How Much Exercise per Week? The Federal Answer

For an American adult the answer is 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, or half that in vigorous minutes, plus strength work on two days. Choose your age group for the full picture.

The adult guideline, in full

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition, published by HHS, put four statements under Key Guidelines for Adults, and people usually remember only the second:

• Move more and sit less. Any amount of moderate-to-vigorous activity brings some benefit.
• For substantial health benefits: 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent combination — preferably spread through the week.
• More benefit is available beyond the equivalent of 300 minutes a week.
• Muscle-strengthening activities of moderate or greater intensity, involving all major muscle groups, on 2 or more days a week.

The 2018 edition also dropped the old rule that activity had to come in 10-minute bouts to count. Any episode of moderate-to-vigorous activity, however brief, counts now.

Trading vigorous minutes for moderate ones

The guidelines state the exchange rate as a rule of thumb: 2 minutes of moderate-intensity activity counts the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity. Thirty minutes of brisk walking is roughly 15 minutes of running.

That is why the two ranges are proportional, and it lets you mix them freely. Sixty minutes of running plus 60 minutes of brisk walking equals 180 moderate-equivalent minutes — inside the recommended range with 2 hours of actual training. If you are unsure which category you are training in, moderate vs vigorous exercise has the talk test and the MET definitions.

The other age groups

Children and adolescents ages 6 through 17 should get 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily — not a weekly total, a daily one — and inside that hour: vigorous-intensity aerobic activity on at least 3 days a week, muscle-strengthening activity on at least 3 days, and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days. Details in physical activity guidelines for children.

Preschool-aged children, 3 through 5, get no minute target at all. The guideline asks that they be physically active throughout the day, with adults encouraging a variety of active play.

Older adults follow the adult guidelines and add multicomponent activity that includes balance training — see exercise guidelines for older adults.

A note on the age labels: the age-group selector above uses the WHO’s 5-to-17 band for children, while the US guidelines set their daily hour for ages 6 through 17 and handle 3 to 5 separately. The minute figures for adults are identical in both documents.

Getting there with walking alone

You can cover the aerobic half entirely on foot: 150 minutes a week is about 22 minutes a day every day, or 30 minutes on five days. See how many minutes of walking per day for the arithmetic and the pace it has to be done at, and the daily step goal calculator if you would rather track the same thing in steps.

This content is informational and does not replace medical advice.