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Weekend Warriors, Listen Up: Here’s What to Know About Working Out Twice a Week

It’s possible to still make progress toward your goals with two workouts a week, but it will take some careful planning.

By Sarah KleinJanuary 16, 2025

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In an ideal world, we’d all easily get enough exercise each week. We wouldn’t bat an eye at the guidelines that recommend banging out at least 150 minutes of cardio and powering through two strength training sessions weekly. But, unfortunately, that ideal scenario can feel next to impossible, with work, family, and other obligations often getting in the way of workouts.

Some weeks, we’re lucky if we can find three days to exercise. Other weeks, we magically find time to move every day. And then there are the weeks when we only have the time (or the motivation) for physical activity on the weekends. But is something still better than nothing? Is working out twice a week enough?

We spoke to a sports medicine physician and a physical therapist about how to make the most of the exercise you’re able to get.

Is Working Out Twice a Week Enough?

Working out twice a week can be “enough” if those two sessions fulfill the recommended exercise guidelines—but there are some limitations to the practice too. 

But before we get into the details, let’s acknowledge a fact of modern life: Lots of people only find time for physical activity on the weekends. This trend sparked the term “weekend warrior,” which is generally used to describe folks who only exercise on one or two days a week, typically Saturdays and Sundays.

Recent research found both weekend warriors and people who exercise on more days of the week experienced similar health benefits. Both groups had a lower risk for more than 200 health conditions, particularly high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and sleep apnea, according to a 2024 Circulation study. And both groups also had similarly lower risks for depression, anxiety, dementia, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease, per a 2024 Nature Aging study.

The catch? The amount of exercise the weekend warriors got on those two days still had to add up to at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic activity. People who got fewer than 150 minutes of exercise (no matter how many days they were active) had higher risks of all sorts of health concerns.

So what does that mean for the weekend warriors or two-a-week exercisers among us? Working out twice a week can be enough, as long as you’re still meeting the benchmark of 150 minutes of exercise a week.

“If performing two aerobic workouts a week, they would have to total 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise,” says Karan Rai, MD, a sports medicine physician at OSF Healthcare in Bloomington, Illinois. And split down the middle, that’s more than an hour of activity on each of those two days.

That can feel like a lot—especially if those sweat sessions are held on the two back-to-back days of your weekend. For example, if you did a 90-minute cycling workout on Saturday and a 60-minute run on Sunday, your legs would probably be pretty gassed. It’s hard for weekend warriors to “ensure there is enough time between workouts to allow for recovery,” Dr. Rai says. And when you don’t have enough time for recovery, you’re less likely to meet your goals and more likely to experience overtraining, injury, and burnout.

On the other hand, two workouts a week that aren’t on Saturday and Sunday might simply be too variable. If you’re only finding two random days each week when you can fit in some exercise, you might actually have a harder time making and sticking to a fitness routine, says Stacie Page, a board-certified orthopedic physical therapist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. 

Of course, some exercise is always better than none, so it’s always a good idea to start where you’re at and take advantage of the time you do have. 

A man happily lifting dumbbells in a bicep curl at a gym.

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Will You Notice Progress with Two Workouts a Week?

It’s certainly possible to make progress toward your goals with only two workouts a week, but it’ll take some dedication and commitment. “If only working out twice a week, one would really need to optimize their diet, recovery, sleep, and hydration to maximize benefits,” Dr. Rai says.

Once those healthy habits are in order, you’ll need to focus in on your goals. If you’re only exercising twice a week, it’s even more important that your objectives are clear and precise. That means utilizing the S.M.A.R.T. acronym when you come up with a fitness goal, Page says, which means your target should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.

Here’s how your progress might shape up with just two weekly workouts, depending on your goal:

Building Strength and Muscle Mass

Remember, health experts recommend fitting in at least two strength training workouts per week. That means you can make progress when it comes to sculpting your muscles and getting stronger, even if you’re only able to exercise twice a week. 

That said, you’d have to be strategic about varying your exercises, sets, and reps to challenge yourself without overdoing it in a single day or back-to-back workout days, Dr. Rai says. Remember, too, that you should allot at least 48 hours before working the same muscle groups—meaning you wouldn’t want to do an upper body strength workout two days in a row, for example.

Hitting your protein goals will be even more crucial with only two lifting sessions per week, Dr. Rai adds. If you want to build muscle, aim to get 1.4–2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight each day. (Divide your weight in pounds by 2.2 to get your approximate weight in kilograms.)

Improving Endurance

Any cardio is better than no cardio when it comes to building your endurance, but you might not notice improvements as quickly as you’d like with two workouts a week. “Progress may be slower than other more typical programs that involve varied types of cardiovascular exercise over three to five workouts in a week,” Dr. Rai says.

Boosting Mobility and Flexibility

Both mobility (the ability to move joints through their full ranges of motion) and flexibility (the capacity to temporarily lengthen muscles, tendons, and ligaments) are key to performing daily activities pain-free and with ease. It typically takes some concerted effort to improve either one, usually with dynamic stretching before and static stretching after your strength or cardio workouts, Dr. Rai says. 

