Which is better - four short workouts each week or 3 long workouts? I have a time management problem but want to stay in shape.
If you do four short work-outs (or five...?) Make sure that you are pushing up the intensity on those workouts. If you do four or five 30 minute sessions instead of 3 hour long session make them really intense by resting less and pushing up your heart rate.
5 Answers
Mitch,
Do four short instead of three long. At least fifteen minutes of exercise that elevates your heart rate a day can decrease your chances of heart disease and other nasties by up to half. As Jim said, make them more intense (hint: don't sit down or break for more than a minute). Basically, though, you want to exercise more times per week than just putting in extra time at the gym.
This depends on your goal.
If you are wanting to gain weight, ie muscle then working with max weight for shorter periods is better.
If your major goal is to burn fat then cardio should extend beyond 20 min.'s after you work cardio for 20 min.'s then you are burning stored fat. - http://www.shapefit.com/cardio-exercises.html
Even better: Do four longer workouts per week. Then suck it up and spend a bit less time doing less important things, like staring slackjawed at your widescreen TV or updating your Facebook page.
Yes, this is a snide answer. But there's truth to it. Seriously: Take a hard, honest look at how you budget each of your 24 hours per day. Then ask yourself if you REALLY don't have time for four "long" workouts per week.
I try not to think about how many workouts I am doing a week, but more on the intensity of the workouts I do. My typical workout has 5 days of workouts but I know that I may not get 5 days to get into the gym in a week. I try to never let more than 2 days go by without a workout.
Every workout I do has about 30 to 40 minutes of exercises. Per SET I pick the weight I will use. I want to use a weight that is only allowing me to do 8 to 10 reps in good form. If I hit 12 reps in a set, it means I have to raise the weight in the next set and move forward from there. I type everything down in my Blackberry and there are plenty of apps out there to let you track your workouts.
If you are doing the most intense workout every time you go to the gym you will see results. Maybe it will take a little more time because your workouts are spaced out but at least you are doing something.
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If you do four short work-outs (or five...?) Make sure that you are pushing up the intensity on those workouts. If you do four or five 30 minute sessions instead of 3 hour long session make them really intense by resting less and pushing up your heart rate.