How Much Exercise is Enough?
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Exercise is crucial in maintaining good physical health. It can strengthen bones and muscles, reduce stress, and promote overall well-being. But do we know how much exercise is enough? Or, are we doing too much?
So, what’s the sweet spot? What’s the ideal amount to work out each week to ensure you see results?
In this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, we are going to explore the “Minimal effective dose” for working out, the maximum amount of exercise you should do each week, and the various considerations that affect how much exercise you should do each week.
What I discuss:
It is dependent on the style of workouts you’re doing.
It is dependent on your intensity/load.
This is dependent on your nutrition.
The amount you need to workout is dependent on your goals.
Links mentioned in the episode:
Macro Counting Made Simple: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
If you want more from me, be sure to check out...
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Free e-book: www.juliealedbetter.com/free-ebook
Macro Counting Made Simple: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
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Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let’s go.
Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace your Real podcast.
The number one question that I get on a daily basis is how much exercise should I be doing? How much exercise is enough? And this is really the number one mistake that I also see kind of related to this question is people either working out way too much or people working out not enough. And so today I just kind of wanted to address like this sweet spot, what is the ideal amount of times to work out each week to ensure that you're seeing results?
So in this episode we are going to explore kind of the minimal effective dose for working out and the maximum that you would want to exercise each week and kind of the different factors that go into determining how much you need to work out weekly. But before we dive in, I wanted you to share this review.
It comes from Jen, Lilly, Maddie, Gabe. She gave a five star review and said, Thank you, thank you for these amazing podcasts after recently losing over £100. Wow, that's amazing. Your podcasts are inspirational, motivating, and educational. I have been on a muscle building journey for the past six plus months. I recently just started listening to your podcast and I am enjoying every moment.
Well, that is awesome. First of all, that is no small feat and I am so proud of you for just that commitment and dedication, because that's ultimately it's not motivation. And I'm sure if I had you on the podcast, you would say that you would say this journey was not going off of motivation, but the dedication and the perseverance of just committing to taking one step in front of another. And so the fact that you were able to you lose over £100 is just incredible. And now the fact that you're in, you know, the next kind of stage of your journey of muscle building is is incredible. So keep at it. I'm so proud of you. If you haven't already read it and read the podcast, you could scooch over to Apple Podcasts and Liberating Interview. That would mean the absolute world to me and our team. It just helps us understand how these podcasts are helping you. It also helps other people who kind of stumble upon the podcast. Whether they're searching for a different podcast in this pops up as recommended, or they're just kind of going through to see if it's right for them. A lot of times people will say, Yeah, I checked out some of their reviews and that's actually what led me to listen to the podcast for the first time. So thank you in advance for doing that. I sincerely appreciate that.
Let's dive into kind of the four factors on how much exercise is enough.
So factor number one is it's really dependent on this style of workouts that you're doing. So for example, according to the Mayo Clinic, they state that you need 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week to be healthy. This is just the amount that you need to be healthy is what they're stating, not necessarily the amount to build the body that you want. So this if if you're going off of what the Mayo Clinic is saying, this means that you should be doing 350 minute sessions of cardio per week or 530 minute sessions of cardio per week as a minimum dose for staying healthy again, not for changing your body composition, which means that you actually likely need to be doing more. At least that's what you think when you're reading this to actually see changes in your body. Well, that's a lot. But here's the thing. On the flip side, the Mayo Clinic also says you can see a significant improvement in your strength and body composition with just two or 320 to 30 minute strength training sessions per week with proper nutrition. Okay. So that's a huge difference. That's 150 minutes of cardio or 30 to 40 minutes of strength training, 2 to 4 times per week as a minimum dosage for each. That's a big, big difference. And this is where so many people can get so confused, right? They read these conflicting things. They're following a person that, you know, maybe they stumble upon something and they don't realize that someone is training for a specific race or a specific goal that they have. And they're like, oh, dang, that person is doing, you know, a three mile run on top of five times a week strength training. And then they're doing, you know, a three hour hike on Saturdays like. Or on the flip side, you see someone just doing cycling and you don't you're not realizing that they're maybe training for that or they just enjoy that. They don't maybe have the same goals as you. And this is where it really comes down to what your goals are, what you enjoy doing, and what you can commit to doing in this season of your life. Because at the end of the day, I say this all the time and I will continue to beat this drum. Consistency is ultimately what compounds to help lead to massive results. So you've got to ask yourself, okay, what are my goals? So for me personally, if I read this, I would say, okay, what's more realistic? What are my goals and what do I enjoy? What can I commit to in this season of life? If I read those two articles, I would say, Well, I'm definitely not going to commit to, you know, 530 minute sessions of cardio a week. That's just that's not enjoyable for me. I also might some of my goals are maintaining my strength, building a little bit of strength. So changing my body composition a little bit, not ness. Sara Lee being the fastest in my mile time. And so I would look at this and be like, okay, I can definitely strain train, you know, 2 to 4 times a week. That's something that I would enjoy doing that someday I can commit to doing. So you have to kind of take these things as a grain of salt and look at it and say, okay, what are my goals? What do I enjoy and what what can I commit to?
