How Much Exercise Should I Do Each Day? Advice from Experts

Published by Jyoti Agarwal on August 5, 2024

Why exercise?

The rising changes in the lifestyle of today’s generation, like partying late at night, high amounts of alcohol, unhealthy food habits, and eating late at night, have led to severe health issues.

In addition, the daily routine of 9 to 5 with continuous sitting and eating leads to an increase of fat in the body and flexibility reduction. So to get rid of this exercise plays an important role.

Keeping the body physically fit by adding some form of exercise to our daily routine helps with health benefits. In addition, it will aid in maintaining flexibility, supporting cardio and respiratory fitness, and keeping the bones strong.

People in the age group of 65-75 will find it helpful in less risk of disease, lower chance of a fall, ability to do everyday tasks, and improving mobility.

Types of exercise

1. Strength

Strength-building exercise helps in making muscles and bones stronger to support the joints and prevent fractures. After a certain age, when people face difficulties in doing everyday tasks, this form of exercise helps them climb stairs or carry heavy loads easily and improves balance and body composition.

This exercise uses your own body weight and hand weights and should be performed at least twice per week. Some examples are bicep curls, squats, sit-ups, push-ups, etc.

2. Stretching and flexibility

Sometimes, when you bend to lift something, you might feel painful stretching or tightness of the muscles and, the reason behind the lack of flexibility in the body.

So, muscle stretching helps the body improve its range of motion and lowers the possibility of injury. It makes your everyday tasks, like taking things from a higher shelf, bending, and cleaning, a lot easier than before. Instead of stretching for a long time a few days per week, prefer to stretch for a short time every day.

3. Balancing

After a certain age, balancing is the utmost need of an individual as it prevents from getting injured. Easy balancing techniques like standing on one foot, repeated sit-ups, and lower body strength exercises like squats, as well as yoga, help the body to maintain balance. A person can perform these exercises every day or as per the capacity.

4. Endurance

To maintain the body as per the inner health situations like efficient breathing and heart rate, working of lungs, and circulation in appropriate condition, endurance plays a vital role.

The major exercises of this form are brisk walking, jogging, swimming, tennis, dancing, and cycling. To get the most benefits, perform these exercises for at least 10 to 30 minutes a day.

How Long Should You Work Out Each Day?

The above question may vary from person to person. The intensity of activity you choose, personal health, fitness goals, etc., are some of the factors that an individual should consider before working out.

If your body can handle vigorous exercise, then your workout should involve challenging and intense workout sessions. But, if your body is not capable of doing strength training, then balancing and less intense workouts are good for you.

Here are some workout types and timings that will help you to get a clear understanding.

1. High Intensity Workouts

These workouts require a lot of strength from the body and need to be short as your body is unable to work very hard for an extended period of time. If you find out that you can perform high-intensity workouts for an hour, then either you need to change the pattern, or you are not working hard to gain muscle strength. So, these workouts might feel challenging and last for 20-30 minutes.

2. Easy Day Workouts

Easy recovery days allow the body to relax. Instead of giving a break of 2-3 days and letting your workout go to waste, active recovery helps to increase your body’s range of motion and daily caloric burn and decreases your stress level. Low-intensity workouts for a maximum of 30–45 minutes, like an easy walk, hike, leisurely swim, and yoga classes, help increase the range of motion in your joints.

3. Long Moderate Workout

Workouts under the moderate category will burn more calories than a recovery day and enable the body to heal and be ready for high-intensity workout days.

As this form of exercise goes easy on the body, you have to perform it for a longer duration(45-90 minutes) to burn more calories.

As Per Age Factor

Children (ages 5-17)

In this phase, parents should encourage children to perform vigorous physical and aerobic activities for about 60 minutes 3 days a week as it will help make the muscles and bones strong.

Adults (ages 18-64)-

In this age, prefer strength training twice a week, and a minimum of 2-3 hours of aerobic activity a week will be sufficient to keep the body fit and maintained.

