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This column features tips and advice from a revolving cast of industry leaders on hand to discuss your beauty dilemmas, from blemishes to Botox.
How many days a week do I really need to exercise? It’s hard to find the time to squeeze in a gym session, and I’m forever inventing excuses to not work out.
I’m a seven-days-a-week kind of workout guy. But I do different things, whether it’s running, swimming, riding my bike, or strength training. If you want to build fitness and lose weight, then you need to work out most days of the week. If your goal is just to maintain health, then I’d say three or four times a week is fine. But I often talk about how exercise is a medicine that strengthens more than your body. There are benefits across the spectrum, especially for your mind—research shows that regular sessions help boost your memory, sharpen your concentration, and improve your sleep. It’s not so important what type of activity you do, just that you do something. I think people fall into bad habits from actually not enjoying what they’re doing when they work out. So try a variety of sports, whether it’s Spinning, yoga, or something in between—you’ll have a much better chance of sticking to it. Over time, you can build in other goals, like strength training or upping your cardio. The point of any training method is to start small and build up gradually so you don’t burn out.
Dr. Jordan D. Metzl is a nationally recognized medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery with practices in New York and Greenwich, Connecticut. He is the author of The Exercise Cure and The Athlete’s Book of Home Remedies. An avid athlete, Metzl has completed thirty-one marathons and eleven Ironman triathlons.
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