If you can make time for this in your two weekly workouts, you can see some progress, he says, but “the total time commitment—roughly 20 minutes in addition to the exercise—may make this prohibitive for some schedules.” (Pro tip: If you’re having trouble squeezing mobility work into your schedule, try stacking a five- or 10-minute Peloton mobility class to your workouts.)

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Promoting General Physical Health

As the studies above highlight, weekend warriors have a lower risk for hundreds of health conditions, assuming they’re getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise across those two workouts. For example, “as long as the total duration and intensity were appropriate, [working out twice a week] could help decrease risk of a cardiac event,” Dr. Rai says. 


Bolstering Mental Health

The same goes for emotional and psychological concerns: Exercise is excellent for your mental health at the current benchmarks of 150 minutes a week. “As long as the total duration and intensity were appropriate, [exercising twice a week] can help improve cognitive function as well as help with mental health diseases like anxiety and depression,” Dr. Rai says. 

However, some experts say you can still notice a mental health boost after just 15 minutes of exercise—so even if you only have a little time for movement some weeks, it’s worth taking.

Training for a Competition

If your goal is to, say, run a marathon or win a fitness competition, Page says, you have to train for those particular activities. But most training plans would also leave time for cross-training to minimize your risk of injury. Working out twice a week simply may not give you enough opportunity to improve your ability in a specific discipline while also protecting your muscles and joints.

Tips for Maximizing Twice-a-Week Workouts

So you truly only have time to work out twice a week. How do you make the most of those opportunities?

1. Make a Plan

Most importantly, “have a plan and stick to it,” Page says. Otherwise, your two workouts a week risk becoming unfocused and throwing you off track to meet your goals.

That two-day-a-week workout plan might look different for everyone. Maybe you make one of those days a full body cardio workout, like rowing, dancing, or swimming, and the other a full body strength workout that also gets your heart pumping.

“I would recommend full body workouts performed at an intensity that would keep the heart rate at a moderate intensity,” Dr. Rai says. “Typically, I tell patients ‘moderate intensity’ means they should not be able to easily hold a conversation while performing the exercise.”

Or maybe you focus both workouts on strength. Page recommends making one workout a pulling day and the other a pushing day. Pulling exercises often target your biceps, back, and hamstrings while pushing exercises zero in on your chest, shoulders, triceps, quads, and calves, she says. This ensures you’re varying the muscles you use in your twice-weekly workouts but still covering all your bases. (Just make sure you leave at least two days for recovery between the two sessions.)

You can also think about training to failure, which means you can’t do another rep of the exercise. Or you could stop each set when you get close to that threshold, like when you could only bang out one or two more reps if you really had to. Training to this type of muscle fatigue was key in a small, older study that found older adults got the same strength benefits from one workout a week as they did from two.  

2. Prioritize General Wellbeing 

As Dr. Rai mentioned above, you’ll also need to get plenty of sleep, stay hydrated, and eat a balanced diet. What does that look like? Most adults need about seven to nine hours of Zzzs a night, according to the National Institutes of Health. Official guidelines say you should aim for 11.5–15.5 cups of fluids a day (including the H2O you get from foods). And you’ll want to figure out a mix of all your macronutrients—carbs, protein, and fats—that best supports your fitness goals and aligns with your dietary preferences.

3. Listen to Your Body

It’s also critical to be honest with yourself about how your body’s feeling during your two-a-week workouts. “Monitor soreness and challenge yourself appropriately,” Page says, “but also limit significant jumps in progressions to avoid injury.” 

The National Academy of Sports Medicine recommends increasing the time, weight, or intensity of your workouts by no more than 10 percent in any given week. That includes if you’re not currently reaching 150 minutes of exercise a week; start where you are and build up gradually, advises the American Heart Association.

4. Reevaluate Your Calendar

Last but not least, think about what your schedule really allows. Do you truly only have time to exercise two days a week when those workouts would need to both be more than an hour long? Would you actually have time on more days of the week if you did shorter workouts? There are lots of ways to break down 150 minutes of activity over seven days, such as 30 minutes, five days a week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Maybe it’s time to get creative. 

And by the way: The Peloton App has thousands of workout classes across 16 modalities that range from five minutes all the way to 120 minutes in length, so there’s something for every schedule.

The Takeaway

Working out twice a week can be enough movement to improve your physical and mental health, as long as you’re still meeting the general activity recommendations of getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and two strength training sessions a week. This can be challenging to do in just two days, depending on your schedule and other priorities and responsibilities, but you may still notice some improvements in your mobility, endurance, strength, and general wellbeing.

If you can only exercise twice a week, focus on full body workouts that increase your heart rate. Try to vary your workouts to avoid overtraining specific muscles and lower your risk of injuries, especially if you’re working out on back-to-back days like Saturday and Sunday.

This content is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute individualized advice. It is not intended to replace professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment. Seek the advice of your physician for questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. If you are having a medical emergency, call your physician or 911 immediately.

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