How much exercise should you be doing?

We all live busy lives and many of us find it difficult to make time to dedicate to exercise. For this reason, one of the most common questions that sports physicians get asked is “How much exercise do I need to do to get the health benefits?” The official WHO and American exercise guidelines can make it seem that the benefits of exercise only kick in above a certain threshold. The magical number of minutes of moderate exercise is often quoted as 150.

Myth.

Busted.

The truth is that the benefits of exercise start accruing from the very first moment that you start to move provided that the effort is at least of moderate intensity. This is truly fantastic news as it means that every little bit of exercise in your day counts towards making you healthier and happier! Like any good medicine, exercise displays what is called a dose-response curve when the amount of exercise is plotted against the magnitude of health benefits.

The curve points up and to the right meaning that the more exercise you do, the more health benefits you receive. The WHO targets of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise per week are a good target to hit in order to lock in significant health benefits. These numbers should definitely not be seen as a ceiling though as additional health benefits are waiting for those who go above and beyond the recommended minimum. For the lowering of cardiovascular disease risk, in particular, no real upper limit for exercise has been found. The more, the better. Those with obesity, lipid abnormalities, or a family history of cardiovascular disease should take note. For people truly short on time, short bursts of very high-intensity exercise have been shown to have amazing benefits and can be used to make your exercise sessions more time-efficient. Studies of all-out exercise sessions as short as 6 minutes have been shown to be comparable to much longer, low-intensity workouts.

If the health benefits aren’t enough to convince you, Strove is committed to rewarding you and motivating you every step of the way. There are no excuses, everyone can and must prioritize regular exercise. We were born to move, not to sit in an office chair. Get going!