There’s a New Way to Know If You’re Exercising Enough
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (and similar recommendations from other countries) encourage healthy adults to get 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as walking, per week . Vigorous exercise counts doubly so if you’re a runner you can complete the minimum requirement in 75 minutes. But what if you have time to do more – is it good for your health? And what about strength training?
The guidelines consider strength training to be separate from the duration of the exercises specified in the guidelines. (You should be doing strength training twice a week in addition to minutes of aerobic exercise.) But a new study looked at how many minutes of exercise was associated with reduced mortality, and it included strength training in its tally.
According to new data, people who exercise four times more than the minimum recommendations – that’s 600 minutes of moderate exercise or 300 minutes of vigorous exercise – seem healthier than those who meet only the minimum (150/75). And exercising more than that seems to be normal – people sometimes wonder if there is such a thing as “too much” exercise, but this study found no such number in its analysis. ( Overtraining is common in high-level athletes , but you’re not likely to induce it with casual or recreational exercise.)
What does this mean for my workout?
First, this is not a rule change. I still think it’s a good idea to try to follow the guidelines as a first step to getting healthy. As a weightlifter who did zero cardio for several years, I deliberately added a daily walk (30 minutes per day × seven days per week = 210 minutes). While it’s too early to tell if it has increased my lifespan, I’ve definitely noticed some benefits. The recommendations call for 150 minutes of moderate exercise (or 75 vigorous, or a combination) and say that if you can handle it easily, you should try 300 minutes of moderate (150 vigorous).
Second, it’s important to know that this was a study of the relationship between exercise time and mortality. When people are in poor health, they often have a reduced ability to exercise. If my grandmother’s health had declined in the years before her death and she could no longer go for daily walks, it was probably not her lack of walking that killed her.
But that doesn’t mean the numbers are useless. Health and exercise tend to complement each other. If you are healthy from the start and exercise more, this can help you stay healthy. Cardio benefits your heart; strength training gives you more muscle mass, which can help you maintain your quality of life as you get older and reduce the chance of complications from any health problems you have.
As well as encouraging you to exercise more if you have the time and opportunity, this study also gives us another way to ask ourselves if we are exercising enough to keep us healthy:
- You may be asking if you are doing more than 150 minutes of aerobic exercise plus two weight training sessions per week.
- You can add up all your exercises (including strength training) and see where you fall in the 150 to 600 minute range.
What is considered a workout?
“Moderate” exercise, according to physical activity guidelines, is 3 to 6 METs or metabolic equivalents. (One MET is the amount of energy you burn when doing absolutely nothing.) A few examples:
- Walking at a speed of 2.5 miles per hour or more (the average person walks at about 3.0)
- Mopping or sweeping with “moderate effort”
- Garage cleaning
- lawn mowing
- Leisurely cycling (slow speed, on a flat surface)
- Golf
- Horseback riding
- Playing with baby where you walk and run
In physical activity guidelines, anything below 3 MET is considered “light” activity, not “moderate” activity. This includes most activities where you are standing or moving only slightly, such as dusting furniture or shopping for groceries. In a recent self-reported study, all activity below 6 METs was considered moderate.
Vigorous exercise that doubles the minutes includes anything 6 METs and above:
- Running at 13 minutes miles (4 miles per hour) or faster
- Dance aerobics classes
- Hiking uphill or with a backpack
- Biking to get somewhere (10 mph or more, or uphill)
- Roller skating
- Swimming circles
- snow shoveling
- jumping rope
- Most team sports (football, basketball, etc.)
You can find MET meanings for over 800 activities here . Slaughter a large animal? Polka dance? And energetic intensity, in case you’re wondering.