Nataliya ‘Amazonka’ Kuznetsova trains like few people on Earth. How much gym is right for the rest of us?

Nataliya Kuznetsova does not do anything by halves. The bodybuilder and powerlifter from Chita, in Russia’s far east, started lifting at 14 and by 16 was her region’s powerlifting champion. She moved to Moscow, studied at the Moscow State Academy of Physical Culture, and won Russia’s junior bodybuilding title.

In 2018 she earned her IFBB professional card at Romania’s Muscle Fest. In the strength world she lists European titles in the bench press and deadlift, and world records in the bench press, deadlift and armlifting. Her published best lifts include a bench press of about 175 kilograms: more than most men who train will ever lift.

She trains with her husband, the wrestler Vladislav Kuznetsov. On Instagram, where her latest sunset post has drawn hundreds of comments in a week, she pairs that power with glamour, sequins and sunsets.

Is that much training healthy?

For an athlete at her level, the gym is a full-time job, built over 20 years with the coaching, food, sleep and recovery to match. Elite strength athletes are a long way from the average person, and the guidelines written for the rest of us are much more modest.

The World Health Organization recommends that adults do muscle-strengthening activity, at moderate intensity or more and working all major muscle groups, on two or more days a week. That sits alongside 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity, such as brisk walking, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity.

How much strength training is enough?

Less than many people think. A 2022 review of 16 studies, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that 30 to 60 minutes of muscle-strengthening activity a week was linked to the lowest risk of early death, heart disease and cancer. Beyond about two hours a week, the review found no extra benefit for those outcomes, although the data at higher amounts was limited. That is about lifespan, not performance: athletes chasing strength or size train far more, on purpose.

So when is gym too much?

The problem is rarely hours on their own. It is training more than the body can recover from. Muscle grows and strengthens in the rest between sessions, not during them. Sports medicine guidance describes overtraining as a long-running mismatch between training and recovery. Its signs include fatigue that does not lift with a few days off, performance that keeps falling, poor sleep, low mood or irritability, frequent colds and soreness that never fully goes away.

The fixes are simple, if not always popular: rest days, enough sleep, enough food and protein, and building load gradually rather than all at once. The WHO guidance itself says to start small and increase frequency, intensity and time step by step.

What does Kuznetsova show the rest of us?

Mostly what consistency over decades can build. Few people want to bench 175 kilograms. But the habit behind it, turning up for training twice a week or more, year after year, is the part the research says almost everyone would benefit from.

Would you train like her?

So where do you sit? Would you put in the years of training to build strength like Nataliya Kuznetsova, or is two sessions a week plenty? Tell us in the comments.