With the pressures of social media, it’s easy to feel like you need to be exercising at least four or five times a week to get fit. But the reality is, any amount of exercise, no matter how small or infrequent, is good for you. And setting yourself realistic goals is key to maintaining consistency in your workout routine, which is what will help you make progress over time. “If you can exercise, that’s a good thing, no matter what it is or how many days it is,” says Laura Anderson, personal trainer and founder of Edinburgh-based gym Cave Fit.
And new research confirms that exercising just two times per week is enough to significantly improve your health. The study was looking specifically at people with type two diabetes who identified as ‘weekend warriors’, which meant they only exercised on Saturdays and Sundays. Researchers found that doing so lowers your risk of all-cause mortality by 21%, and lowers your risk of dying from cardiovascular-related illnesses by 33%. Researchers noted that other studies have found similar findings around people who follow a “weekend warrior” schedule amongst the general population.
Is exercising twice a week really enough?
Researchers found that being a “weekend warrior” lowered all-cause mortality to a similar extent as people who exercise regularly. However, what’s crucial is that the people in the study who were only exercising twice per week were still doing 150 minutes of exercise per week in total. This is the amount of exercise most health bodies recommend, including the CDC.
According to Anderson two days per week is a good goal for people who are currently inactive. “I think [exercising] twice a week is a really good place to start,” she says. “If you start with any more than that, you run the risk of potentially overdoing it — your body isn’t trained for it, the recovery can be slower, and it can feel overwhelming.”
However she caveats this by saying that it’s important to try and remain generally active every day, even if you’re not doing a dedicated workout. “We want to look at exercise as part of a healthier, more active lifestyle at the most basic level,” she says.
Is it okay to exercise on two consecutive days?
This study specifically looked at people who exercised on two consecutive days. Anderson says that a lot of her clients only train at the weekends because of work and other responsibilities, and that works for them. “It definitely depends on what fits your lifestyle best, because that’s what is going to be sustainable for you, so the consistency will be there,” she says.
However, exercising two days in a row — particularly if you’re not active at the moment and you’re doing intense sessions — could potentially lead to injury. “I think the weekend warrior kind of pattern can sometimes potentially be risky, and lead to more musculoskeletal injuries,” Anderson says, adding: “If the sessions are quite intense and you’re not used to it […] it is a long time to be exercising, which could potentially overload your body a bit too much.”
If you are following a “weekend warrior” plan, then recovery is key. “The best thing you can do if you’re training on consecutive days is have a great night’s sleep,” Anderson says. “Avoid screens before bed and try to get seven to nine hours of sleep.”
She adds that diet is crucial to proper recovery too. “Just because we’ve been to the gym, it doesn’t mean you should fall face first into a pack of donuts. We need to make sure we’re giving our body the nutrients it needs, as well as eating the fun foods as well,” Anderson says. “Priortise lots of carbohydrates to fuel those muscles, make sure you’re hitting your protein intake and drink lots of water to stay hydrated as well.”
On top of that, Anderson suggests doing some gentle stretching in between sessions and a short walk — 15 minutes is fine — to keep the blood flowing, remove lactate from the muscles and enhance your recovery.
What should you focus on if you can only exercise twice a week?
The type of workouts you should do depends on your goals and what you enjoy. But Anderson recommends trying to incorporate a mix of strength and fitness activities if you’re exercising just twice per week. Below, she’s shared a workout plan that will help you build strength, improve your fitness and work on your mobility in two sessions.
They both involve a combination of strength training and cardio. “Balance what you want to do out over two days, rather than looking at them as two individual sessions,” she advises. Anderson recommends splitting your strength workouts into “push” and “pull” movements, rather than workouts that target specific areas of the body. “I find “push” and “pull” a more functional way to train, and it also means you’re hitting more movement patterns more frequently, essentially if you are only training twice a week,” she says.
You don’t necessarily need to incorporate machines or barbells into your workouts to build strength, especially if you’re trying to make the most of your time. “At a beginner level, I think the best thing to do is to grab some dumbbells and find a space in the gym where you can almost set up a circuit,” Anderson advises. “So you can do four or five exercises back to back, take a couple of minutes rest, and then repeat that for maybe four or five rounds.” Over time, Anderson recommends trying to decrease the amount of time you’re resting between sets and increasing the weights you’re using gradually too, to ensure you keep making progress.
Below, Anderson has shared a specific workout format for each session and some exercise ideas.
“Weekend warrior” workout plan
Session One
Warm-up: 10 minutes
Five minutes of gentle cardio followed by five minutes of gentle stretching.
“Push” exercises circuit: 30 to 40 minutes
Complete 10 to 12 reps of the following exercises back-to-back, then take two to three minutes of rest, for four to five sets:
- Dumbbell squats
- Dumbbell shoulder press
- Dumbbell lunge
- Dumbbell chest press
Aerobic workout: 25 to 40 minutes
Anderson recommends finishing your workout with 25 to 40 minutes of moderate cardio exercise, keeping your heart rate in zones one to three. “That could be running, that could be rowing — maybe you’ve got access to a swimming pool,” she says.
“Heart rate zones one to three should mean working at a conversational pace,” Anderson explains. “That’s where you build your cardio base, which will enable you to then get fitter and faster over time. These should feel like quite easy sessions.”
Session two
Warm-up: 10 minutes
Five minutes of gentle cardio followed by five minutes of gentle stretching.
“Pull” exercises: 30 to 40 minutes
Complete 10 to 12 reps of the following exercises back-to-back, then take two to three minutes of rest, for four to five sets:
- Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts
- Single-arm dumbbell
- Dumbbell bicep curls
- Renegade row
Cardio finisher: 15 to 25 minutes
Anderson recommends a HIIT circuit to finish your second workout. “Zone four and particularly zone five, that’s where you’re then training your VO two Max, which is kind of your top end performance, really pushing your fitness levels at that stage,” she explains. “These kind of sessions can be done in 10 to 15 minutes,” Anderson adds.
She recommends doing intervals on a machine like a treadmill, rower or bike. Or you can do running intervals. Anderson recommends 30 seconds of sprints – either running or sprints on a particular machine — followed by two minutes of walking or cycling or rowing slowly. Alternatively, you could try one of the best HIIT workouts for beginners.
Afterwards, spend five to ten minutes cooling down by walking, jogging slowly or cooling down on the machine you were using.
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