There's no shortage of advice on how to structure your training. Three days a week, five days a week, full body, LISS every morning, lift heavy twice a week. Ask ten people how often you should exercise and you'll get ten different answers.
But here's what I believe: the best workout routine — for women, for men, for anyone — is the one you'll actually do. Not the most optimised one. Yours.
That said, there are fundamentals worth understanding — because knowing why you're doing something makes it far easier to commit to it.
What Your Body Actually Needs
Two things matter above everything else: strength training and cardiovascular work.
Strength training builds and preserves muscle mass — one of the strongest predictors of metabolic health, bone density, and functional independence as we age. It improves insulin sensitivity, supports fat loss, and has well-documented benefits for mental health. Everybody, at every age, benefits from it.
But — and this is important — strength training for beginners doesn't mean heavy weights from day one. If you're new to it, the priority is stability first. Learning to control your body, engage the right muscles, and move well under minimal load is what builds a foundation that actually lasts and keeps you injury-free. Think bodyweight squats before barbell squats. Master the movement, then add the load. There's nothing to prove by going heavy before you're ready, and a lot to lose.
Cardiovascular training strengthens the heart and lungs, improves how efficiently your cells produce energy, and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease. It also has a profound effect on mood, stress, and cognitive function. It doesn't have to mean running — cycling, swimming, rowing, brisk walking all count.
The general guidelines — 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous cardio per week, plus two or more strength sessions — are minimums, not targets. How often you should exercise beyond that depends on your life, your recovery, and what you can sustain. The best amount is always the most you can do consistently.
What About Mobility?
Mobility doesn't need its own dedicated session. What the evidence supports is using it as a dynamic warm-up before training — leg swings, hip circles, thoracic rotations — which improves performance and reduces injury risk. And as a cool-down afterwards, static stretching aids recovery and gradually builds range of motion over time.
If you genuinely enjoy mobility work — yoga, Pilates, longer stretching sessions — then absolutely keep it and extend it. These practices carry real benefits for the mind, for stress, for body awareness, and for how you move through daily life. Enjoyment is never a reason to cut something out. But if you've been told you must do a separate mobility session to stay healthy, that's not what the science says. Weave it into what you're already doing and you'll get the physical benefits without needing to find extra time.
Find What You'll Actually Stick To
Personal preference matters more than most training plans acknowledge. If you hate running, a plan built around running will fail — not because you lack discipline, but because you've built your routine around something that costs you more than it gives.
The science on exercise adherence is clear: enjoyment and personal fit are among the strongest predictors of long-term consistency. A slightly less optimal plan you love beats a perfect plan you tolerate every time.
So the first question when building your routine isn't "what's most effective?" It's "what can I see myself doing in six months?" Start there. Optimise within it. And treat your routine as something that evolves with your life, not something fixed forever.
What Actually Matters
Progressive overload drives progress. Your body adapts to stress — so the same workout done indefinitely stops producing results. Gradually increasing challenge, whether that's weight, reps, or intensity, is what keeps adaptation happening. The trend over time matters more than any single session.
Recovery is part of the programme — and it's where a lot of the real work happens. During rest, your body repairs muscle tissue, consolidates adaptation, and regulates hormones. Your brain learns to switch off, which is its own kind of training. Sleep, nutrition, and stress management aren't extras — they're active ingredients in your results, even on days you don't move.
Consistency compounds. Two solid sessions a week, every week for a year, will outperform eight sessions one week and none the next — every time. Read more on consistency →
A Note on Overtraining
More is not always better. The fear of "not doing enough" leads many people to push past what their body and mind can sustain — and overtraining, while real, is far less common in leisure athletes than the fitness world suggests. It's often as much a psychological pattern as a physical one. I'll be getting into this properly in my next post.
You don't need a perfect plan. You need one that fits your life, covers both strength and cardio, leaves room for recovery, and is something you actually want to show up for. Start there. Adjust as you go.