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Strength exercises give your body many lasting benefits. Doing these exercises regularly can lower your risk of chronic health problems like heart disease and improve your overall mental well-being.

How often should I do strength exercises?

American College of Sports Medicine (大象tvM) and United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations state:

• Every adult should perform activities that maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance for a minimum of 2 days per week.

The amount of time you spend on strength exercises compared to cardio exercises will depend on your situation. Each person is different. How often you do strength exercises and how long you spend on each workout will also vary depending on your needs. 

Some things to consider are your age, medical conditions, fitness goals, and your timeframe for reaching these goals.

Example strength training schedules

What equipment do I need?

You can do strength exercises and weight training without any equipment, by using your own body weight. You can also use equipment like resistance bands, dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, and weight training machines.

Use one type of equipment by itself or combine them during your training session.

Choosing the right size weights

Weight sizes vary from light to heavy. It’s best to start with light weights and focus on doing your exercises with proper form before advancing to heavier weights.

Starting with lighter weights lowers your chances of an injury from muscle strain. Also, starting light and slowly increasing weight helps your muscles adapt to the heavier weights.

You can find dumbbells in many sizes. You can also find a variety of sizes in kettlebells, barbells, and resistance bands.

Slowly build up by increasing the amount of weight or the number of reps (how many times you repeat each exercise). This will help your body adapt to stress. Your strength will improve over time as you progress.

Warming up before you start

It’s important to warm up for 5-10 minutes before doing any strength exercises. 

Warm-ups simply warm your body (muscles and mind) to prepare for physical activity. This helps prevent injuries and helps you focus on using good body form.

In general, warm-ups include your full body. But if you are doing strength exercises on one muscle group for your workout, it’s good to do some warm-up movements that focus on that part of your body.

Warm-up exercises can be:

• Light cardio like fast-paced walking, cycling, elliptical, rowing, and squats
• Dynamic stretches like lunges, arm circles, leg swings, torso twists, step high knees, and inchworms

Planning your workout: focus days  

Focus days are a common way to do strength training workouts. On a focus day, you do strength training exercises that focus on only one muscle group. This gives your other muscles a chance to rest.

For example, on an upper body focus day, you only do strength training on your upper body muscle group. On your next focus day, you can focus on a different muscle group. The other body group rests on that day.

For each focus day workout:  

• Choose 5 to 9 strength exercises for that day.
• Do your first exercise 8 to 12 times in a row (8-12 reps). 
• Rest for 1 to 3 minutes. 
• Repeat the first exercise for 8 to 12 reps. Do this 1 or 2 more times (1-2 sets). 
• Move on to your next exercise and continue as above.

Repeating an exercise in this way is called repetitions (reps) and sets. If a workout calls for 3 sets of 8 reps, that means you do an exercise 8 times in a row, rest, then repeat it 2 more times for a total of 3 sets. 

The number of reps and sets you do might depend on the size of your weights and your goals for muscle mass building. If you use light or moderate weights, you might do more reps and sets. If you use heavier weights, you might do fewer reps or sets.

Cooling down after your workout

Cool down for about 5 to 10 minutes after your strength exercises. 

Cooling down is just as important as warming up. It brings your heart rate down with controlled breathing.

You can cool down by:  

• Walking 
• Static stretches (holding a stretch for 30 seconds to 1 minute without movement)
• Dynamic stretches (stretches with slow and controlled movement)
• Gentle bodyweight movements (slowly moving your body through stretching). For example: bend forward while in a seated position, inhale when reaching back up, and exhale when bending forward again.  

Controlled breathing helps you focus on bringing your breath back to normal. Static stretches improve flexibility of the muscles you’ve just worked on. 

After you cool down for 5 to 10 minutes, check your breathing and heart rate. If they are still up, continue your cool-downs until your breath and heart rate return to normal. This lowers the chances of sore muscles and stiffness.

Key points to remember for cool-downs:

• Avoid stopping your workout suddenly. 
• Focus on static or dynamic stretches with the muscles you used in your workout.
• Drink plenty of water.

Tips to make strength training a success

If you are new to strength training, consider starting with bodyweight exercises. Start with bodyweight exercises to make sure your form is good. Then you can advance to using light weights and later moderate to heavy weights. 

Plan rest days in between training days. Rest days allow your body to recover from workout stress. Plan for 1 or 2 rest days each week. During a strength training rest day, you can still incorporate cardiovascular exercises.

Slowly add more intensity. It's best not to start out using heavy weights. Allow yourself time to get used to the weight that you add and make sure your form is correct before adding more weight.

Hydrate with water before, during, and after exercise. You need hydration to fuel your body’s cells. Drinking water before, during, and after exercise gives you energy and helps you stay hydrated during your workout.

Eat before weight training. This gives your body energy to do exercises. You can either eat a meal 2 to 3 hours before training or eat a lighter pre-weight training snack. This pre-weight training snack should include a carb and a protein, like a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter.  

Eat after weight training. Eating after training is important, even if you also had a pre-weight training snack. This gives your body energy and helps repair the muscles you’ve worked.

• A quick snack like a banana for carbs or a smoothie with protein helps restore energy that’s lost through a workout.
• A meal with protein within 2 hours after a workout restores and repairs your muscles.

 Aim to consume 1.2 to 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day.

Learn more

• Cardio Exercise
• Eating Healthy