How much time should I exercise per day to maximize my fitness and productivity?

[jarrodzhang]

I'm a healthy young adult male interested in maximizing his physical fitness as well as productivity at work. I find the guidelines provided by the NIH -- 150 minutes of moderate activity per week -- to be insufficient at giving me enough exercise to build muscles or lose weight. However, I usually find an hour of exercise per day to be too tiring for me to the point where I feel tired for the rest of the day. Is the latter inevitable or is it due to improper techniques or insufficient sleep? 

How much exercise should I get per day to build muscles and lose weight while still maintaining sufficient energy for work? 

[MarciM]

Please also considering nutrition in your equation. Healthy foods are very important for energy, building muscle, and all around well being.

[BruceBu]

There is a lot of space between 150 minutes/week and an hour a day (420 min/week). You might try something like 20 minutes in the morning, 20 in the evening (280 min/week). If you do this regularly at a moderate level (reaching low cardio HR), it should only be a matter of weeks (couple of months max) and your exercise should invigorate you, not make you tired.

[Mukluk4]

Are you getting 6-8 hours of sleep a night?

[DanielleinDC]

Split your workouts. Do half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. You can do one aerobic session and one strength training session a day. I like to start my morning with about 30-35 minutes of walking videos and then do a strength training or flexibility video or even take a fitness class in the evening. 

And make sure you're getting enough sleep. (Which I admit I don't do. <blush>)

[davy.franko84]

break up your workout intervals to 4 15 minute sessions a day. do some resistance exercises, crossfit, moderate cardio, and walking. maybe do all of them at once. whatever.

[SunsetRunner]

what exercises are you doing?  Weight training is best every other day at best-muscles need downtime to repair (how muscle is increased).  I think 75 minutes moderate plus cardio a week is recommended.  

For the strength, give it time, muscle isn't built overnight but you should see improvements after a couple weeks (the reps should get easier and then you add a little weight and start again).