How many exercises per workout is optimal?

How many exercises per workout will help you with your physique goals? It’s not a one-size fits all, and it will heavily depend on various factors such as types of exercise, intensity levels, and even your overall fitness goals.

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How many exercises per workout?

Exercises (Photo via GRAHAM MANSFIELD/Unsplash)

Coming to understand this better, you should always be aware of the general guidelines for the same.

Usually, it’s said that a full-body workout should involve around 8-10 exercises. However, if you’re working on specific muscle groups on different days, the number of exercises will reduce but the workouts will increase.

It’s important to keep in mind that while you’re trying to figure out how many exercises per workout, you should also take the quality of the exercises into account. Four exercises of good quality that work on the right muscles along with proper form is much better than doing ten exercises with improper form and no engagement of the correct muscle groups.

Furthermore, you should aim to control the movements and reps of your exercises rather than rushing through them. This could mean that the number of exercises is dropping, but the quality of each set is improving massively.

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How many exercises per muscle group?

Exercise (Photo via Alexander Redl/Unsplash)

The next part of how many exercises per workout is moving from a full-body workout to a workout split. In this, you focus on one or two muscle groups every day and work on the muscles using a combination of isolation and compound exercises.

Usually, you should work with 3-4 exercises per muscle group, and try to work on the muscles from various angles and directions. This allows you to activate bigger and smaller muscle fibers in your body.

Now, the above is a general guideline. It will have to be modified based on what works for you and what your fitness goals are.

Therefore, if you wish to build strength, you could possibly focus on 3 exercises but increase the number of sets while using heavier weights.

However, if you wish to improve endurance, you can increase the number of exercises and use lighter weights for the same.

Additionally, the answer to how many exercises per workout also lies in whether you’re using compound or isolation exercises.

For example, if you’re working on your chest and triceps, compound chest exercises will work on both your chest and triceps. This way you won’t have to do a huge number of exercises for your triceps since they’re already being worked on during chest exercises.

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How much exercise per day?

Workouts (Photo via Anastase Maragos/Unsplash)

Once you understand how many exercises per workout and per muscle group, it’s time to learn about how much time you should spend doing exercises per day.

You only get 24 hours a day in which work, eating, sleeping, traveling, and spending quality time with your family and friends needs to be prioritized. You have to find time within this schedule to fit into your gym or workout routine.

Therefore, it’s said that a general 45 minutes to an hour is a great amount of time spent at the gym. However, you need to spend the entire time focused on your exercises and not get distracted.

Some individuals push up to 2 hours of gym time every day, but that’s not needed unless you have extreme fitness goals.

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How many minutes of exercise per week?

Now, some individuals do not go to the gym every day. They focus on working out thrice or four times a week, but those sessions are high intensity sessions. Ideally, each of those sessions lasts for one to one and a half hours, and is focused on intense aerobic exercises.

While there’s no ideal number of days to work out or how many exercises per workout, you should always aim for at least two full-body sessions per week. This will ensure that all your muscle groups get enough exercise on a weekly basis.