and recovering adequately, you’ll find you’re gradually making less and less progress in the gym or out on your runs. I normally encourage people to have 24hrs rest after an aggressive workout.
Personalised Advice
For more information on training volume, training frequency or any other subject matter, feel free to drop me an email with any questions or queries you may have and I will answer them for you.
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