1. How many times a week should I exercise?

Deciding how often you think you need to exercise really depends on your goals and how serious you want to take this journey. For the average person, this being someone who just wants to lose a bit of stubborn belly fat or get slightly fitter, you can do 2-3 workout sessions in a gym and see quite a few results.

However, if you’re someone who is training for a marathon, a powerlifting meet, or a bodybuilding show, then 2-3 sessions a week is not enough. This is why I recommend to anyone first starting out in the health and fitness world to create a mind-map to really understand their goals. Don’t just tell yourself you want to lose some body fat, go deeper into your mind and find out why you want to have bodily change, what are the benefits you hope to achieve, and how disappointed would you be if you gave up.

Answering these questions will tell you how often a week you should exercise. In reality, there is no one size fits all equation. It completely depends on the individuals goals and discipline.

Also, we need to realise that the human body is extremely resilient and capable of enduring far more than most of us put it through, so pushing yourself to exercise more frequently can lead to greater adaptations.

1. How long do I need to workout for?

Again, this question depends highly on the goals you’re trying to achieve. For example, someone deep into a cutting phase (entering the low body fat) for a bodybuilding competition may want to reduce their training time slightly compared to a strongman in offseason. However, for the average, untrained individual just looking to lose some fat and get fitter, a comprehensive gym-based workout can be completed in around 45 minutes. For someone who does not have too much time, spending 45 minutes seems like a reasonable investment into themselves.

1. How do I warm-up and cool-down?

Performing a warm-up and cool-down is quite simple. The purpose of these are to reduce injury risk pre and post exercise. This means you want to perform isolated warm-up/cool-down exercises on the muscles you will use during your workout. For example, if you are going to train upper body in the gym then making sure each one of the joints and muscles involved with pushing and pulling equipment has been touched on. For this, you can perform a few light weight sets of relevant exercises to see how the body feels and to get some more blood to the warranted places.

However, if your training session involves a run or a swim, you need to make sure the whole body is warmed up. This includes all joints in the body, and most superficial muscles. Conducting a range of mobility work, alongside weighted stretches across the body usually suffices for the average person. Also, starting off with a slower version of your intended exercise for a few minutes ensures all joints are functioning appropriately.

In terms of a cool-down, conducting a similar routine to the warm-up but at a slower pace will suffice.

1. What time of day should I exercise?

Simply put, whenever you have time. Choosing a specific time does not make much of a difference to the average person. Of course if you are an experienced athlete aiming to compete, regulating the time of your workout around meals, recovery and sleep is very important, but for most people, just build a habit of training and eating well.

1. How do I stay motivated?

Motivation is an extremely individualistic emotion. It is very important that you discuss with yourself the reason you are partaking in an exercise routine. These cannot be simply put as “lose weight” or “put on muscle”. You need to reduce each answer to its simplified form. For example, if you want to “lose weight”, write a mind map where you reduce the reasoning to its minimum. There is always a reason you would like to lose weight. Find this out, and this becomes your motivational factor.

To be specific, I hear answers about longevity being motivational factors. But, when you deep dive into the human mind, there are a range of responses to why this is the case. Maybe it is to see your grandchildren grow up, be able to live independently with age, or solve health issues so you can stay with your partner. Whatever is your factor, grab onto it, and whenever you are thinking of skipping a session, or taking a few days off the diet, remember your simplified reasoning and use it as motivation.

1. Can fitness be a hobby?

Fitness can definitely be a hobby. In fact, most people who gym 3+ times a week use it as a hobby, especially in the younger generations. I see numerous people who attend the gym almost every day but for no specific reason apart from they just enjoy it.

If you have no serious health concerns, I would actually recommend seeing fitness as a hobby instead of a chore. As soon as you see exercise as something you have to do, it becomes more tiring, isolating and less enjoyable. Instead, find ways of making it fun. Do it with someone else, attend classes, get a fitness coach, or just throw yourself into the educational side of it. Whichever you choose to do, there is always a way to make exercise fun.

1. What do I eat before and after a workout?

This again really depends on your goals and body structure. As I’ve said before, people going for competitions in different sports have specific diet regiments that help them achieve their goals. But, for the average person, just making sure you eat a diet with protein, fats, and carbohydrates, ensures you can achieve your ambition.

Before each workout, just make sure you eat enough carbohydrates to fuel your body. However, after your workout, eat a high protein and carbohydrate meal to replenish glycogen stores and stimulate muscle protein synthesis. Other than these two rules, it definitely depends on the individual.