Advice on workout schedule?

[jackien1]

Hi!

 

I was wondering if it was better to exercise every other day, or to exercise everyday.

 

Also, if one exercises every other day, would it be better to stick to the schedule or workout on off days if one feels like it.

 

Thanks for reading!

[BaconHunter]

As always, it depends. What are your goals?

[jackien1]

My goals are to lose about 2.5kg and to have more muscle definition. 

[BaconHunter]

Then two things are important:

 

1. Diet

2. Consistent movement

 

You've probably heard this before: Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym. This might include eating a bit less overall, cutting processed food and simple sugars ... depending on where you are with your diet.

 

Regarding the second point: Find an activity that you enjoy. This will guarantee that you will do it for a long time. Individuals with good "muscle definition" look that way because they've been doing this for a long time.

 

Remember that no new activity will come easy at first. It's like drinking coffee or beer for the first time: It'll taste bitter and you don't get why so many people are drinking it. With time, you'll learn to enjoy the bitter taste.

 

So give every form of exercise/sport/movement a chance (try it for at least a month).

 

Why don't I simply answer your question? Because, quite frankly, it doesn't matter that much for your goals. From what I understand, you simply want to look good naked. Find something that you can do at least 3-4 times a week. It's not important how you time your on/off days. As long as you do something consistently over the course of several months (and years), results will come. 

 

If it works for your schedule and your recovery ability, working out almost every day is possible. If your workouts are super intense, maybe 3 times a week is more realistic.

[Furius]

One question, why just 2,5kg? It's a tiny amount of weight and it's pretty futile to aim losing such a small amount unless you are trying to make it to a certain weight class.

 

Whether or not you should work out daily or every other day depends on what you want to do. You can train on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and use a full body workout routine or a push, pull legs split. You can train on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and do an upper-lower-body split or something like legs+core, chest+triceps, off, back+biceps, shoulders+triceps, off, off. If you want to train five days a week, you could just whack each muscle group once a week from Monday to Friday or hit them twice a week like in Layne Norton's PHAT.

 

It's really up to you what your schedule allows you to do, what you want to do and what you enjoy. But I'd say ditch that 2,5kg goal. Either focus on losing weight and lose more than 2,5kg, gaining lean muscle mass and thus, weight or keeping your weight where it is while working out.

 

http://scoobysworkshop.com/21-workout-routines/

 

Here's a link to some examples of different kinds of workout routines for different goals in mind. That website also has a calculator that will help you get some idea of how much you should be eating depending on whether you want to lose or gain weight or keep it still.

[jackien1]

My current weight and height is 42.6kg (last weighed friday) and my height is 1.5m. So if I was to lose more than 2.5kg, I'd be nearly underweight, which is not my goal.

Im currently doing the beginner's body weight workout every alternate day.

[Furius]

If you already are that light, why lose weight at all? If you keep making progress with the bodyweight routine, keep doing it. 

[jackien1]

Hmm. Ok I think I've been phrasing my goal wrongly. I think what I should say is: My goal is to lower my body fat percentage.

I understand that you can gain weight while lowering your body fat percentage due to muscle gain but I also understand that it's difficult to build muscle to a point where it increases your weight, especially for girls due to natural testosterone levels.

So I guess I just associated weight loss with lowering body fat percentage in my head and assumed everyone did the same. My bad! Thanks for pointing it out.

[Furius]

If that is your goal, then I'd just keep your bodyweight where it is and focus on working out and progressing in bodyweight exercises. Unless of course you want to move on to a weighed workout or join a gym.

[jackien1]

Eventually I'd like to join a gym. Though, i don't think that's gonna happen in the near future. Would joining a gym mean completely changing my workout or would it mean just adding weights to the body weight work outs?

[Furius]

If you join a gym, do an actual weight workout there. You can add weight to bodyweight exercises pretty easily at home so joining a gym to do a bodyweight workout would just be a waste of money. Bodyweight exercises like dips and pullups do work as great assistance exercises for weight workouts however.