Number two, it's really dependent on your intensity and load. So 30 minutes of low intensity work is going to bring you much different results than 30 minutes of high intensity work. So it's not always like for how long or how many days a week, but how hard are you going to work? Are you going to do steady state cardio for 30 minutes on a flat surface, or are you going to do 30 minutes on an incline? Obviously, the incline for 30 minutes straight is going to work your body a lot harder, right? 10 to 15 minutes on the incline, if you're at like 7 to 12, incline is likely going to bring you the same results as 30 minutes on flat. But again, it's totally up to you. So I'll just give the example here. I do incline walking, but I only do incline walking like once, maybe twice a week. And it's because I personally walk while I make my tiktoks, while I edit my videos. And I cannot do two things at once because if I'm on the incline, like I got to be pumping my arms, I typically sometimes have, you know, one £2 weights in there and I like go for a literal hike on my tread. Whereas if I'm on the flat surface, I'm literally just doing it to get steps in. And I know that, you know, I've done like a ten or 15 minute hike where it's like 12 to 15 incline and I'm at like a two speed, but I am sweating buckets. My heart rate is through the roof versus me, you know, just being at a zero incline, 30 minutes, walking very, very leisurely. I could carry on a conversation all day, not out of breath at all. So that's definitely something to take into consideration here. And then also another thing is when it comes to like dumbbell workouts, asking yourself, like, are you doing the same weights that you've done for the past five years? Are you going up in your weights? If you place a higher load on your body, it's going to take less time to fatigue your muscles. And this is actually referred to as the intensity duration tradeoff. That's what it's called. Basically, this means that as the intensity of your workout increases, the amount of time you're physically capable of working out will decrease. Whereas on the flip side, as the intensity decreases, the amount of time you're physically capable of working out will increase. And this makes sense, right? So if you think about like even when I remember when I was doing like my bikini shows, which feels like a lifetime ago, but then it also feels like yesterday. It's kind of weird. But I remember during that time when I was training so intensely for those shows, I was doing 330 minute sessions a week, so I was doing nothing else than that. Like I was not focusing on. And this is where in my opinion, it was so just extreme and I just didn't have a healthy relationship with health and fitness and like mindfulness in general. But I was not taking into consideration like steps or just being, you know, going for a walk. Like I would go all in on my 30 minute session and that's literally all I could do. Like I would expend so much energy in that time that I would be so exhausted, I couldn't really do anything else. And that's basically what kind of this intensity duration trade off is talking about. And this can really be applicable for any form of exercise that you do when you perform an exercise at a high intensity or with a heavy load, you're putting more stress on your muscles in your body than you would in a lower intensity or lower load rate. The increased stress paired with proper nutrition is likely what's going to lead to your body composition changing dramatically. So, for example, if you perform a set of squats with a very heavy load, you might only be able to do like 4 to 6, maybe eight reps, just depending on how heavy it is. And that's all you need to do to see the results that you want. But if you were to perform the same exercise with a lighter load or even bodyweight squats, you might need to perform 20 to 30 more, you know, 30 reps to achieve similar results. So again, it's it's just really important that you remember that. And this is also why I love the go at your own pace workout so much because there are some days that I want to push myself to the max and I want to really be super intentional about making sure that I'm challenging myself and picking weight that literally I'm shaking so heavy or like so much by, you know, the last 1 to 2 reps that I could I literally physically could not do another rep. And I do that often. I'll go through phases where, you know, 4 to 6 weeks, I'll really push hard and then I'll do a load week where I'm able to kind of lesson that resistance in terms of pushing as hard and I'll go lighter. But what's cool is that these workouts work for either goal, like if you just want, if you're in a season of life where you're like, I don't want to be pushing or I don't have access to that where I'm at, you know, to be able to be increasing weight week by week, you're able to do these workouts, you're able to do that, go at your own pace, do. Bill workouts. Or on the flip side, if you're like, No, I'm in the season where I want to go and I want to lift as much as I can, I want to be shaking towards the end. You can do these workouts. It's really all in how you approach those exercises and what weights you're picking and whatnot. And like I mentioned earlier, this really this concept applies with all various different types of movement. So running, cycling, yoga, literally any type of exercise that you do, this concept can apply to that.
