I am writing this blog to talk about my beliefs (surprise, surprise) regarding the frequency required in performing a particular form of physical fitness for you to see results in a given area. Once a week isn’t enough. Sometimes three times a week is too much. But twice is just about right.
First off – let me say that you should be working out at least 5 times, and hopefully 6 times a week. I am not saying that you can only work out twice a week and then call it quits. I’m saying that in order to really see significant gains or benefits from the particular form of physical fitness that you are doing (this could be Man Flow Yoga, cycling, weight-lifting, conditioning, cross training, etc) you need to dedicate yourself to that form of physical fitness twice a week. Your body needs to get used to what it is doing to really start to adapt so that you can optimally and efficiency perform in that given area of fitness.
Honestly, if you do a form of exercise only once a week, especially if it is particularly strenuous, without doing other forms of exercise consistently to complement it, you could actually be doing your body more harm than good. For example, if you do a Man Flow Yoga session once a week, and use the other 4 days to go on a light walk, you probably aren’t going to see a whole lot of benefits. Your body is an amazing piece of moldable clay that will adapt to what you put it through, but you need to be consistent. Dedicated, consistent (let me say that again, CONSISTENT), hard work is the best way to see gains in fitness.
Here is a sample week of workouts that will help you see positive results in physical fitness while putting your body through the proper amount of stress:
Monday – yoga
Tuesday – cross training or weight lifting
Wednesday – yoga
Thursday – running
Friday – cross training or weight lifting
Saturday – yoga
Sunday – rest
As always, make sure you take that one rest day to make sure that your body is properly recovering. Your body is actually only building muscle when it is repairing itself after a workout. Working out breaks down your muscles, hence the use of destructive terms such as “destroy” or “fuck up”. Although I should note that yoga is in a unique position as a form of physical fitness in that it also focuses on lengthening your muscles while also contracting your muscles, in contrast to other forms of physical which primarily focus on the contraction of muscles. Basically yoga is awesome and you should do it through Man Flow Yoga because I know that you are looking for a good workout. Moving on…
Here is a sample fitness week schedule that will probably do you more harm than good:
Monday – yoga
Tuesday – crossfit
Wednesday – Gossip Girls
Thursday – Law and Order: SVU
Friday – drinking / drunken dancing
Saturday – tackle football
Sunday – rest
Twice a week – the minimum. Be consistent in your hard work. If you do a form of physical fitness, do it often, and make sure that if you are doing intense exercise you are doing it consistently, or you could be putting your body through more stress than good.
Cheers and yoga.
Dean
Dean, I came across your eBook on Amazon and interested in making yoga the cornerstone of my exercise regimen. You mentioned in your book that you don’t do other forms of exercise – just yoga. With that in mind would your exercise schedule listed above change? Would 4-5 days be plenty?
Hey Sean – two times weekly is my minimum recommendation. If you want to do yoga and nothing else, then I recommend 6 days a week. Build up to it with 4 or 5 times a week first!