Before you determine how many times a week you should see your personal trainer, it makes sense to first consider how often you’ll be working out. Yet, even that isn’t as cut and dry as you might think. Do a quick search for “How many times a week should you go to the gym,” and you’ll likely find some conflicting results from personal training.
Simply put, how many times a week you should work out will depend on your goals. A bodybuilder preparing for a competition or a runner training for a marathon will have different goals than someone who is new or returning to fitness. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what the experts recommend for exercise frequency.
According to the CDC, adults should perform a combination of aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening activities every week. The frequency and duration, however, can vary depending on the intensity of the aerobic activity. For example, their recommendations call for:
Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (i.e., brisk walking) for 150 minutes a week, which could work out to be 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week
Vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise (such as running) for 75 minutes a week, which could work out to be 25 minutes a day, 3 days a week
A mix of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise two or more days a week
While these variations leave you with several possible combinations, what doesn’t change is their recommendations for muscle-strengthening activities. No matter what type of aerobic exercise you’re doing or how frequently you do it, the CDC advises two or more days per week of muscle-strengthening exercise that works all major muscle groups.
Now, keep in mind that the CDC includes the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms in their list of major muscle groups. If your workout goals include getting stronger — which is almost always the case, since even people who set out to lose weight can benefit from having more lean muscle — you may need more than just two days to work out all of those different groups effectively.