Staying fit and healthy is important, but the messaging around when and how often we should be working out, pushing our bodies to the limit and building on our fitness is often unclear.

Should we be traipsing to the gym every morning before work to blast out a 5k on the treadmill, or is a once-a-week visit to the weights room going to be enough? Equally, if our gym routine only involves lifting weights, will that help increase overall fitness levels?

It’s a tough balancing act, so we went to the experts to find out the truth.

“If you are somebody who hasn’t done any type of weight training exercise, let’s say someone who’s only done Pilates, yoga or running, and you’re just starting out [strength training], I would say have one session a week to start with, using exercises that are functional and compound body exercises.

“I would never say to someone do a minimum of three times a week when they’ve never done weights before. They’d go and destroy their body. And then they’re not able to recover and will hate it. If you’re intermediate, then three times a week, but once a week is enough if you’ve never touched a dumbbell.”

“This is tricky because everyone is different. It depends on the intensity and the duration of your training, and it depends on where you’re at: if you’re a novice or if you’re advanced. Three times a week is a very good aim.

“If the sessions last between 45 minutes to an hour then that’s perfect.”

“It really depends on your goals. If you’re just regularly training for a long life I would say three times a week strength training – it could be body weight training, lifting weights, TRX – there’re so many ways you can strength train. It doesn’t have to be about throwing bar bells and weights around. It’s just about what works well for you.

“If you’re trying to improve your endurance, for a marathon or something like that, do two cardio sessions as well. Or, if you’re not working on endurance, then maybe you might go for something like an extra yoga session.”

You heard it from the experts, so get those strength training workouts into your routine and book into a Stylist Strong class now.