Weekly exercise schedule

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Does anyone have any experience or expertise to help recommend a balanced weekly exercise schedule. I think I’ve been pushing myself way too hard and didn’t realise that over doing it can be bad for you!

My current schedule has been:
Mon- Caroline Girvan full body kettlebell
Tue- Caroline Girvan HIIT
Wed- 5k run (in under 30mins)
Thu- Caroline Girvan full body dumbells
Fri- break
Sat- Caroline Girvan HIIT
Sun 5k run (in under 30mins)

I exercise partly for health reasons, however just found out constant high intensity like I’m doing can actually increase inflammation so I need to mix it up a bit. Any tips would be really appreciated.

It depends what your goal is? Is it just to stay active and healthy or do you have specific physique or weight loss/gain goals? :)

It's generally a good idea with running to vary your pace so that you do 80% of your weekly distance at a pace where you could hold a coherent conversation. If you couldn't do that when doing a sub-30 min 5k then I'd suggest you slow at least one of your runs down to that pace, or both of them if you want to keep up the same amount of HIIT. I'd suggest planning your week around 3 types of session - lots of low intensity cardio; strength work where you're not necessarily getting badly out of breath but you are pushing your muscles to the point of not being able to do more, and a bit of high intensity cardio/plyometric work which gets your heartrate up and muscles working. And make sure you fuel well and get plenty of rest, particularly after your more intense sessions. You could consider making your intense days more intense (e.g. do a run and strength work on the same day) so you have an extra day for just recovery.

Thank you. My main goal is to try and use exercise as part of my ‘staying healthy’ regime. I want to try and keep inflammation in check and stay strong.
I went through treatment for breast cancer and have to take ongoing meds that put me into an early menopause so bone strength is also very important.
I was told that exercise is very important and I want to do all I can and hope that it will help x

Tbf with the 80% rule for running it’s a good guide but does need a pretty decent milage to be relevant. 6 miles week isn’t really enough to be panicking about making sure it’s easy or not!

Doesn't seem to much to me. I might throw in another rest day. How long are the classes you are doing?
Maybe don't stick to such a strict routine. Mine depends a lot on the weather for running and ill do a HITT instead. If I'm having a rest day I'll try and make sure I get my steps in instead.

If the HIIT is genuine high intensity then I would just do one session a week. Otherwise it looks alright to me. I assume the classes don't last more than an hour.

Doesn't seem too much to me either, but it really depends what your goal is. If it's too tick over and stay healthy then you're doing fine.

Thank you some much for sharing your thoughts and experiences. The HIIT is quite intense so I may replace that with a less intense work out.

So do you pick sessions from Caroline's channel rather than following one of her Epic Programs in order? Caroline herself only does one HIIt session per week where she really (really!) pushes herself. Do you do one upper body (with dumbells) and one lower body (kettlebells)?
I am not a runner myself (I am a bit gangly so I am not physically designed for it) but I love a long, challenging yoga session at least once a week. Whatever you enjoy I suppose.

I see that you have the same day off every week. You are very disciplined. I call my day off any day when I get bogged down with other stuff like admin. My way is probably riskier as I sustained a back injury possibly as a result of not having any admin for a stretch of time which meant that I did Epic Heat for several weeks straight in a cold house. I pace myself more now because it can be tough and it is not always easy to anticipate a killer session.

Rest days are incredibly important and vital as part of exercise OP. I used to ignore them too and burned out after a few years - I was physically stressing and exhausting my body without realising it.

I think it was a Headspace sports recovery meditation where the person said something that stuck with me, along the lines of, "it is when we rest that our muscles repair and we get stronger, and our bodies recover from the stress of exercise".

I paid a personal trainer for several sessions where she reinforced this message (and also helped me develop exercises that are best for me and my slightly wonky body).

I now force myself to do at least 3 rest days a week where I "just" walk and do some yoga, and things are much better in the long run - I haven't lost muscle or fitness like I was worried I would, I've gotten better instead.

I would add that I certainly don't lift as heavy as Caroline (even though I could go heavier than my current 6kg) because I would end up with a She-Hulk physique. Caroline is really petite so she can get away with it but lately, I think she is looking too muscly. I suppose it depends on what you are prioritising: everyday strength, super strength , fat burning or general flexibility.

As in 6kg and 6kg

I use 4.5 kg x2 dumbells (though sometimes need to reduce to 3 kg for upper body as building strength. For kettlebells I use 10kg and have and 8 and 6kg for upper body.
I hadn’t thought about rest days like that, good tip. I’m also recovering from Covid so need to get back into stuff gradually, I haven’t been able to exercise for a few weeks now.