How many times a week should I work out? For most adults, the practical answer is three to five days per week. However, that does not mean you need to spend an hour in the gym every day.

A good weekly routine should normally include:

Two or three resistance-training sessions
Two or three cardiovascular sessions
Regular walking and general movement
At least one or two easier recovery days

The right number depends on your goals, current fitness, health and available time. Most importantly, your routine must be realistic enough to continue consistently.

What Do the Official Guidelines Recommend?

The World Health Organization recommends that adults complete 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity. Adults should also perform muscle-strengthening exercises involving all the major muscle groups on at least two days per week.

Moderate activity includes brisk walking, steady cycling and swimming. You should be breathing faster but still able to hold a conversation. Vigorous activity includes running, fast cycling and demanding circuit training.

The American College of Sports Medicine offers similar advice. It recommends moderate cardiovascular exercise for approximately 30 minutes on five days per week, or more vigorous exercise for around 20 minutes on three days. It also recommends strength training on a minimum of two days each week.

These recommendations do not mean everyone must follow exactly the same schedule. They describe a reliable amount of weekly activity associated with substantial health benefits.

Why Resistance Training Should Be a Priority

Cardiovascular exercise is important, but resistance training becomes increasingly valuable as we get older.

From around middle age, we gradually lose muscle unless we give the body a reason to keep it. This age-related loss of muscle is known as sarcopenia. It can eventually affect strength, balance, mobility and the ability to perform ordinary activities independently.

Resistance training includes more than lifting heavy barbells. You can use:

Dumbbells or gym machines
Resistance bands
Bodyweight exercises
Kettlebells
Carefully controlled functional movements

Training against resistance helps preserve and build muscle, strengthen bones, support joints and improve the body’s ability to manage blood sugar. Stronger muscles also make everyday tasks, such as climbing stairs, carrying shopping or getting up from a chair, easier.

A systematic review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that muscle-strengthening activity was associated with a 10% to 17% lower risk of several major health outcomes, including premature death, cardiovascular disease, total cancer and diabetes. The greatest reductions in several risks were observed at approximately 30 to 60 minutes of strength activity per week, although this research shows an association and cannot prove that a precise number of minutes causes the benefit.

The latest ACSM resistance-training guidance places the main emphasis on consistency. Training all the major muscle groups at least twice per week is more important for most people than following a complicated programme.

Is Twice a Week Enough?

If you are wondering, “How Many Times a Week Should I Work Out?”, two well-planned full-body workouts per week can be enough to produce meaningful results, particularly for beginners and people returning after a long break.

Each session should cover the main movement patterns and muscle groups. This may include a squat or leg press, a pulling exercise, a pushing exercise, a hip movement and exercises for the core.

Training three times per week can provide additional practice and allow more work to be completed without making individual sessions too long. However, three poorly planned workouts are not automatically better than two properly structured sessions.

Research indicates that total weekly training volume, meaning the amount of productive work completed, is a major factor in building strength and muscle. When the total volume is equal, simply adding more training days does not always produce better results. Frequency is partly a tool for organising your weekly workload.

What If I Do Not Have Time to Exercise Five Days a Week?

This is where many people become discouraged. Work, commuting, children and household responsibilities can make five long workouts completely unrealistic.

The good news is that exercise does not have to be divided perfectly across the week.

A large study involving more than 350,000 adults examined people who completed most of their weekly exercise in only one or two sessions. These “weekend warriors” had similar mortality outcomes to regularly active adults when the researchers accounted for their total amount of moderate-to-vigorous activity.

This does not prove that squeezing every workout into the weekend is best for strength, performance or injury prevention. However, it suggests that completing the recommended weekly activity matters more for general health than following a perfect daily schedule.

Shorter sessions can also count. A brisk 15-minute walk, a brief home workout or several movement breaks during the working day are all better than waiting for a free hour that never arrives.

Is Working Out More Than Five Days Better?

Not necessarily.

Some experienced people can train safely on five or six days because they alternate hard and easy sessions and carefully manage their workload. However, more training is not automatically better. Results come from applying enough exercise to stimulate improvement and then allowing the body to recover.

Warning signs that you may be doing too much include:

Persistent muscle or joint pain
Falling performance
Poor sleep
Constant tiredness
Irritability or lack of motivation
Feeling that every session is becoming harder

It is also inaccurate to say that health benefits completely stop after five days. Some people may gain additional benefits from doing more activity. The return simply becomes smaller, while poor programming and inadequate recovery can increase the likelihood of pain, fatigue or injury.

A Realistic Weekly Exercise Plan

When deciding “How Many Times a Week Should I Work Out?”, consider your goals, available time and ability to recover. For the average adult, particularly someone over 40, the following is a strong and manageable starting point:

Day	Activity
Monday	Full-body resistance training
Tuesday	Brisk walk or moderate cardio
Wednesday	Recovery or light resistance training
Thursday	Brisk walk or moderate cardio
Friday	Full-body resistance training
Weekend	Optional light activity, light movement, longer walk

This gives you two focused sessions, regular cardiovascular activity and sufficient recovery. A third resistance session can be added if your goal is to gain more strength or muscle and you are recovering properly.

The Bottom Line

So, how many times a week should I work out? For most people, three to five active days per week, including at least two resistance-training sessions, provides an excellent balance.

If your schedule only allows two properly planned full-body workouts, start there. Do not dismiss two sessions because you cannot manage five. A realistic routine completed consistently will achieve far more than an ambitious routine abandoned after three weeks.

The best approach to strength training for adults over 40 is not the plan that looks most impressive on paper. It is the one that fits your life, progresses gradually and can be maintained for years.

If you are still asking, “How many times a week should I work out?”, begin with two or three well-planned sessions and increase gradually as your fitness and recovery improve.

References

Written by Ricardo Macedo, founder of WayFiit and a personal trainer with more than 25 years of experience working with adults, athletes and public figures in London and Galway.