Number three, this is really also dependent on your nutrition. And what I mean by that is if your nutrition is working for you and not against you, it's going to be a lot easier for you, meaning that you can likely work out lessons, see even better results, which sounds pretty nice, right? This is because proper nutrition really does provide your body with the necessary nutrients and energy to build and repair muscle tissue, which is essential for that muscle growth and development. So if you're giving your body the proper nutrition, then it's going to have exactly what that body needs in order for it to aid in changing your body composition. Plus, when you're working out, but eating more than your body actually needs, you're kind of walking up an escalator that's going down. And this was me for so many years. If you're listening to this and you're like, Man, I think that's me. And you feel like shameful or embarrassed, Please don't Like, this is the whole point of my podcast. I want you to learn how to properly feel your body so that you're not working against yourself. Because I know how defeating that can feel when you're working so hard. You're crushing your workouts. You're like, Man, I'm eating clean, I'm doing all these things, but yet I'm not seeing results. And it's likely these small tweaks that you might not even know unless you actually commit to learning how to properly fuel your body. Like when women that I work with start to actually pay attention to how much their body needs in terms of protein, carbs and fats, and they start fueling their body with what they need. They realize that they don't need to live at the gym or stress so much about getting every single workout in. And that's because they are able to properly feel their body. So they're having the energy, but then also they're able to have those rest and recovery days and it's not impacting them because that's all built into the calculation of how to properly feel your body. Right. And oftentimes I've just found with working with many people and then myself included, when I embarked on this journey a decade ago, like I realized, oh, my gosh, I don't have to work out as much as I have. In fact, I was working out 3 to 4 days less than I was before, and I'm getting better results than I ever have been before. And so it's really all about proper nutrition. And I know that that's kind of you might be like, Yeah, but we're talking about exercise. Yeah, but exercise and nutrition go hand in hand. They really, really do. As much as you would like for it to only be like exercise or nutrition, they just go hand in hand. It's they're so, so important. And so you might be saying, okay, but how is it possible that maybe you're eating more but you're working out less but you're getting better results? And it's because when you are eating the proper amount of protein, the proper amount of carbs and the proper amount of fat, when you get that calculation, you're factoring into a number of different things where you're at, what your goals are, but also like the amount of intentional and unintentional activity that you're doing. So what is your profession? What do your days look like? Like all of those things are factored into getting your macro calculation that will be presented to you, that will allow you to properly feel your body and not feel like you have to spend seven days a week at the gym because I don't care who you are, working out hard, vigorous, seven days a week. It's not going to give your body enough time to rest and recover and rest. And recovery is a key, crucial part in building the body that you want.
