How many days a week should you work out?

The quick answer, by goal

There's no single right number, because the right number is the one you'll keep doing. But the guidelines give clear starting points. Here they are side by side, with the reasoning in the sections below.

What the guidelines actually say

The World Health Organization's guidance for adults aged 18 to 64 is at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week, or at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or a mix of the two. For extra health benefits, it suggests building moderate activity up to 300 minutes a week. It also recommends muscle-strengthening activities involving the major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

For adults over 65 the minutes are the same, with one addition: people with poor mobility should do activity that improves balance and helps prevent falls on 3 or more days a week. The WHO also says every age group should limit the time spent sitting.

Moderate intensity means you're breathing harder but can still talk: brisk walking, cycling at an easy pace, climbing stairs. Vigorous means you can only say a few words before needing a breath. Split 150 minutes across five days and it's 30 minutes a day, which is less than many people spend commuting.

How many days a week should a beginner work out?

Two or three days of strength training a week, on non-consecutive days, is enough for most beginners. That matches the American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on resistance training, which recommends 2 to 3 days a week for novices, 3 to 4 for people with around six months of consistent training, and 4 to 5 for advanced lifters.

Full-body sessions make the most sense at this stage: a squat or sit-to-stand, a hinge such as a hip hinge or deadlift, a push, a pull and some core work. You practise every movement two or three times a week, which is how technique improves, and the rest days in between let your body recover from training it isn't used to yet.

1. 1

   Monday: full-body strength

   Five or six movements, two or three sets each, at a weight you could lift a couple more times.

2. 2

   Tuesday: walk

   Thirty minutes at a brisk pace. Steps count; so do stairs.

3. 3

   Wednesday: full-body strength

   The same movements, aiming for one more rep or a little more weight than Monday.

4. 4

   Thursday: walk or stretch

   An easy walk, or ten minutes of mobility work for your hips and upper back.

5. 5

   Friday: full-body strength

   Repeat, then note what you lifted so next week has a target.

6. 6

   Weekend: something active you enjoy

   A long walk, a game of cricket or badminton, a swim. Then rest.

If you're starting from nothing, or coming back after a long break, two strength days are plenty for the first few weeks. Our 4-week home workout plan for beginners lays out exactly what to do on each one.

How often should you work out to lose weight?

Exercise helps with weight loss, but less than most people hope on its own. The American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on weight loss found that 150 to 250 minutes a week of moderate activity produces only modest weight loss, while more than 250 minutes a week has been associated with clinically significant weight loss. It also found that this amount of activity improves weight loss when combined with a moderate (not severe) cut in calories.

The same position stand notes that resistance training doesn't speed up weight loss by itself, but it can increase lean mass and the loss of fat mass. In practice that means two or three strength sessions a week to keep your muscle while you lose fat, plus plenty of walking or other activity, plus a sensible calorie deficit. Our calorie deficit calculator gives you a starting target, and our fat loss page explains how we coach it.

How many days a week to build muscle?

Aim to train each muscle group at least twice a week. A 2016 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld and colleagues in Sports Medicine compared training frequencies with the total amount of work kept equal and concluded that training a muscle twice a week leads to more growth than training it once. Whether three times beats twice wasn't clear.

Three full-body sessions a week does this neatly. So does a four-day upper and lower split: upper body on Monday and Thursday, lower body on Tuesday and Friday. Both hit every muscle twice. What matters more than the split is that you add weight or reps over time and eat enough protein; our protein intake calculator works out how much you need. You don't need a gym for this either: see how to build muscle at home and our muscle building page.

Do you need rest days?

Yes, at least from hard training. Your body adapts to training while it recovers, so working the same muscles hard every day leaves no time for that to happen. Rest doesn't have to mean sitting still: walking, gentle cycling or mobility work all fit on rest days.

• Signs you need more rest: soreness that hasn't eased by your next session, weights that feel heavier week after week, poor sleep, or dreading every workout.
• Signs you can do more: sessions feel easy, you recover overnight, and you're keen for the next one.
• Sleep counts. A late night before a heavy session is a good reason to train lighter that day.

Sample weekly schedules for 3, 4 and 5 days

All three meet the WHO's two-or-more strength days. Pick the one that fits your week, not the one that looks most impressive. Three sessions you never miss beat five you skip half of.

Short on time? What counts

A strength session doesn't need to take two hours. Our one-to-one sessions run 45 minutes, warm-up and cool-down included, because a planned session with no wandering between machines gets a lot done. On busy days, a brisk walk to the shop, the stairs instead of the lift, or ten minutes of movement between meetings all add to your weekly minutes.

The schedule that works is the one that survives a bad week. If you keep missing sessions, the answer is usually fewer, fixed sessions you plan around, rather than more ambitious ones. A coach and a booked slot make that much easier, which is a large part of what online personal training is for.