Total Fitness Network : How Much Do I Do? : How Much Should I Work Out?

By Therese Iknoian

First of all, congratulations. Poking around here to find out how much you should do means you’re taking the first step to getting moving in the right direction.

Second, this exercise stuff isn’t rocket science. If you aren’t sure about something, then just use your head. If it hurts, don’t do it. If you’re dead-beat afterward or the next day, cut back because you probably did too much.

One quick story: As I dabbled at a new sport a few years ago, somebody told me I needed to do “x” amount every day, no matter what. Since this quasi-advisor was pretty good, I believed his advice -- even though my logic knew better. My attempt at his prescription lasted one day. The body gave out. Only problem is, I beat myself up mentally because I thought I just wasn’t tough enough.

One quick morale to go with the story: Your body is probably smarter than anyone who will ever advise you. (That includes me, by the way.) So listen to it.

Rambling back to the real question (How much should I do?), let’s search for an answer together, especially as you’re getting started or trying to up your exercise quotient.

The foundation of your program is aerobic activity, or anything that makes your heart beat a little faster and makes you sweat some, such as running, walking, cycling and the like:

How often? -- The suggestion here is broad. Three to five days a week, or up to every day. Where do you fit in? If you’ve been doing nothing regularly, or nearly nothing, then start with no more than three days, or every other day. If you’ve been doing something 1-2 days a week, then add one day for a couple of weeks, see how you feel, then add another. Once you hit 4 days a week, two days will have to be back-to-back. That requires different considerations. Check out the next section.

How hard? -- Once again, there is no one-size-fits all answer. Do you like numbers? Then 60-85 percent of your target heart rate (See my story, Heart Rate Primer, to help with that). But that’s pretty broad. Match words to it and that ranges from “easy,” to “medium,” to “moderately hard.” Where do you fit it? Same as above. If you’ve been doing nothing, start at the easier end. No huffing, puffing, panting and wheezing, please. Just move. If you’ve been doing something already but only easy, then pick up the pace a little so you notice your breath coming harder and your heart beating a little stronger.

So now you’ve got back-to-back days since you’re progressing. Swear by the hard-easy rule. That means alternating the intensity, so on the first of back-to-back days you work a little harder, and on the second day, you take it easier. That same rule applies as you progress and have more back-to-back days. Hard-easy-hard-easy, continue as needed.

How long? -- Uh-oh, a wide choice again: 20-60 minutes each time. By now, I bet you know what I’m going to say. If you’re just starting out, it might be a challenge to do 20 continuous minutes. So do whatever you can to build to that slowly. When I was a teen-ager and started to run, I did 10 minutes my first day out, then added about 5 minutes every week, til I could easily do about 30. If you’re doing something already, then build slowly until you can manage an easy 30-45 minutes each time. Remember, the alternating rule above. Same applies to length. One day you might do 25 minutes, but the next day you might do 60. Go for quantity first, before you start adding intensity. You have to be able to manage 20-30 minutes easy before you start working harder.

But that’s not the end of our story on “How Much.”

You gotta give the muscles a little extra pump too. That means strengthening exercises. For some tips on that, see my stories, Pump Your Muscles and Abs, Abs, Abs.

And for a really well-rounded program, you have to stretch too. See two of my stories, Why Stretch, and Stretching Guidelines, for details on that part of the picture.

Now you’re primed. Quit poking around here and get going.