How Often Should I Lift Weights?

Weight training is excellent exercise for your health. Lifting weights can helps you avoid and improve diseases such as arthritis, heart disease, osteoporosis, and diabetes. Strength training lowers your blood pressure and improves cholesterol levels. And let's face it, no other exercise will get you looking as good.

But you can have too much of a good thing. Too much lifting can damage muscle and cause delayed onset muscle soreness, and after a certain point, you start to lose benefits. Here is some background information to help you decide how often you should lift weights.

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How Many Weightlifting Sessions per Week is Optimal?

Research shows the optimal number of weightlifting sessions per week is two to three. For children, twice is enough to show considerable strength gains. As you age, twice a week may not give you the results you want. As people age, the jump to three times a week shows a significant gain in strength.

If you're new to strength training or if you're an older adult, two to three times a week at light intensity is recommended.

I typically recommend you strength train roughly 3 days per week - especially if you're not doing any other physical activity during the week.

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Watch your Weightlifting Workouts for Best Results

• Two or three days a week, do a full-body workout. You can train hard and have enough time to recover before your next session.
• Train movements, not muscles. Press and pull horizontally and vertically to maximize your workout.
• Train your core at each session if you like-just use different exercises on different days.
• Change it up every 3 to 4 weeks. To avoid plateaus, make your workouts harder by varying the exercises, changing sets and reps, and decreasing rest time.
• Lift one day and rest the next, or do some moderate cardio on your off days. Then have a restful weekend!

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If You Want to Train Harder

If you're training for a sport or making some serious body changes, you may want to train four days a week.

• Follow a plan for progressive overload - so you are progressively adding new more weight and more strength over time.
• Focus on compound movements - squats, deadlift, overhead press, rows, and bench press. These movements use multiple muscles, balance, and core so you are getting the maximum benefit from your movements.
• Put a day between sessions if possible. Don't train more than two days in a row, even if you're training different muscle groups.

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Get Help When You Need It

The optimal number of days per week to lift weights depends on your goals, your age, and your experience, but in general, three days a week will give you great results.

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For sports injuries related to lifting weights, call King Chiropractic Hand & Foot at (910) 777-7228. Improve your performance, increase your range of motion, and get fast pain relief at King Chiropractic Hand & Foot in Wilmington today!