In this article, I will discuss many issues from how many days you have to do sports to the physiology of rest and the scientific basis of these periods.
The text contains intensive description. If you have limited time and are looking for a direct answer, please see the summary at the end of the article.
Physiology of muscle rest
I have talked about the physiology of muscle resting and restructuring in many different articles, but this time it would be more accurate for me to talk about long-term rest and reconstruction for those who do sports. Learning the physiology of rest and restructuring is an important step in deciding how many days you should exercise.
It is the combination of exercise and relaxation pairing that allows development in all exercise types without exception. Contrary to popular belief, when you exercise, your muscles do not develop, only you are given the message that you are inadequate and must adapt to this inadequacy.
In addition to the message “you are inadequate verilen during this exercise, I would like to talk about the effects the muscles are exposed to during exercise.
Your muscles experience micro traumas during exercise, contraction and relaxation, and rupture at a microscopic level.
During exercise, cell wastes accumulate in it with rapid metabolic activity.
At the same time, the liquid and mineral balance of the cell deteriorates with the accumulated wastes.
As a result of this damage, the cell enters the process of resting, restructuring and development after the exercise.
Completing this process means you are ready for the next training session. If you start new training before it is fully structured and this condition becomes chronic, muscle development is interrupted, the risk of disability increases and there is the possibility of overtraining in the long term.
I would like to point out from the beginning that I cannot give you certain information here, I will only draw a road map. Because in general, the restructuring affects physiology
Hormonal environment, age, gender and other body characteristics,
living standards and habits (sleep, stress and so on),
Many variables are available. It is important to evaluate these variables and make the correct adjustments.
As a result, the most important factor that determines how many days you should exercise is the process of restructuring and development. Evaluating this process correctly will help you decide how many days a week you will do sports.
I will talk about how to evaluate this process later in this article.
Exercise types and exercise frequency
With a wide range of exercise types, the frequency of rest and exercise is also quite wide. Although it is very difficult to explain all exercise types, at least it is possible to classify and talk about the exercise types.
Bodybuilding: how many days a week to exercise?
Our main focus for bodybuilding is the repair of muscle fibers. Because the goal for bodybuilding is to expand the muscles and increase their mass.
Here we have a change in training types. Because with changing training types, resting tempo will change.
I created a simple classification for weight training. In this classification; “regional, single or two-zone protocol”, “regional, three or more zone protocols” and “whole body protocol”.
In the regional, single or two-zone protocol, individuals generally concentrate on two zones, aiming to operate all muscle fibers on this zone. For example, athletes working shoulders and forearms will exercise the front, middle and rear shoulder regions and the long inner and outer rear arm regions. Since all muscle fibers of the target regions are operated in this type of exercise, there is no need to return to shoulder and back arm exercises in other days of training.
One of the important points here is that the larger muscle groups are exposed to more pressure and more muscle fiber needs to be structured. Therefore, it should be borne in mind that large muscle groups need more restructuring than other small muscle groups.
Individuals who do this type of exercise should exercise heavy and all muscle groups to keep their rest periods longer and to rest structures such as severely worn muscles and tendons. For beginner and intermediate level athletes, it is enough to train all muscle groups once in a training session 3-4 days a week.
In regional, three or more zone protocols, people concentrate on more than three zones and only operate certain muscle groups of those zones. For example, the athletes who exercise shoulders, hind arms, legs, exercise the front and middle shoulders, the outer arms of the forearms and the forearms. On the following days, the shoulder should be left in the shoulder region, the inner arm of the hind limb and long fibers and the hind leg can be studied.
Individuals who do this type of exercise can exercise 5-6 training at least once a week to train all muscle groups, as they follow a fragmented training system without running an entire muscle group. In general, this segmented method, which is used professionally, should be well designed and the use of side muscle groups should be carefully examined.
By side muscle groups, I mean fibers working in the background with the main muscle groups. This is generally unattended and performance-constraining. For example, the person performing the back arm exercise will have difficulty in doing chest training the next day.
This is due to the fact that the muscle fibers worn out the day before are inadequate in the “press” type exercises during chest exercises.
In the whole body protocol, people work together with compound exercises regardless of the track muscle group and set power-focused targets.
This type of exercise in individuals depending on the intensity of training can do 5-7 training a week.
Weight loss: How many days a week to do sports?
If individuals are doing weight training during the weight loss process, they may refer to the previous topic. I would also like to talk about optimal weight loss rate and cardio pattern.
Firstly, individuals who do cardio for a long time to lose weight do not have any obstacles in this respect. We know that muscle structures are not damaged and joint structures are not difficult in exercise types such as cycling and spinning, where the cardiovascular system is forced.
Therefore, it is possible for individuals who want to lose weight to exercise 5-6 days a week if they are doing cardio. In the beginning of the exercise, it is possible for the athletes to spend their current habits with 3-4 exercises per week.
Endurance: How many days a week to exercise?
The range of exercises for endurance development is quite extensive. For this reason, I plan to give you perspective rather than a way that clearly depends on the type of exercise.
Endurance exercises are usually based on a long period of time and at a certain pace.
Therefore, it involves long exercise periods and is very tiring. Although muscle wear is not generally in the foreground, metabolite accumulation due to long-term exercise is experienced. As this metabolite accumulation does not harm development unless it reaches serious dimensions, individuals exercising for endurance are free to adjust exercise intensity within their capacity.
Summary
Exercise frequency is an issue that can be evaluated due to many different variables.
In general, for those who work in the conventional way of working 3-4 days a week exercise, for those who want to lose weight 4-6 exercises per week and endurance athletes depending on the intensity of 5-6 exercises will be appropriate.
Conclusions and recommendations
For those who do exercise only to stay healthy, the frequency of doing sports is determined in the guidelines as minimum amount three days a week, minimum 30 minutes per day. The rest and development process affects how many days you do sports for all external purposes.
There is a problem that we often see especially in professional athletes. Addressing that issue will help you understand the issue better.
Many professional athletes suffer from more influenza infections than normal people in an intense exercise pace. The decrease in body resistance of these athletes who exercise frequently and continuously is related to the response of immune cells to this exercise tempo. On the other hand, research shows that individuals exercising regular immune cells are activated and doing better.
As a result, more exercise is not always better. The important thing is that you exercise at the level you need and where you can get the maximum benefit.
Other issues you should remove from this article; You will need to learn your resting potential and optimize the frequency of exercise to muscle relaxation, and apply different training frequency for different exercise types and different purposes.
