How often should you train?
That’s a common question when beginning an exercise program, but answering it requires the addition of a bit more context. As it stands, it’s too broad to be useful.
It’s kind of like asking how often you should visit your doctor. The answer depends on a number of factors.
Are you generally healthy? If so, annually may be good enough. Do you have an acute ache, pain, or illness? Then you might make a few visits over a month or two. And if you’re dealing with a chronic health condition? Well, that may require you to show up weekly until further notice.
Similarly, your optimal exercise frequency will depend on a number of factors that could change with the seasons. And those factors will also vary from person to person.
So, while I can’t offer a specific frequency that will be optimal for everyone at any time and in all situations, I can suggest a framework of questions and concepts that will help you make decisions that are appropriate to your circumstances.
And to remember that framework, you can simply use the acronym T.R.A.I.N.
“T” is for Target and Time
The first two questions you need to ask to determine how often may be beneficial for you to train are: What’s your target (i.e. goal)? And how much time are you able to dedicate to achieving it?
These questions need to be considered together because it will do you little good to either:
- Have minimal time to pursue a target that requires significant effort to achieve, or
- Spend a lot of time training for a target that actually requires less effort and, subsequently, have minimal time for other pursuits.
In general, most strength-, cardiovascular endurance-, flexibility-, and skill-related targets can be achieved in two to four sessions per week. Some significant health benefits can be experienced in as little as 90 minutes of dedicated activity per week.
Can you do more? Sure. Can you do less? Perhaps.
But if you overlay your target(s) and time availability, you’ll certainly have a great starting point.
“R” is for Recovery
We so often focus on the exercise part of the equation that we forget how important recovery is to the process.
In fact, it’s arguably the most important part because your performance and progress will eventually suffer and you’ll increase your risk of injury if your recovery is insufficient.
So ask yourself frequently: How am I recovering? Has my performance recently dipped? Am I always fatigued or experiencing minor “tweaks”, or does exercise make me feel energized?
If you don’t like your answers and are doing some form of training most days, take an extra “worry-free” day off from your target + time starting point. Your performance, progress, sleep, stress level, and attitude will thank you for it.
“A” is for (training) Age or Adaptability
As you may have guessed, your training age is how long you’ve been doing a particular activity.
If you’re 40 years young and have been dancing since you were ten, then your training age in relation to dancing is 30 years. If you just started lifting weights at age 38, then your weight training age is 2 years.
That’s important to know because we’re generally more adaptable—that is, we experience improvements with less stimulus—when our training age is lower.
In this example, you’ll likely have to dedicate a lot more time to dancing than what you’d need to spend lifting weights in order to notice the same degree of improvement.
So if you’ve recently begun a new activity, aim to start slowly with just a couple days per week. You should still notice reasonable improvements, and you can always increase your frequency later.
“I” is for Intensity
Intensity is closely linked to recovery. The harder you work, the more time you need to recover from that work.
And contrary to popular belief, always exercising at a high level of intensity isn’t the quickest way to experience progress. Rather, we experience the best results when we vary our training intensity and also throw in some play.
Either way, doing generally more intense training means that your frequency may need to be decreased. Two to three days per week should be just fine. On the other hand, keeping your intensity lower means that you can (and may actually need) to increase that frequency a bit to see meaningful progress.
“N” is for Non-exercise Activity
Non-exercise activity is just a fancy way of describing how active your job or typical day is. While this activity may not necessarily be directly helpful for your target/goal, you still need to consider how it affects your recovery and, subsequently, your training frequency.
If a typical day finds you fairly sedentary, adding more intentional activity (at various levels of intensity) to your life will likely prove beneficial.
On the other hand, having an active job or generally standing, moving, or lifting heavy objects throughout the day doesn’t necessitate less-frequent intentional exercise. It simply means that you have one extra variable to consider when you evaluate how you recover and whether to add or remove days from your target + time starting point.
Putting it into practice
Think about your current training frequency in relation to the T.R.A.I.N. framework. If you’re not particularly thrilled with your schedule or results, consider whether it might make sense to add or remove some training days, at least in the short term.
In any case, also spend some time thinking about the past year and what the next 6-12 months might be like. Pay special attention to times when life’s circumstances or your goals naturally affected your training frequency.
Did you generally take that change of frequency in stride, or did it frustrate you?
If the former was the case, keep doing what you’re doing when similar situations occur in the future. If the latter reaction was more accurate, hopefully you can use the T.R.A.I.N. framework to more quickly get back on track the next time a similar situation occurs!