How To Get the Most From 3 Days of Exercise Per Week

If you’ve only got three days a week to exercise, you want to make sure you’re getting the absolute most out of those sessions.

With the right strategy, you can build muscle, burn fat, and improve your overall fitness without spending hours in the gym. Here’s how you can optimise your workout routine to make the most of three days of exercise per week.

1. Prioritise Strength Training

Strength training should be the foundation of your workout routine if you’re limited to three days per week. Building muscle doesn’t just make you stronger—it also boosts your metabolic rate, which means you’ll burn more calories even when you’re not exercising. Strength training helps improve bone density, enhances your hormonal profile, and makes you more resistant to injuries, all of which are crucial for long-term health and fitness.

If you focus on resistance training, your workouts will offer a greater return on investment compared to cardio alone. Aim for exercises like squats, deadlifts, push-ups, and rows that work multiple muscle groups at once, maximising the benefits of every session.

2. Make Your Strength Training Workouts Full Body Sessions

When your time is limited, full body sessions are your best friend. While many people enjoy split routines (e.g. training chest on one day, legs on another), you’ll get much more out of training your entire body during each of your three sessions. Full body workouts allow you to stimulate more muscles, burn more calories, and maximise your strength gains.

Compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and rows work multiple muscle groups in one movement. These should be your go-to exercises because they provide a bigger bang for your buck, allowing you to target the most muscles in the least amount of time. This approach ensures you’re working all major muscle groups evenly, rather than neglecting any areas.

3. Keep Your Cardio to HIIT

Cardio can still play a role in a three-day-per-week workout plan, but you don’t want to waste valuable time on long, steady-state sessions. Instead, opt for high intensity interval training (HIIT), which involves short bursts of intense effort followed by brief periods of rest. This approach can give you the cardiovascular benefits of longer workouts in a fraction of the time.

A typical HIIT session can last just 15-20 minutes and still provide excellent benefits for heart health, fat loss, and endurance. Studies have shown that HIIT can burn as many calories as longer, moderate-intensity cardio sessions, making it ideal when time is tight. Plus, HIIT has the added advantage of boosting your metabolism long after the workout is done, so you’ll continue burning calories even after you leave the gym.

4. Maximise Gym Time

With only three gym sessions per week, the last thing you want is to waste time waiting for equipment or figuring out what to do next. To avoid this, design your workouts around exercises that require minimal equipment and can be done in a variety of settings. Kettlebell circuits, barbell complexes, and bodyweight exercises are all excellent choices that allow for continuous movement, maximising calorie burn and muscle engagement.

Keep your rest times short and your transitions between exercises smooth. By minimising downtime, you’ll make the most of each minute spent in the gym. Circuit training, where you move from one exercise to the next with minimal rest, is an excellent way to maximise efficiency and keep your heart rate up throughout the session.

5. Hire a Personal Trainer

If you’re serious about making the most of your three weekly sessions, consider working with a personal trainer. A well-qualified PT will design a programme specifically for you, ensuring that every workout is optimised for maximum results. They’ll guide you through exercises with proper form, reducing your risk of injury and making sure every movement counts.

At AdMac Fitness, we pride ourselves on having some of the best personal trainers in East London. We operate out of a private studio, which allows us to focus entirely on your progress without the distractions of a crowded gym. Whether you’re looking to build muscle, lose fat, or improve overall fitness, our trainers will tailor your workouts to fit your goals—and ensure that you’re getting the most out of your limited exercise time.

If you’ve only got three days a week to train, it’s important to focus on efficiency and effectiveness. Prioritising strength training, incorporating HIIT, and working with a personal trainer can all help you reach your fitness goals without wasting time. Make each session count, and you’ll see the results!

Want to improve your health and fitness? Let the AdMac Fitness Personal Trainers help…

AdMac Fitness has been helping the people of East London transform their health and fitness for nearly a decade.

We help people using tried and tested fitness approaches. Our expert team of personal trainers, based in both Bow and South Woodford can help you get a grip of your health forever. With our guidance and experience, you can relax knowing that your fitness journey is going to be guided by some of the best personal trainers in East London.

For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Our locations are…

AdMac Fitness: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA

AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD