Everyone who does physical training want’s to know the answer to this question. How much exercise is “enough”.

The answer to this really depends on several things….called variables….that are different for every person. This brief article is intended to help you sort out the answer that applies to you.

1. What are your goals?

The first thing that will be different for everyone is what their goals are for doing exercise. There will be a huge difference between the answer for someone who is just starting on a fitness program and someone preparing for a serious national level competition. For the beginner the answer will be regular training at a minimal level. The national level competitor will do a very specific training routine appropriate for what he or she is trying to accomplish during the competition. The advanced workout may include movements that the beginner cannot even perform. But the question of “how much is enough” will have a very different answer for each of these people.

2. How long have you been training?

The benefit a person derives from any given training session will depend heavily on how much training they have already done. For example, the consequences of a workout session for someone who is in their second week of training will be huge when compared to the relative value of a single workout for someone with 20+ years of experience. In other words, the relative impact of a single session will diminish the longer you train.

This is because the novice is challenging their body to grow and adapt for the first time, and the old pro is fine tuning a well developed body. So, each of them gets a different answer.

3. Is there a set formula for how often you should train?

How often you train and how intensely will depend entirely on the activity you are training for, and your associated fitness level. For example, runners will train more days per week than powerlifters. International class athletes will train more often and more intensely than people who compete at the club level. In other words, “it depends” on what you do, and at what level you compete.

4. Does training a lot age you more rapidly?

No way. If you look at people who have trained hard all their lives, often have 40 year old bodies when they are in their 70’s. The late legendary Jack LaLanne died at 96 after a short illness. He had been in top physical shape all his life, and stayed that way right up to the end.

If those of us who have been fit all our lives actually aged more rapidly than the sedentary crowd, you would see a lot of really fit 40 and 50 year olds being buried while the chronic disease crowd routinely lived to ripe old age. In real life, the fit people tend to live longer (and better) than the inert folks.

5. Is there a general rule that will tell me how much to train?

As long as you train regularly, you will be able to make your own rough estimate on how much you need to train to stay at a certain level of fitness. If you want to “improve” over where you are now, you will have to train more than you do now. If you want to keep from becoming less fit, you need to find a level of training that will enable you to “say were you are”. Each person will find out what those levels are as they develop experience with their own body.

If you are serious about getting the most out of your fitness training, it is important that you keep written records of your training so that you can see what works for you, and what gives you minimal results. Only then will you be able to determine what works for you and “how much” you need to train for a certain result.

Richard