Whether it's through a love for training or an overwhelming desire to reach your goals – a seven-day workout program has probably crossed all of our minds at one point or another.
Exercising regularly, even daily, has many benefits for our health and exercise performance, but as with most things, too much of anything can have negative effects.
In this article, we'll look at the pros and cons of working out seven days per week and the best approach to take if rest days just don't fit your vocab.
The Concept of Training Every Day
Training every day can look and feel different to all of us, depending on our discipline, program, training intensity, and ability to recover.
Exercising Monday to Sunday each week is a demanding workout routine, and can be difficult to maintain for full-time athletes with coaches and physio staff, let alone gym-goers and hobbyists.
Muscle groups can require anywhere from 48hrs - 72hrs to fully recover. Therefore training every day may be possible. However, the body parts you target in each workout and the intensity at which you train will need to be varied to allow muscle groups complete recovery.
Pros & Cons Of Working Out 7 Days Per Week
As with many training approaches, there can be pros and cons – so let's take a look at the benefits and negatives of working out every day.
Pros of Working Out Daily
Improvement of mental health
Development of discipline and consistency
Increased metabolism and benefits in body composition
Improvement of mental health
The relationship between exercise and improved mental health has been well studied. While some factors remain unclear, positive correlations have been found in several studies, with positive changes noted in reducing anxiety and depression.
Another more recent study also found that taking part in regular physical activity improved symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress across adult populations.
Development of discipline and consistency
There's no doubt that sticking to a seven-day workout routine requires a certain level of commitment. The ability to stay consistent with your seven-day program may help build resilience and disciple within your training.
Increased metabolism and benefits in body composition
More activity = more calories burnt.
As you exercise more frequently, you'll be using more energy, which alongside the correct nutrients and caloric intake, may result in a change in body composition through the increase of muscle and reduction in body fat.
Cons of Working Out Daily
Risk Of Overtraining
Fitting In Life Commitments
Risk Of Overtraining
Overtrianing is real. Exercising every day can significantly increase the risk of overtraining, by not giving your body adequate time to fully recover.
Without a well-structured training program, with considerations for intensity, volume and frequency, you could be at risk of overtraining with the following consequences:
Possible negative effect on immune response
Heightened risk of injuries
Negative impact on sleep and recovery
Fitting In Life Commitments
As a regular gym-goer, time can often play havoc on our workout routines. We have other commitments to balance within our lives, such as family, work, and social commitments.
Finding the time to commute to, and workout in a gym 7 days per week may be an unrealistic approach to training.
The Importance of Rest and Recovery
If you just can't stay away from the gym, then there are a few considerations to help you optimize your recovery and get the most out of your training.
Programming
Muscle takes time to recover, anywhere upto 72hours in some cases. So smart programming to limit muscle damage and spread out volume to allow trained muscles time to repair is essential.
Being smart with your programming can also include activity recovery, where activity is done to a much lower intensity to help circulate nutrients in the blood around the body. This may be something as simple as a walk, steady bike ride, or mobility session.
Sleep
Sleep is essential to recovery, and vital when it comes to repairing damaged muscle. A study looking at the relationship between sleep and strength in men concluded that individuals who slept for less than 6 hours had poorer muscle strength when compared to individuals who slept 7+ hours each night.
So, if you're looking to get bigger and stronger, sleep should be taken seriously in order to optimize recovery and performance.
Nutrition
Training every day will result in a higher calorie expenditure, so to help avoid fatigue aid recovery, you may need to increase your calorie intake as a result of exercising more frequently.
This study found that 1.6–2.2 g/kg/day of protein for bodybuilders was the most effective, and consuming more than this did not provide any additional benefits to muscle recovery and growth,.
Prioritizing whole foods, lean protein sources, and regular meals will help your muscle recover and provide your body with the fuel it needs for a more intense training schedule.
How To Train 7 Days Per Week
So, do you still want to train 7 days per week? It's not impossible, but here are our tips to give you the best chance of reaching your goals, avoiding fatigue, and, ultimately, ensuring you enjoy your training.
Eat quality, whole foods to provide your body with the macro and micronutrients it requires to fuel workouts and recover.
Get plenty of sleep, ideally 8+, to give your boy enough time to rest and recover.
Follow a program designed for training every day, with varied intensities and focuses.
Have regular rest days, and if you feel fatigued or lack energy, give yourself a day off.
An Example 7 day workout split
This is an example of how you can split your training to train every day, whilst still giving the muscle groups enough time to recover between each workout.
Monday: Chest & Shoulders Tuesday: Glutes, Quads & Hamstrings Wednesday: Back & Arms Thursday: Calves & Low-intensity cardio Friday: Chest & Shoulders Saturday: Glutes, Quads & Hamstrings Sunday: Back & Arms
Conclusion
If you have time to train every day, and enjoy spending time in the gym - then a seven-day workout program may be worth pursuing. It's important to always listen to your body, and manage the intensities at which you train.
Adherence to training programs that have workouts every day isn't easy, but by following the tips in this article, you'll be well on your way to workout out every day in a sustainable way.
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WRITTEN BY: CHRIS BECK
Chris Beck is Senior Editor at Gymshark, with a passion for curating informative conditioning and health content. Chris is an experienced Personal Trainer, and also holds qualifications in Nutrition, Sports Performance and is a certified Crossfit Level 1 Trainer.
