Training Frequency: How Much Should You Be Working Out?

🆓 Try a Free Strength & Agility Workout:

Instead of trying to do an insane amount of work, focus on doing the right things that make the biggest difference. There is a “sweet spot” of training time and energy that will give you fantastic results that doing less won’t give, and doing more won’t radically improve.

0:00 - Levi and trying to add too much...
0:40 - You're average. That's ok.
1:21 - The problem with adding more.
1:34 - The big question: How much time can you devote to training?
1:49 - Levi's priority and what to do.
2:22 - The Final Key: Autoregulation
2:52 - It's not about restriction. It's about training smarter.
3:00 - Levi's simple solution.
3:22 - Focus on what will make the biggest different for YOU!
3:28 - Choose YOUR personal passion.

If you just found us, welcome!

GMB is about getting you stronger and removing the physical restrictions that cause pain and injury. We started in 2010, and we've had over 100k clients use our programs, which is just mind-blowingly humbling for us.

Our backgrounds are in various martial arts, gymnastics, yoga, physical therapy, and education, so we focus on sharing detail-oriented tutorials and training in a safe, progressive way that develops your skills systematically over time.

***

Hey, if you scrolled this far down, thanks for your attention. I appreciate you, so if there's anything we can do to help, don't be stranger - post a comment, and I'll do my best.

[Monkey-fvkm]

Good, practical advice for life in general there. Simple, but easy to forget when you get caught up in things.

[hedge]

Thank god for some reasoned rationality

[ant]

It takes modesty and humility to realise that we cannot all be champions.
So many people bring stresses and injury upon themselves by unreasonable goals.
Ultimately, our _pastimes_ should enhance our lives, refresh us, improve our health and give us pleasure.

[machyavelli]

100% agree with the embrace your averagility concept. 55 years old and I'm still grinding away at kettlebells and gymnastics rings. But, I've recently discovered torn labra in my hips, so I've dialed back the kettlebell squats and instead, I'm doing Jane Fondas and other psoas and adductor exercises. My legs have actually never felt stronger or looser. On the rings, I've dialed back to just a few exercises and flows and currently working on the muscle up (cue the GMB Muscle Up Course!)
Bottom Line is this: I've learned that I can get more by doing less, I can get more by being more intentional with every rep while doing less reps and still get that awesome pump, that when I rest and recover, eat fruits and veggies, I recover better. And finally, I've learned to dial back my expectations. I realized that, hey, I'm probably not going to look like Ryan on the rings from R1 BUT, that I've gotten so much better at them since I started 16 months ago that I've impressed myself and my workout buddies. As a bonus, my shoulders are so flexible now and I have a whole body integrated strength that I never really had as an athlete or barbell weightlifter.
All in all, being strong, flexibile, and looking good naked are important to me. And that can be achieved by working smart, not working hard over long hours at the gym.
Great vid Ryan, thank you.

[JosephAlanOliveros]

very timely video. i'm feeling burnt out by working out 6 days a week (mostly functional training + yoga). had a light bulb moment by the end of the video and will try a new schedule by next week. cheers!

[KathyNorton-vfwn]

I love the guilt free and judgement free vibe.
Thanks! You guys are the best.

[michaelfogler]

I'm 70, and my top priority is mobility, including balance and strengthening joints and all connective things to the joints. I do only a small amount of work with weights. I do much more bodyweight exercises along with the mobility and flexibility work. This still addresses strength and resistance training, but it's focused on feet, knees, hips, shoulders etc.

[brianpatno]

Excellent video. Love your videos. My passion is tennis. Hip mobility and lower back mobility are my two biggest items. Your videos and the elements and elements+ courses have helped me immensely. However, now I have plantar fasciitis, which is still lingering after recovering from a partial Achilles tendon tear, which my Ortho Dr says is repaired but my heel pain is still bad enough to cause my walk to change and prevent me from running. Since I haven’t seen any of your videos on preventing Achilles tendon tears or plantar fasciitis, I recommend you have future videos on these two topics. Thank you. Yes, I am wearing "the" boot to help my plantar fasciitis, but my healing progress is taking so long that I think progress is not happening. My biggest problem may be that I am over 65.

[missushoneybee]

I can't imagine working out as much as Levi. I am working on finishing my first round of IS by end of May, then redoing Elements in all 30-minute sessions (I am a weakling, but working on it). Eventually I'd like to learn some hand balancing, but I gotta get over my fear of falling on my head (I get a little nervous just doing a baby inverted press). And I need a lot more strength.

[thereyreyes]

Fantastic video and advice, as always. Thank you! 👏👏👏👏

[petermarshall]

Tumbling is my passion so this period (8 weeks) I'm doing 2 tumbling sessions rather than one. This means less strength work over this period but trying to maintain mobility. That's easy enough as my tumbling warm up is mostly mobility. The problem is mental in that I'm not happy cutting back on strength. So that's why I'm blocking: in 2 months I'll review and if happy with tumbling progress I'll replace a tumble session with strength for the next block of time. At 66 years of age recovery is the most important aspect of training. It's frustrating but the gains are coming, just takes longer and ultimately it's about not stopping and not getting injured.

[maxflinter]

This is so important! At some point this is just the pareto principle in terms of exercising. And I am a huge fan of this principle.

[mikearbogast]

what exercises do you recommend for building leg strength? how many reps of each? thanks!