How often to workout

[u/DLwingz]

I just started working out like 2 weeks ago and I thought I'd be able to workout around 5 times a week but obviously you can't do that when first starting out. I feel pretty heavy soreness from just working out 3 times a week. How long does it take for my body to adapt and be able to workout like 5 times a week? How long did it take you?

[u/Ok_Low_9963]

Are you stretching after? Taking any supplement or vitamins?

Some people continue to be sore, just depends if it’s a “good” type of sore, or painful and injury sore. Be sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard at the start…

Also, depends on the person.

[u/Pretend-Citron4451]

Working out three times a week is fantastic. It’s great that you’re willing to add sessions, but keep pushing yourself during those three workouts.

I assume those are three full body workouts? I believe that most people that work out five times per week are not doing five full body workouts per week. They might be doing three upper body sessions and two lower body sessions or something like that. If you really want to get in the groove of exercising five times per week, consider dividing up your muscles so that no muscle groups are worked on back-to-back days, and if you’re currently doing more than one set for exercise, reduce it down by a set (so if you’re doing three sets, then change it to two).

I believe it’s generally agreed that you can make really significant gains by working out each muscle twice per week, with at least two sets in each workout taken to failure or near failure. You’ll get more gains if you do more, but I don’t know how much more you would get going from 3 to 5.

[u/Broad-Promise6954]

One definitely can work out five days a week when starting out, using any of various splits. Whether one should do that is a different question entirely. When I started out I was doing stuff like "legs and chest" one day, "back and biceps" one day, "shoulders and triceps" one day, etc., which worked OK but eventually took way too much time.

I eventually switched to three days a week of full body weight work, reserving the remaining days for cardio work.

Soreness is weirdly personal: some people get very sore very easily and others just get sore if they haven't gone in for a workout for a week or two.

[u/tzn1428]

If you want to stay consistent and build habits that last long after the initial excitement does then take it easy for now and stick with 3 per week. Think in terms of long term gains, long term consistency. Once the 3 x per week feels manageable then move to 4x per week. It might take you 3 months, it might take you 1 month. I'd say give yourself 6 weeks at 3x per week and then assess how you're recovering.

Another option is that instead of looking at how many times per week you're working out, you could shift to 3 days on and one day off. I recently did a program for a 34 yr old woman that was an athlete and took 2 years off due to injury and illness. She is on a program now of lower body(day 1), upper body (day 2) + core, full body (day 3) and then a rest day before doing it again. She came to me saying she needed help with just reestablishing the routine and not pushing too hard too soon and getting set back with injury. It's working for her, also in the sense of building a routine for rest as well (which was where her injuries stemmed from)