Frequency refers to the number of times per week that a person participates in physical activity. To develop physical fitness, you must exercise three to five days per week at the appropriate level of intensity. Fewer than three times per week is not enough of a stimulus to improve fitness, and more than 5 days per week results in diminishing returns and staleness and increases the likelihood of injury. If health improvement is the goal, however, low-intensity exercise of moderate duration (20 to 40 minutes), such as strolling (walking at 3 mph) could be done every day without resulting in orthopedic problems or staleness.
A person does not have to exercise in one continuous bout to gain benefits from it. Exercise can be split into several shorter sessions during the day. Two groups of male subjects exercised for a total of 30 minutes a day, three times per week, at 65 percent to 75 percent of their HR max. One of the groups exercised continuously for 30 minutes, and the other group split the 30 minutes into three 10-minute exercise sessions. At the end of 8 weeks, the fitness level of both groups improved, but the one-exercise session group improved more. During the course of the study, however, both groups lost the same amount of weight. Short bouts of exercise spaced throughout the day is a realistic exercise option for busy people.
Days of rest are an important component of any training program. Rest is needed for physical and mental recuperation. Exercisers who don’t take days off run the risk of burning out or becoming stale. There is a fine line between the amount of exercise that produces maximum gains and the amount of exercise that results in the negative effects (staleness) associated with overtraining. Signs of overtraining are:
1. A feeling of chronic fatigue and list-lessness
2. Inability to make further fitness gains (or even a loss of fitness)
3. Sudden loss of weight
4. An increase of 5 beats or more in the resting heart rate, taken in the morning prior to getting out of bed
5. Loss of enthusiasm for working out
6. vulnerability to injury and illness
7. Generalized anger
8. Depression.
Staleness can be psychological (lack of variety in the program or boredom after years of training) or physiological, or both. Regardless, the treatment is the same: Either stop training for a few days to a few weeks (depending upon the severity of staleness) or cut back substantially. In either case, the person should rebuild and regain fitness gradually. Prevention is the best treatment. The exerciser should recognize the signs and adjust accordingly before staleness becomes a problem.
