Maybe you used to exercise but stopped due to a life change, stress or just a rut. If you want to get back on the wagon – or even start working out consistently for the first time ever – it might be helpful to know when you’ll see results.
“It takes about four to six weeks of consistent exercise to increase your muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance,” says Jennifer Burnham, an athletic trainer at Henry Ford Health. “By 12 weeks you’ll likely see outward improvements.”
Consistent exercise, she explains, means working out four days a week with rest days in between.
“I call rest days ‘active recovery days,’ because they aren’t days where you do nothing,” Burnham says. “You should still do some sort of low-impact exercise to keep your body moving, but you’re not trying to make gains. Try activities like yoga, biking, swimming or foam rolling.”
Starting At An Exercise Pace That Works For You
If you’ve never worked out consistently before, Burnham recommends working with a personal trainer or strengthening and conditioning coach to get started. She cautions against using workouts you find on social media.
“They might not work for your body type and goals, especially if you’re just getting started in a workout routine,” says Burnham. “You might unknowingly have improper form and injure yourself. Instead, working with a professional can help you get into a good, safe groove.”
Start at a pace where you feel challenged but you can do the workout properly. “If you’re lifting, for example, and you can’t get through each repetition because your weights are too heavy or you too tired too early, you’re doing too much,” she says. “Once you find that sweet spot where your workout doesn’t feel challenging – which takes one or two weeks – then you can gradually make it harder.”
Go Where The Pros Go
Running is a bit different: Burnham recommends starting with a walk run. (Walk a minute, run 30 seconds, walk a minute, run 30 seconds, etc.) Gradually increase the length of time you run. This will give your body time to make the physiological adaptions it needs to be able to run longer distances.
There are many reasons to start slow and steady – not least of all because you could hurt yourself. Also, if you do too much too soon, you could give up easily and stop working out altogether.
Overcoming Workout Plateaus
After about four to six weeks of consistent exercise, you might hit a plateau in your strength and cardiovascular endurance. At that point, Burnham recommends changing your workout.
“If you’re always doing squats or bench presses, for example, find a different way to work the same muscles,” she says. “This gives your body the ability to still make gains without plateauing. And if you’re running, just try running longer distances.”
Depending upon your goals, however, maybe you don’t need to keep making gains at a certain point. “Your future goal could just be to maintain the strength and mobility you’ve gained,” says Burnham. “If you have a routine that works for you, by all means keep going with it.”
How Long Does It Take To Get Out Of Shape?
The key is to not lose your strength and endurance. And while it seems unfair, it takes a lot less time to get out of shape than it does to get in shape.
“You start to lose muscle strength and cardiovascular endurance after about two weeks of inactivity,” says Burnham. “Let’s say you’re on vacation and you only workout once instead of four times. Yes, there will be some break down of your gains, but it won’t be as dramatic as if you simply sat on the couch for two weeks. The biggest takeaway is that you want to keep moving. Don’t be completely sedentary because you’ll get out of shape much more quickly.”
It’s important to give yourself grace. “Just because you miss one workout doesn’t mean everything falls apart,” Burnham says. “Sometimes we have expectations that we can’t meet and that’s okay. Recognize that you’ll have good workouts and bad workouts and everything in between. Getting in shape is a long haul and it isn’t going to happen overnight. You have to put in the work, but you also have to give yourself a break if you don’t have a perfect workout every time.”
Reviewed by Jennifer Burnham MS, AT, ATC, CSCS, a certified athletic trainer at the Henry Ford Center for Athletic Medicine — Detroit.
