If you’ve got kids, a job and a house to run, “train five days a week” is a joke. You know it, I know it. The question isn’t how to find more hours. It’s how to get real results from the few you’ve got.
Here’s what the research says about how little you can get away with, why parents quit even when they do have the time, and how I set up a week for the parents I train.
Three Days Is Enough. The Research Says So.
Here’s the thing most people don’t know. A review in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport looked at how often you need to train a muscle to make it grow. When the total amount of work for the week was the same, training a muscle once a week built about as much muscle as training it two or three times.
In plain English: the number of days matters far less than doing enough total work. Three good sessions a week, done properly, beat five rushed ones. Add some walking on the other days and you’ve covered the Australian guidelines, which ask for strength training on at least two days and about 30 minutes of movement on most days.
The Real Problem Isn’t Time. It’s Guilt.
Researchers at Kansas State University ran focus groups with working mothers and fathers to find out what actually stops them exercising. Time came up, as you’d expect. But the other big one was guilt. Parents see exercise as selfish: an hour for themselves that should have gone to the kids or their partner.
Fathers in the study felt it about time away from their spouse. Mothers felt it at work, worried about being judged for training in the day. And here’s the useful bit: the parents who did stay active were the ones who saw exercise as something they did for their family, not instead of it. Less guilt, more consistency.
That’s the reframe. A fitter, less stressed, more patient parent is a better parent. The hour isn’t taken from your kids. It’s invested in the person looking after them.
How I Set Up a Week for Parents
It’s simple. Two strength sessions with me, about an hour each, full body every time. Then one cardio day on your own: a run, a long walk, a swim, whatever you’ll actually do. That’s your three days.
The strength sessions do the heavy lifting, literally. Full-body means every session counts, so if life blows up and you miss one, you haven’t missed a whole body part for the week. The cardio day looks after your heart and your head.
On the days in between, just walk. It’s a bonus, not a requirement.
Timing matters more for parents than for anyone else I train. Any time between 5:30am and 10am usually works best, especially for mums. Train before the house wakes up, or straight after drop-off, and the session is done before the day can get in the way.
And if you’re sitting there feeling guilty about taking that hour, here’s what I tell every parent who walks through my door: your future self will thank you for it. So will your kids.
The Clients Who Make It Work
I’ve trained a lot of parents over the years, and some of my longest-standing clients are the ones who turn up twice a week at 5:30am, Tuesdays and Thursdays, year after year. They make it work because they’ve decided it’s a priority. They want to feel confident. They want to feel strong. They understand what weight training and cardio do for them, so they don’t negotiate with themselves about it.
And here’s what I’ve noticed: the clients who’ve stuck around the longest are the ones who’ve got the best results. Not because they had more time than you. Because they followed the plan and kept showing up.
Make the Three Days Non-Negotiable
Pick the three slots, book them, and treat them like a school pick-up: fixed, not optional. Everything else in your week can move. Those can’t. If a day blows up, don’t make it up with a guilt session. Just hit the next one.
If you’re not sure how much a short session can do, my post on 20-minute workouts vs the 60-minute plan you quit covers it. And if you’d like three days built around your week, not someone else’s, connect with me today.