How Much Exercise Do You Need?

How Much Exercise Do You Need?

The medical literature continues to support the idea that exercise is medicine.

Regular exercise can help lower risk of premature death, control your blood pressure, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, combat obesity, improve your lung function, and help treat depression.

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Also Read: Workout for a Flat Belly, 7 Exercises To Consider!

Fortunately for anyone trying to improve their health, a little bit of exercise goes a long way.

So, We all know exercising is good for us.

But how many of you know, how much exercise do you need?

Physical activity is anything that gets your body moving. Adults need to do two types of physical activity each week to improve their health–aerobic activity and muscle strengthening.

So, How Much Is the Bare Minimum?

Just enough to meet your goals.

While incorporating more exercise into our lives is a worthwhile goal, for many of us, just getting up off the couch is a big step toward better health.

So how much exercise do you really need? Most of the studies show that 5 minutes of continuous movement repeated during the day is about the bare minimum to have any effect, and fitness experts believe 10 minutes is more realistic.

And how often do you need to do these 5- to 10-minute bursts of activity?

According to the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Sports Medicine, good health really comes with 30 minutes of activity, at least 3-5 times a week.

We know 150 minutes each week sounds like a lot of time, but it’s not. That could be 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. The good news is that you can spread your activity out during the week, so you don’t have to do it all at once. You can even break it up into smaller chunks of time during the day.

If you do the math, that means you’ll need to fit in six daily sessions of 5 minutes apiece, or three daily bouts of 10 minutes apiece.

What Types of Exercise Work Best?

Experts say that while almost any fitness activity you enjoy doing is good, if you want to get the most from your 10 minutes of training, choose activities that move several large muscle groups at once.

How Much Exercise Do You Really Need - Exercise Poster

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Using exercises that engage more than one body part also called as compound exercises, at a time will guarantee getting the best results. e.g. bodyweight squats and lunges.

You can actually do 60 seconds on each of these movements, and then repeat them — just call them ’60-second circuits’ — and it works great because you’re only doing it for a minute, and everybody can do something for just a minute.

Less Activity is Better than No Activity.

For most healthy adults, the Department of Health and Human Services recommends these exercise guidelines:

“Every adult should throw out the idea that if you’re not doing the most grueling, sweat-drenching workout for more than an hour it doesn’t count,” Vanessa M. Kercher told TODAY.

Aerobic activity. Get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity. The guidelines suggest that you spread out this exercise during the course of a week.

Strength training. Do strength training exercises for all major muscle groups at least two times a week. Aim to do a single set of each exercise, using a weight or resistance level heavy enough to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.

Moderate aerobic exercise includes activities such as brisk walking, swimming and mowing the lawn. Vigorous aerobic exercise includes activities such as running and aerobic dancing. Strength training can include use of weight machines, your own body weight, resistance tubing or resistance paddles in the water, or activities such as rock climbing.

As a general goal, aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day. If you want to lose weight, maintain weight loss or meet specific fitness goals, you may need to exercise more. Want to aim even higher? You can achieve more health benefits if you ramp up your exercise to 300 minutes or more a week.

Also Read: Four Myths Destroying Your Fitness Dreams

In Conclusion:

Reducing sitting time is important, too. The more hours you sit each day, the higher your risk of metabolic problems. Sitting too much can negatively impact your health and longevity, even if you get the recommended amount of daily physical activity.

Short on long chunks of time? Even brief bouts of activity offer benefits. For instance, if you can’t fit in one 30-minute walk during the day, try a few five-minute walks instead. Any activity is better than none at all. What’s most important is making regular physical activity part of your lifestyle.

This is a 4 articles series. Stay tuned to read the next article in the series.