Number four, the amount you need to work out is really dependent on your goals, like it really is when it comes down to working out the amount of exercise that you need to do is highly dependent on your individual goals. So whether you're looking to lose weight, whether you're looking to gain muscle or looking to simply just improve your overall fitness, it just totally depends. I also know people that don't do that for any sort of esthetical like maybe they're just wanting to have more energy or they're wanting to increase their odds or I'm sorry, decrease their odds of of sickness in the future. Like maybe they have a loved one in their family that is unfortunately dealing with a bunch of health issues. And it kind of woke them up like, dang, I don't want to be there, you know, in five, ten, 15, 20 years down the road, or maybe you're training for a marathon or a sake cycling race. Like there are so many different types of goals and movement that's out there that, like I said in the beginning, it's overwhelming If you don't take it with a grain of salt and really individualize it for yourself. And so I just want you to know that whatever your goal is, it's going to require a different amount of exercise than so-and-so. And so I. Don't want you to look at, you know, Suzy online or Julie online and say, okay, she's doing X, Y, and Z. So that's what I'm going to do because that might not be realistic in your season of life. That might not be the goals that you have and also the type, the intensity, the frequency, all of those things will vary accordingly. So when deciding how much you need to exercise per week, you really need to look at those individual goals, like can you train two days a week and successfully complete a marathon? Most likely. No, that's not going to be kind of the best route for training to be successful in a marathon. If your goal is to work out for your mental and overall physical health, maybe 3 to 4 days a week of strength training and then going on walks, you know, for 30 minutes, the rest of the week is probably in enough like or if you're a new mom and you're juggling all these things, maybe it's two days a week and that's what you can commit to. And then just being intentional about moving your body the rest of the day is like, whatever it is, I want you to know that that's great. I don't want you to feel shame. I don't want you to feel guilt. I want you to look at this as such an individualized journey. Because it is it's the sustainable journey is always the individualized journey. And it's it's one that will be able to stand the test of time. Because if you pick something and you set after a goal that's unattainable, you're not going to be able to follow through with that. And what do I always tell you? It's the consistent, imperfect actions over time that compound that lead to massive results. So if you are currently, let's say for just an example, if you're working out six days a week and your goal is to just simply improve your overall health and wellness, is six days a week actually necessary? Like if you're not loving that, if that's not bringing you joy or if you're, you know, missing out on all these family events because you feel like you have to work out six days a week, please know that that is not realistic for a lot of people. In my experience, I work with many women. The main kind of age bracket that I work with is people in their mid to late twenties, all the way up to forties, mid 40, sometimes early fifties who are busy moms and or they're working professionals. And I have just found that, you know, six days a week is just not realistic or maintainable for the majority of women long term. And I know many of you, your goal is to feel confident in your body and to change your body composition or be stronger or more toned. So with everything that I just said, what I would recommend, if you're kind of looking like, okay, yes, my goal is to just feel confident. I want to have some energy. I do want to change my body composition, but I'm not on this like crazy strength journey of like building all this muscle. I would recommend starting with three days a week. If you can commit to three days a week, I would recommend doing a lower body and upper body and a full body workout. And this will really ensure that your programing is hitting all the muscle groups and giving them enough time and enough like enough load weekly to actually change your body composition without it being overwhelming. I normally recommend people who are just starting out and they're, you know, they have that goal of just having more energy, feeling more confident, changing their body composition. I'll say start with the 30 minute workouts. I know that that can be less intimidating. And I know sometimes when we jump in we want to go more, but yet that can be overwhelming and then that can actually be the reason why we're not sticking with it, because we we set these unattainable things. And I would much rather you crash a 30 minute, three times a week and say, okay, I'm ready for ready for more versus you going in and saying, okay, I'll do three times a week, but I want to do a 60 minute workout and then getting overwhelmed and only end up doing one workout that week. Right. Do you see kind of where my head is at? So even if it's for a few weeks, start with those three days a week, lower body, upper body, full body, start with a 30 minute workout and just know that you can always increase from there. I would much rather you be in the position to be able to increase versus getting in over your head and then feeling overwhelmed and then likely giving up. Right. I personally have found like was resistance training more is not always better. Like there is a sweet spot that you want to hit and if you go past that, you're just starting to break down your muscle fibers way too much. And I'm not saying that doing more than three times a week will do that. I would say six times a week is pushing it. Definitely