One of the more frequent questions I get is how many days per week does a person need to work-out to get the best results.
I recommend that you really don’t need any more than 4 days of intense training and some active rest/recovery work on the off days. This will get you great results, especially if you are a beginner. If your nutrition is on track and targeted towards your goal you are winning the battle. Without nutrition you have to work twice as hard to get any results and you might not see any!
The time needed to get results really comes down to supportive nutrition, intensity of your workouts, and rest. If you are performing my high intensity, full body workouts 3-4 times per week you will definitely need the recovery time in between training days and it will only help you in the long run. This will create the metabolic demand (increase burning of calories) that your body needs to get results.
As you become more experienced you will be able to increase the intensity of the workouts and still get results. You don’t always have to add in more time or more days. It might come to a point to see quick results you have to jump start the body again and shock it into fat loss by knocking out an extra workout or two.
There's been a lot of talk these days about active recovery and this term can mean a lot of different things. It first and foremost means RECOVERY!!!! You should be doing the activities to get in some extra activity but you should be helping the recovery process. This could mean intense foam rolling, stretching, a light jog or interval sprint workout, a light bodyweight circuit or other circuit or just a walk or game of soccer/football. The more active you are the better as long as you are recovering in between workouts.