How many days a week should I workout?

The answer, as usual, is that it depends. In training, there is always the optimal method and the realistic method. The optimal plan assumes perfect conditions: you're eating enough, sleeping well, recovering properly, feeling motivated, and having ample time. But real life rarely works like that.

The Minimum Effective Dose

So, what's the least you can train while still making progress? The answer depends on your goals.

• Research suggests that even 2-3 well-structured sessions per week can be effective for strength and muscle gain, as long as the intensity is high.
• For endurance, frequency matters more, but if appropriately programmed, even three days per week of running or cycling can improve aerobic capacity.
• 3-5 days per week is a good compromise for general fitness and CrossFit-style training.

Generally, 3-4 days per week is the minimum dose to make serious progress. This allows for enough stimulus while providing adequate recovery time.

A training plan is written with an ideal scenario in mind, but if you're constantly under-recovered, over-stressed, or just short on time, forcing yourself to hit every session, it isn't going to gain results.

Personally, I've made solid progress training anywhere from 2 to 7 days per week. However, the total training volume stayed relatively the same when you look closely. When training for fewer days, I consolidated intensity into those sessions. When training more often, I spread it out. In a perfect world, training more frequently leads to better results—as long as you can recover from it.

Let's say your program has six training days per week, but you know you can only realistically manage four solid days. Sticking to four good sessions will be far more effective than trying to jam in all six, missing sessions, feeling guilty, attempting to make them up, and ultimately running yourself into the ground without real progress. You can't just cram six training days into three and expect the same results. 

An "optimal" training plan layered on top of a suboptimal schedule will yield worse results than a well-adjusted plan that fits your life.

Training, Oversimplified

Training works like this at its core: do something challenging that's designed to make you better, eat and sleep enough to recover, and repeat consistently. Your ability to recover is the main limiter for training volume. The busier and more stressful your life is, the harder it is to recover, which means you'll likely need to train less to keep making gains.

That doesn't mean you can't train a lot while juggling a busy life, but it requires everything else to be dialed in. Your nutrition, sleep, and stress management must be on point; maintaining that level of effort long-term is tough. This is why it's often better to cycle between periods of higher training volume and times when you scale back to fit your lifestyle.

The Bottom Line

Follow a structured program, assess your recovery, and adjust accordingly. High effort, intensity, and consistency over time drive progress. Find the training schedule that fits your life and stick to it.