Do I need to exercise every day?

No. 3–5 sessions weekly meets guidelines, and rest days are when muscle actually adapts. Daily light movement — walking, stretching — is beneficial and different from daily hard training.

Adaptation happens during recovery, not during the session. Training the same muscle groups daily without recovery tends to stall progress and raise injury risk.

Signs you need more rest: persistent soreness, declining performance, poor sleep, elevated resting heart rate and loss of motivation.