Today's session
Answer a short safety check once, then prop up your phone and press Start. It talks you through the session, keeps the screen awake, and adds the minutes to this week's ring when you finish.
These tools are for adults 18 and up. How much exercise does a teenager need?
What your result means
A finished session goes into this week's ring. A walk adds its brisk minutes, the interval walk its fast ones, a stair burst one hard minute that counts as two, the circuit a strength day and the balance set your balance work. If the safety check said to talk to a doctor first, do that before any session, and the walk is the one to start with once you're cleared.
What to do next
Alternate the two halves through the week, a walk on most days and the circuit on two of them, and stop each strength move with two or three good reps left. When the circuit feels easy, add a third round. To see the whole week at once, open Your week.
How it works
The safety check comes first, once per device, and you can change it any time. Each yes takes options away: chest pain or fainting means no session and a talk with a doctor, a known heart or kidney condition or diabetes holds back the hardest sessions, pregnancy drops the stair bursts and intervals, and sharp joint pain leaves seated and supported moves. Your answers never leave this browser.
The sessions. A brisk walk to a soft beat (100 steps a minute was moderate effort in adults 21 to 40), an interval walk of 3 minutes fast and 3 easy (in adults around 63 it made legs 13% stronger in five months), a six-move strength circuit from strength.guide's first two weeks, a one-minute stair burst, and a balance set with heel-to-toe walking at the counter.
What counts. A walk adds its brisk minutes (the easy minutes at each end don't count), the interval walk adds its fast minutes, a stair burst adds one hard minute (which counts as two), the circuit adds a strength day and the balance set adds balance work. "This week" starts on Monday.
The timings are our pacing. Who should check with a doctor first
11 sources
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- MedlinePlus (NIH), Exercising safely, reviewed 2024medlineplus.gov
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- American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Physical activity and exercise during pregnancy and the postpartum period, Committee Opinion 804, 2020europepmc.org
- Tudor-Locke C and others, Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 21 to 40 year olds: CADENCE-adults, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2019europepmc.org
- Nemoto K and others, Effects of high-intensity interval walking training on physical fitness and blood pressure in middle-aged and older people, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2007europepmc.org
- Jenkins EM and others, Do stair climbing exercise "snacks" improve cardiorespiratory fitness?, Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 2019europepmc.org
- Stamatakis E and others, Association of wearable device-measured vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity with mortality, Nature Medicine, 2022europepmc.org
- CDC, Physical activity for older adultscdc.gov
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- US Department of Health and Human Services, Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition, executive summary, 2018odphp.health.gov
