How to Exercise Daily Without Burning Out
A body in motion stays in motion — as long as you’re smart about balancing your workload.
When it comes to movement, more is generally better.
Each week, adults should do 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, or some combination of the two each week, plus muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days a week, according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which were updated in 2018.
But get this: People who worked out two to four times that amount — about 300 to 599 minutes each week — saw even more health benefits, including a longer life span, according to a 2022 study of more than 116,000 people.
The human body is meant to move. “I kind of liken it to a pond,” says Nikita Fear, a Tier IV Coach at Equinox Highland Park. “Think of the slush at the bottom of a pond. When it’s stagnant and still, over time, it starts to get harder and harder. But when there’s movement, it kind of wakes everything up at the bottom and makes it easier for everything to move the way it’s supposed to.”
But working out daily doesn’t mean you have to stick to 45- or 60-minute sessions every single day. Instead, it’s about using those guidelines to determine a schedule that works best for your body.
Before you can think about daily training, you have to look at the larger picture. “What are you training for and why?” asks Fear. From that zoomed-out perspective, you can break exercise down into macrocycles (which can last a year or more), mesocycles (intermediate phases that typically last several weeks to a few months), and microcycles (which last one to four weeks). FYI: This approach is called periodized training and can be applied to any fitness goal.