Many people who go to the gym end up with fitness burnout. While daily movement is important, balancing your weight training with rest days is important – but often should you really be strength training?

“Can I weight train every day?”

“It’s best not to,” says strength coach Alice Miller. “The average person doesn’t need to train every day, and for general health and fitness I think around four sessions a week is absolutely fine. You can also complement your weight training with something else that you enjoy like yoga or running. Unless you have a physically demanding sport or you’re competing in something and you have to train, you don’t need to do more.”

Emma Obayuvana, trainer from the Strong Women Training Club, agrees. “I actually don’t think it’s a good idea to weight train every day because your body needs recovery. Sometimes, recovery is even more important than the training itself,” she says. That’s because, during training, we create tears in our muscles. In order for them to rebuild and grow back stronger, we need rest, good nutrition and sleep.

Should you strength train with weights every day? Fitness trainers explain