not seven times a week in terms of resistance training, just because that's not even giving your body a time to repair, rest and repair, which is really important. So starting with that three days a week, starting with a 30 minute workouts and doing lower body, upper body, full body, that's going to be awesome. The cool thing about my movement with Julie app is that I do have to work out options, so I have a 60 minute variation which will typically take women on average from 40 to 55 minutes to complete, depending on how slow or fast you go through the movements and also how familiar you are with the movements. And then we also have the 30 minute variation, which on average will take women anywhere from 25 to 32 minutes to complete, again, depending on how slow or fast you go through it and how familiar you are with the workouts and movements. But I would say the majority for them are. Already of people. The maximum amount of days that I would strain train is five. Like I have just found that. And that's why I program five workouts every single week, because it will not only allow you to properly work the amount of load to really see major body composition changes, but it also is not overwhelming for people because you have to essentially to rest days throughout the week. Whether you decide to do those back to back like Saturday, Sunday or you decide to take one, you know, midweek on a Wednesday and a Sunday or whatever you choose, whatever kind of works best for your schedule. But just again, if you're giving your body like zero rest days, you're just not giving your body the adequate amount of time to rest and recover. And that's so important. Rest in recovery is going to be your best friend. I always tell people, like the people that are consistent long term to even 3 to 4 workouts per week, they will see better results really being intentional, pushing themselves on those, you know, three or four workouts a week. Then those people that are working out just very moderately seven days a week. And it's just for the reason that I talked about earlier, like the intensity of your workouts and, you know, if you're going seven days a week, your body, you're never giving yourself any time to rest. And so all of your workouts will likely be mediocre, at least a few of them, which in my opinion, I would much rather have like more intentional movement sessions and less of them versus me trying to push myself. And so again, I would recommend lower body, upper body, full body. If you're doing a three day split, if you want to do a four day split, I would recommend doing lower body, upper body, shoulders and glutes and full body if you're following my Julie. And that's just because the way that I structure upper body, we don't really work shoulder shoulders with our work. Secondarily in terms of muscle as a secondary muscle group but I don't intentionally program shoulder exercises on upper body and so I really want to make sure that you're hitting the major parts of your shoulder in a specific workout. If you do have that fourth day to commit to you. And then also the reason that I recommend training Glutes intentionally is because women always they always want to build their glutes. And so just that training, volume and frequency is going to be important with that. So you're going to be hitting your glutes in lower body, you're going to be hitting your glutes and shoulders and glutes, and then you'll be hitting one or two exercises in the full body will hit your glutes as well. So you're hitting them, you know, 2 to 3 times per week. And so that's what I recommend there. Again, I know that this can feel overwhelming and I don't want it to be I want you to kiss. Keep it simple, sweetie. Keep it simple, simple, simple. It doesn't have to be overwhelming If they're even 30 minutes start. Sounds overwhelming for you. I always tell people in the 30 minute workouts inside my app, it's awesome because it's a giant circuit, and if you don't have the time to go through all three rounds, start with one round, start with one round, do two rounds, delete the whole third round. These workouts are totally customizable in that sense. Like never feel like you have to do what is programed or what not because it's really like, I want this to fit into your lifestyle. And ultimately what you can commit to in this season of life is what you can commit to in this season of life, and that's what's going to yield you results if you follow that consistently long term. So let me recap those four factors on how much exercise is enough. So number one, remember that it's dependent on the style of workouts that you're doing. Number two, it's really dependent on your intensity and your load. Number three, it's dependent on your nutrition. And number four, it's really dependent on your goals. So if you want to learn more about my demo only workouts, it's fiber and your workouts that are released every single week. You can use all five or you can use three of them, or you can use two of them. It's totally up to you customizable for you, but fiber in your workouts are released every single Saturday at 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. The workouts are lower body, upper body cardio and core shoulders and glutes and full body, and you can learn more by going to sale. That's Sally dot moment which slate.com again that sale Sally Julie dot com. I would love to hear how this episode helped you or if you kind of had some aha moments so you can always DM the show Instagram it is embrace your real just embrace your real on Instagram. You can also direct message me on my movement with Julie Instagram. I am always there connecting with you guys as well. That is all that I have for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. I love you so dang much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie, A lot better. Yes, It's with within in the middle for that daily poser about real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.