The benefits of exercising every day are clear – more exercise means more calories burned. That is why people who want to lose weight quickly are ready to play sports every day. However, does this approach help you burn fat more efficiently?
Ultimately, the answer depends on your choice of nutritional strategy. Attending fitness classes every day while on a low-calorie diet can slow down the metabolism and increase the feeling of hunger to the maximum. In addition, daily workouts are not recommended when building muscles.
Fitness and sports every day
Many beginners looking to lose weight or build muscle are wondering if it is possible to exercise every day. The advantages of daily fitness are obvious – the body undergoes more training, which, in theory, should have a positive effect on the result.
However, there are less obvious disadvantages – if you perform heavy basic exercises with a barbell every day, then you become overtrained. When recruiting muscles, the body needs time to fully recover – large muscle groups take up to 48-60 hours to complete the regeneration processes.
Despite this, daily fitness is definitely beneficial for losing weight as well as for increasing body endurance. Below you will find the rules and guidelines that must be followed if you decide to exercise every day for maximum results.
Fitness every day:
- slimming
- to develop endurance
- not suitable for gaining mass
Workout duration
If you decide to exercise every day, it is recommended that you do a short, high-intensity workout to lose weight and burn fat. First of all, we are talking about circuit training and HIIT training.
In addition, home workouts on a stationary bike or other cardio at home can be done daily, and their duration should be at least 30-45 minutes – this will help you lose several pounds in the first month.
Weight Loss Daily Workouts
The higher the daily level of physical activity, the more calories the body requires. Exercising every day increases the energy requirements of your basal metabolic rate while boosting your metabolism – which definitely helps you lose weight faster.
Despite this, the total calorie intake is also important, as well as adherence to the rules of proper nutrition. Many sports (from swimming to dancing) directly affect appetite – the more activity the body gets, the more you want to eat.
In order to lose weight, it is necessary not only to play sports, but also to control the calorie intake. Otherwise, you run the risk of increasing body weight due to accumulation of body fat – even with a high level of intensity of daily activities.
The benefits of sports every day
As a result of every day exercises, the body’s ability to store energy in muscles (in the form of glycogen) improves, rather than storing it in fat stores. This has a positive effect on insulin sensitivity of tissues – which is especially beneficial for diabetics and pre-diabetics.
In simple terms, exercising every day helps reduce sugar cravings and teaches the body to use reserves, not create them. In addition, regular exercise helps control stress hormone levels (primarily cortisol) and improves cardiovascular function.
Workout every day for muscle growth
While daily exercise can help you lose weight or maintain optimal metabolic function, strength training requires more rest. Although you can go to the gym every day, it is recommended that you alternate heavy muscle-building exercises with cardio.
The advantage of frequent training is the ability to work out not only large muscle groups (legs, back, chest), but also smaller ones. For example, you can devote one workout of the week entirely to abdominal exercises, and another to relatively light biceps and triceps exercises.
How many times a week to do weight training for improved muscle mass?
One of the most effective muscle building programs, the triple split involving three strength training sessions per week. In addition, as mentioned above, a day can be used to work on abdominal muscle groups, as well as 1-2 full cardio workouts.
The plus is that when exercising in such a daily regime, the result will show up sooner. After a few months, not only will the muscles become stronger, but also the metabolism will change. Athletes know that no matter what the initial body type is, regular and prolonged training may well turn an ectomorph into a full-fledged mesomorph.
How much time to allow for muscle recovery?
Scientific research suggests that the time required for muscle recovery after exercise is an average of 48 to 72 hours – or 2 to 3 days. In reality, this figure depends both on the level of experience of the athlete and age (the older the person, the longer the recovery lasts), and which muscles were involved in the training.
Moreover, compared to small and medium muscle groups (for example, arms, shoulders and abs) which require about 48-60 hours for regeneration, the full recovery of large muscles (primarily legs, chest, back), and, in particular, the central nervous system , also experiencing serious stress when performing basic exercises, requires at least 72 hours.
Recovery time of muscle groups
Shoulders 48 – 60 hours
Breast up to 72 hours
Back up to 72 hours
Core 48 – 60 hours
Triceps 48 – 60 hours
Biceps 48 – 60 hours
Buttocks up to 72 hours
Thigh muscles up to 72 hours
Calves 48 – 60 hours
Muscle pain after exercise
Traditionally, it is believed that the specific “pulling” pain in muscles after sports activities is directly related to their growth. From a scientific point of view, this is not entirely true, and muscle growth can take place without pain at all – it all depends on the individual characteristics of a person’s metabolism. We also note that active recovery and sports massage with a roller significantly reduce this pain.
In fact, the specific “delayed” pain felt in the muscles of the body after doing heavy strength training simply means that the body is successfully repairing the muscles and removing toxins formed after exercise (including lactic acid). Typically, this pain begins 12 to 24 hours after exercise and ends completely within 24 to 72 hours.
Recovery after exercising
Strange as it may seem, but complete rest is not at all the optimal way to quickly recover the body after training. Studies show that moderate exercise on rest days from gym workouts increases blood flow and detoxification rates, thereby significantly accelerating muscle tissue regeneration and growth.
In other words, light cardio done in the fat-burning heart rate zone and lasting 20-25 minutes on days free from strength training will not only accelerate recovery, but ultimately allow you to train more effectively for muscle growth and definition. A visit to the pool will also be useful – it’s no secret that swimming perfectly develops the body.
How many times a week to work out your legs?
Legs contain one of the largest muscle groups in the body, so it is recommended to train them no more than once every 72 hours – in other words, if you did heavy squats with a barbell on Monday, the next time to train your legs would be Thursday or even Friday. However, if you only trained calves or internal thigh muscles, then the rest time is reduced.
At the same time, the total number of days required to restore leg muscles also depends on the body type of a person – sports mesomorphs can train more often (and, ultimately, build muscles faster), while the body of thin ectomorphs or overweight endomorphs requires an increased amount of time to replenish energy reserves.
How often can you train your abs?
In the first months of strength training, beginners can work their abdominal muscles 5 times a week – the presence of “delayed” pain will literally help to feel the abdominal muscles, which will dramatically increase the effectiveness of core training. However, we are talking about performing single abdominal exercise without additional load or simple workout at home.
Full sets of exercises for the development of the muscles of the core will take about 48-60 hours to recover. Separately, we note that more frequent workouts of the abdominal muscles are not capable to completely remove fat from the abdomen or do so at a faster rate (this requires a diet). In fact, they will only cause overtraining and negatively affect overall progress.
How many times a week should women train?
When it comes to fat loss workouts, it is important to mention aerobic workouts for women. In their case, daily training against the background of a decrease in calorie intake can have the opposite effect of the desired one. Instead of speeding up the metabolism and weight loss, the body can increase the level of the stress hormone cortisol, thus provoking not at all the loss of fat, but its gain.
Losing weight should always begin with adjustment in nutrition, excluding fast carbohydrates and excessively high-calorie foods. Physical training for fat burning in this case is only a way to normalize metabolism and equalize blood sugar levels, and not at all a mechanism to get rid of excess calories and directly “burn” fat.
There is no general recommendation on whether you can exercise every day. If the goal of training is to lose weight, then daily physical activity will definitely help you.
To maintain daily physical activity, you can add small fitness equipment and start your own home gym.
Can I drink while exercising?
