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Susan Gazerro Fitness Column
HOW MUCH EXERCISE DO WE REALLY NEED?
By Susan Gazerro
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Every time we turn around, there’s different advice when it comes to exercise, health, and nutrition. Whether you want to run a certain number of miles, get into strength training, lose weight, or just feel healthy, there’s so much conflicting information that even answering a simple question like, “how often should I work out?” can feel impossible to answer. Every fitness pro will give you a different answer as to how much cardio, weight training, or resistance training you should do.
If you’re working out to feel good, don’t worry too much about how much cardio versus strength training you do in a given week. A pretty general rule for most people is a 50-50 training split and is a great place to start. That means that if you work out four days a week, you’d do two days of strength training and two days of cardio.
If you are looking to lose weight, what I refer to as “healthy weight loss” is best achieved through a combo of exercise and nutritional changes. I do not mean “diet.” I don’t believe in diets. I truly believe in a lifestyle change. This change comes with how you become more active and start eating clean or healthier. If you are looking to lose weight, your exercise schedule will look very different from one who
By Susan Gazerro
is just trying to maintain their weight and stay healthy.
For weight loss, you should be working out a minimum of four days a week. Longlasting weight loss or what I like to call your healthy weight has no end. You want to be able to maintain a lifestyle and it has to be a priority to keep your results. Another crucial factor for weight loss is being more active, in general. I’m not just referring to your exercise workouts.
What I mean is those who maintain their healthy weight do extra physical activity than those who don’t. They park further away from an entrance to a store. They walk their dog more than twice a day. They take a walk at lunchtime. They walk before or after work. They make it a point to move when they don’t have to. They burn more calories throughout the day and expend more energy, overall. Most of the time, it’s not the exercise you are not doing, it’s the overeating you are doing. Exercise certainly helps with weight loss, however, it’s how much you are eating that is the main contributor to being overweight. I, as a fitness instructor, firmly believe in exercise, but the exercise is not just about weight loss, it’s mainly to maintain a healthy life, and it’s the only thing that works the most important
muscle in your body, your heart. When you do cardio exercise, you are burning fat for the period of that workout. When you do resistance training or weight training, you are activating muscle and this continues to burn fat long after the session is over.
Now, on the contrary, if you are someone who wants to gain weight or build muscle, I recommend three or four workouts per week. If this is your goal, here’s the approach you should take regarding cardio. I would suggest scaling back on the cardio. The cardio should follow the strength training and be low endurance. This also doesn’t have to be after every weight training session. Again, cardio is the only thing that works the heart muscle, however; when you weight train, you are raising your heart rate and doing more than people that just do “cardio” so keep your cardio to a minimum.
Remember, building muscle requires striking a fine balance between work and rest. You want to avoid both overtraining and under-training muscles. But if your goal is gaining muscle, be sure to rest a day or two during the week. Truth is, even if your goal is weight loss and you are going cardio crazy, you should take a day or two to rest. Being a hypocrite, I must admit that I don’t always take a day off. I have to put this in the article because my clients and friends know this about me. I believe your body will tell you when you need to rest, and every once in a while, my body does tell me so that’s when I take a rest. Everyone is different. How often you work out depends on a lot of things. Your lifestyle, your fitness level, and your individual goals will determine how often you need a “break.” Ultimately, balancing work and recovery is so important whether you’re working out for overall health, weight loss, or building muscle. Bottom line is that exercise is so important to your overall health and that is what I will preach and believe until the day I die.
