How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need to Stay Healthy? Before getting into how much physical activity adults need to stay healthy, let’s first discuss what types of activities count. Basically, activities are broken down into two categories: aerobic and muscle strengthening. Aerobic
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Other Considerations Besides the type of activity, two other considerations are: • Time – how long you exercise • Intensity – how hard you push your body
Usually the more intense These are the types of the activity, the shorter exercises that get your heart amount of time it can be rate up like: performed until failure. • Walking Intensity is broken down • Swimming into moderate and vigorous. • Riding a bike Good examples between • Playing tennis two types of intensities are • Mowing the lawn walking (moderate) verses jogging (vigorous) or tennis Muscle Strengthening doubles (moderate) verses singles (vigorous). Activities that work the major muscle groups, such In America, both the as legs, arms, chest, back, Centers for Disease Control shoulders and arms count (CDC) and American under this type of physical Heart Association (AHA) activity. This includes: recommend getting at a • Lifting weights using minimum 150 minutes per dumbbells, barbells week of moderate aerobic or weight-simulating activity, or 75 minutes of machines vigorous, along with two • Using resistance bands or more days per week • Performing bodyweight of muscle-strengthening exercises without any exercises that target all additional weight the major muscle groups. • Certain types of Do one set of 12 to 15 gardening repetitions per set of each • Yoga muscle group exercise. Just make sure the muscle-
strengthening days are not back to back as muscles need at least a day inbetween to recover. For those who have not exercised in a while, see your healthcare professional first before starting any exercise program. Second, start out slowly. You’ll know when you are exercising at the proper rate when you can carry on a conversation while exercising. Gradually work up to the recommended minimum amount of activity time per week – 30 minutes per day, five days per week. Even three 10-minute sessions per day provide the same, if not more, health benefits than one 30-minute session. The CDC and AHA also note that greater health benefits can be gained by bumping the aerobic time up to 300 minutes per week along with the same amount of strength training. The bottom lines are doing any physical activity is better than nothing and it is never too late to start. Start slow. Set milestones along the way that once accomplished help gradually work you up to the recommended amount of weekly activity.