Older adults (over age 65)-

At this age, the main motive behind exercising is to keep the body healthy and protect against falls. So, strength and balance training 2 to 3 times a week will be sufficient for fitness.

How to begin with physical activity exercises?

1. Set realistic goals

Some people think that an intense workout can only lead to the desired goals; instead, begin with small and manageable goals like cardio for 15-20 minutes. Once you meet these goals efficiently, start increasing the duration and intensity gradually. Let your body adapt to these high-intensity workouts slowly. Stay consistent and perform the exercises on a regular basis.

2. Find a workout buddy

A good company makes every tedious and difficult task a lot easier. Having a workout buddy can make your time more fun. Starting a new challenge will be difficult, but when you set a competition with your partner and compare the results, things will get more exciting, and you will find a motive not to skip the gym days.

3. Perform the workout you enjoy

If there are certain activities that lead to missing the gym sessions, it is beneficial if you skip that particular exercise. Find activities that you love to do and it can be anything such as cardio, swimming, playing, etc. Instead of focusing on one type of exercise and making it monotonous, plan a variety of activities. Also, it will help in staying active in the gym.

4. Set a gym playlist

Good music helps in making complex tasks more manageable. If you find repetitive sessions boring, you can create a playlist of your favorite music and play them while performing regular workouts. This will help make doing the hard workouts comparatively easier.

Conclusion

Different body types perform differently in a gym. The timing mainly depends on the individual’s preferences. If you are in your initial phase, then instead of performing weightlifting and getting seriously injured, it is better to let your body adjust by simply walking and exercising. ‘

As per the age factor, decide how much time and what type of exercise you can do easily. There are various exercises like cardio, balancing, flexibility, and as per your desired outcome, select what you want to do. Always remember, any amount of exercise is better than doing nothing.

FAQs

1. What is the best time to work out?

The answer to the above question is that every time is best to do the workout. As per many researchers and experienced trainers, morning and evening workouts are better in their own ways. Both have certain advantages and disadvantages, so as per the comfort and time available, you can perform the workout anytime, as body movement is rather important than selecting the time.

2. How many exercises should I do every day?

The time may vary from person to person. For children aged between 5-17 years, about 60 minutes for three days a week is sufficient. For the age category of 18-64 years, a minimum of 2-3 hours of aerobic activity a week will be enough to keep the body fit and maintained. For those over age 65, balance training for 2 to 3 times a week will be sufficient for fitness.

3. How can one motivate themself to go to the gym?

Instead of performing high-intensity workouts, set achievable and manageable goals in the beginning. Go slow and perform 15 minutes of cycling and walking.
Rather than repeating the same workout sessions every day and making them dull, try a new workout routine and make the sessions more fun and exciting.
Pack your gym essentials in the night only as in the morning; with already packed stuff, you’ll be more motivated to go to the gym.

4. Is 2 hours of exercise a day too much?

As long as you are performing moderate workout sessions, 2 hours of exercise is sufficient to stay fit. As this form of exercise goes easy on the body, you can perform it for a longer duration to burn more calories.

5. Why exercise is necessary for the body?

In teens and adults, the significant change in lifestyle is a point of concern. From eating unhealthy food to waking up late, basic exercise is essential to staying fit and healthy.

In older age, a regular exercise routine will help to maintain balance and fight against serious heart issues. Also, it’s imporant to move the body rather than sitting in just one place.

6. How can one incorporate more exercise into a day?

Other than going to the gym there are multiple ways that you can incorporate into daily life for staying fit-

Instead of lift, use stairs.
More use of shopping basket than trolley.
Play sports like golf, badminton or tennis in daily life.
Dedicate some minutes of the day to dance or join a class.
Rather than scrolling mobile in lunch break, use your time for 10 minute walk.
Get off the bus one stop before and walk to the office.
Use online workout videos or download the fitness app to keep the track of health.

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