How Often Should You Work Out?

My boot campers often want to know how often they need to workout. First of all, it really depends on what your goals are. Then, it depends on where you are in relation to your goals and how fast you want to achieve them.

Workout 6 times a week for rapid fat loss

When you really want to reach your goals, it’s going to take some dedication. To change the way your body looks, in addition to a supportive nutrition program, we recommend doing 6 workouts a week. We instruct our clients to do 3 boot camp workouts (45 min) and 3 cardio workouts (30-60 min) a week.

Sometimes people ask me, do I have to work out 6 times a week? That’s a pretty reasonable question. However, here’s an even better one: “Why shouldn’t you?”

Create a healthy habit

Working out 6 times a week creates a great foundation for making exercise a healthy habit. We all have bad habits that we long to break. Many of us made New Year’s resolutions to eat better and work out more. Exercising 6 days a week is one way to do that. The sooner you start this good habit, and then soon it’ll become part of your lifestyle. Once that happens, you’ll be amazed at what will happen. You may miss a workout and SURPRISE! You actually miss it. Why? Because working out is such a part of your lifestyle that you won’t want to miss a workout.

Is working out 6 times a week absolutely necessary?

Well… that really depends. You don’t have to do anything, but you can’t expect a new outcome if you just keep doing what you are doing. Maybe you have already reached you goals and you are in a maintenance phase. You probably don’t need to workout 6 times a week, but you may want to.

If you have already reached your fitness goal, chances are that you have probably also reached a new appreciation for being active and working out. You are in the ‘natural-high’ zone that all exercisers would benefit from – working out just for fun, not just to get some specific result.

Is 6 days a week too much exercise

You might think that exercising almost daily is just too much. However, before you think about blowing off your next boot camp workout, think for a moment. Don’t you sleep daily? Don’t you eat and shower daily? Don’t you brush your teeth daily? Sure, that’s a given.

Now think about what happens if you don’t sleep for a few nights, if you choose not to shower for a number of days or skip a few meals. The result of those choices wouldn’t be ideal. You might feel terrible. You might look terrible. But the moment you return to your daily habits, you feel revitalized and re-energized. Consistent exercise does the same for you and more.

Stay on the right track

Sporadic exercise is the fitness equivalent of driving across the country on back roads. Those routes are full all sorts of things to slow you down… detours, traffic stops, pitfalls and more. An exercise plan like that will cost you a lot of time and energy making up for lost strength, speed and stamina. In a word, it will de-condition you. You will be performing at less than your top performance level and it will take time to build back up to it.

Aim high

Settling for the bare minimum or giving the least amount of effort you think you can get away with is counterproductive. If you’re going to do something, do it to the best of your ability. Most people aim to work out around 3-4 days a week. That’s pretty good. However, when 3-4 workouts a week is your goal, you can easily end up working out only once or twice as life takes over. Before you know it, you’ve fallen off track from fitness goals completely.

One day, you have to go pick up the kids; the next, go out of town; the next, take a friend to the airport and so on and so on. People get busy and that often can translate into missing workouts. Your 3-4 days of exercise goal starts to suffer and you find yourself lucky to make one workout. You promise to make it up next week and that week becomes the week after and so on.

However, if you aim to workout 6 days a week, when life happens you will still likely get a good amount of working out done.

It’s your choice

Being healthy is a choice. When you choose to be healthy, the positive effects often spread throughout your life and onto those around you. When you commit to a fitness program of exercising 6 days a week, you create an wonderful quality of life for yourself and even your family. You’ll have a mentality that constantly urges you to take better care of yourself, not just when it’s convenient, but all the time.

For example, let’s say you worked out a few hours ago, you’re feeling phenomenal, then you spot a Danish that’s look terrific. You bet it tastes great too. However, because you’re on a natural endorphin high you’re less likely to want to derail your workout by consuming that Danish. When you workout consistently, your food choices will improve and you’ll be better motivated to avoid things like fried food and processed foods loaded with fat, sugar, salt, and chemicals.

Dedicate yourself to achieving your exercise and healthy lifestyle goals.

If you want to sculpt a better body and lift your spirits, it’s going to take planning, determination, accountability, and commitment. Your fitness program can’t be taken lightly because it’s so easy get complacent, discouraged or sidetracked from your goal. Stay focused! Get a calendar, make a plan, write down your workouts and track your progress. When you complete your workout, cross it off your calendar. If you like a more friendly reminder of your hard work, put a smiley sticker on your exercise days. Put the calendar in a place where you’ll see your progress daily. Accomplishing your goals one after another will help you feel really good. Keep your workout routines fun, challenging and fresh. It’ll help you to avoid hitting plateaus and losing motivation.

Even when you’re feeling a little slack, get to it! Get up and work out anyway. Establish the habit of pushing harder and challenging yourself. You know you will always feel better afterward. Always!

[fusion_button link=”https://bootiquefitness.com/trial” title=”” target=”_self” alignment=”center” color=”default” size=”xlarge” stretch=”default” shape=”square”]START YOUR FREE TRIAL TODAY![/fusion_button]