How Often Should You Use the Gym to Work Out?
Most people these days have a fairly full schedule and think they cannot plan enough time for an effective gym schedule. A lot of these people think that a gym membership comes with hours of exercise and a significant amount of time. They would be surprised to learn that visiting the gym to work out only three days per week is enough to help to them reach their fitness goals. It is not necessary to visit the gym daily or even to spend hours of your time there when you do visit; a half an hour of exercise on three alternating days of the week is enough to get results.
Remember that you will need time to get ready; changing clothes before and after or showering will require you to plan for more than just the half an hour you are going to work out. It is important that you use the time allotted to exercise well so that you can get a well-balanced workout. You can spend some time warming up and stretching before your actual workout as well. This will significantly reduce your chance of pulling or straining a muscle.
There are two ways you can approach a three day per week exercise routine. One is to exercise all the muscle groups you want to see results in one visit to the gym. The other is to focus on one area (such as the upper body, lower body, or midsection) during each visit, spending one day each week on a specific area.
For people just starting it won’t take as much exercise to feel the results so it may be a good idea to balance each visit between two or more areas. Spending one day out of the gym between visits gives the body time to heal and grow the muscle tissue. Continuing to exercise with sore muscles can lead to excessive soreness and tears in the muscle.