Listen to “How Long Should Your Workouts Be?”
The average baseline to keep your heart and body healthy is 150 minutes per week of moderate activity or 75 minutes per week of vigorous activity. This averages out to about 30 – 50 minutes of moderate, steady-state exercise three to five days a week, or about 25 minutes of high-intensity exercise three days a week. However, this is just the baseline for staying fit and healthy.
If you’re looking to lose weight or build muscle, there are several factors to consider when choosing the length of your workout. The most important one is to identify what your main goals are, as there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Here are two examples of how workouts may vary depending on your goals.
Weight-loss
If you’re trying to lose weight and you’re only able to work out three days a week, schedule two 40-minute, high-intensity interval training sessions. Additionally, try to get in a 30 – 40 minutes low-intensity cardio. On the other days, aim to move around whenever your schedule allows it.
Marathon training
If your goal is to run a marathon, your workouts will need to be much longer, usually hours at a time, to condition yourself for the 26.2-mile run appropriately.
Determine your fitness level first
Your current fitness level will be a crucial factor in determining your workout intensity and duration. If you’re 100 pounds overweight, you might need to start off spending 50 minutes a day doing moderate-intensity exercise so that your body can handle it. However, if you’re an athlete, you might be able to crush a 20-minute, super high-intensity workout with energy to spare.
There’s no perfect workout length as everybody has different needs and abilities. Your fitness level will determine how hard and long you can go. Remember, exercise isn’t a competition, and you should focus on your needs first and ensure you are doing the right workouts for you.
How do I know if I’m on the right track?
If you feel like you were challenged but also feel energized afterwards, you nailed it. If a workout leaves you entirely spent and exhausted, then you likely exercised to excess. The shorter your workouts are, the more intense they’ll need to be.
The key is to find the right balance for your body, fitness level, and goals. You need to challenge your muscles, heart, lungs, and the circulatory system just enough each workout to trigger adaptation. That’s going to change as you become fitter, so be sure to listen to your body, and exercise accordingly.
Exercise is great for health and brilliant for the mind as it releases endorphins. However, if you want to see physical changes, no amount of exercise is going to help if you don’t focus on nutrition as well.
In the DeepH health app, you can build a personal profile and get all of your health and fitness information in one place. You will get personalized recommendations on workout intensity, weight, sleep, activities to define an optimal lifestyle according to your age, gender and initial health parameters.
Start now by getting your DeepH Health Score, and you can begin to understand and monitor your well-being status. The DeepH App is an easy-to-use personalized guide to healthy and happier living.
