The guide

How much exercise do you need?

By GyroscopeUpdated November 15, 20267 sources

At least 150 minutes a week of brisk activity, like fast walking, plus strength work on two days. A hard minute counts as two brisk ones. Your first hour a week does the most good, most of the benefit is in by about 5 hours, and even 10 times the minimum showed no harm.

You’ve probably heard a different number every year: 30 minutes a day, an hour a day, 10,000 steps, 150 minutes a week, 300 minutes a week. With that many targets around, a lot of people decide they’ll never hit the right one and do nothing, and a smaller group decides more is always better and wonders if they’re overdoing it. The studies behind these numbers tell a simpler story than the headlines. Each one is a point on the same curve, and the steep part of that curve is at the very start.

What does the US guideline say?

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2nd edition, 2018) ask adults for 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate activity, which is brisk walking or anything that gets you breathing harder, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity like running, or a mix of the two. On top of that, they ask for muscle-strengthening work on 2 or more days, at moderate or greater effort, working all the major muscle groups. Adults 65 and up add balance training.

Two lines in it surprise most people. “Additional health benefits are gained by engaging in physical activity beyond the equivalent of 300 minutes (5 hours)” a week, so 150 is where the guideline starts and more still helps. And adults “who sit less and do any amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity gain some health benefits”, so you don’t need to hit 150 for the first minutes to help.

Why does a hard minute count as two?

It’s about twice the work. The CDC measures effort in METs, where sitting still is 1. Moderate activity, like walking at 2.5 miles an hour or faster, is 3 to 5.9 METs. Vigorous activity, like running or jumping rope, is 6 or more. The guideline sets 75 hard minutes equal to 150 brisk ones for the same reason.

The easy way to tell them apart is the CDC’s talk test. At a moderate pace you “can talk, but not sing”. At a vigorous pace you “cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath”. What counts as exercise?

The curve

In 2015, researchers pooled six big studies from the US and Europe in the US National Cancer Institute’s Cohort Consortium, 661,137 adults with a median age of 62, and followed them for a median of 14.2 years. By the end, 116,686 had died. Then they lined people up by how much leisure exercise they did, counted in multiples of the guideline’s minimum, and compared each group with people who did none.

Lower risk of death than people who did no leisure exercise, by multiples of the 150-minute minimum. Arem and colleagues, JAMA Internal Medicine, 2015. The dashed stretch has no published point between 5 and 10 times.

Look at where the curve is steep. Going from nothing to something under the minimum went with a 20% drop. Reaching 1 to 2 times the minimum added another 11 points, to 31%. After that each step got smaller: 37% at 2 to 3 times, then 39% at 3 to 5 times, which the researchers called the upper threshold of benefit. That’s 7.5 to 12.5 hours of brisk activity a week. The same shape showed up for deaths from heart disease and from cancer.

The authors summed it up this way. Meeting the minimum “was associated with nearly the maximum longevity benefit”, and doctors “do not need to discourage adults who already participate in high-activity levels.”

A picture from daily life

Think about studying for your driving test. The first hour with the handbook takes you from guessing to passing. The second hour fixes the questions you still miss. By the tenth hour you’re memorizing the fine print, and your score barely moves, though the extra study doesn’t make you a worse driver.

Exercise has the same shape. The first hour a week is the one that changes the most, and it’s also the hour most people skip because it doesn’t feel like enough.

How much more do you get past 150?

The researchers put nearly the most benefit at 150 to 300 hard minutes a week, 300 to 600 brisk ones, or a mix. In plain hours, that’s about 5 to 10 hours of walking, or 2.5 to 5 hours of running.

Where does strength fit?

The minutes above are only the cardio half. In a 2022 review of 16 studies, people who did both cardio and strength work had 40% lower risk of death than people who did neither. In a 2026 Harvard study of 147,374 US health professionals, the lowest risk went with plenty of both, and lifting on its own did less than walking did on its own. Two short sessions are enough to start. Why lift if you already walk? The lifting dose itself, and the tests, are on strength.guide.

Does everyone need the same amount?

• Adults 65 and up have the same targets plus balance work, and the guideline says to judge effort “relative to their level of fitness”, so hard means hard for you. How much exercise do seniors need?
• Teens 6 to 17 need 60 minutes or more a day, with hard activity and muscle and bone work on 3 days. How much exercise does a teenager need?
• During pregnancy and after birth the guideline asks for at least 150 brisk minutes a week, under the care of a health care provider. Can I exercise while pregnant?
• With a chronic condition the targets are the same for adults who are able, and when you can’t reach 150, be as active as your abilities and conditions allow. Who should check with a doctor first?

Is there such a thing as too much?

These studies found no point where more exercise raised the risk of death. 10 times the minimum is about 25 hours of brisk activity a week, and that group still had 31% lower risk of death than people who did nothing, with “no evidence of harm”. People who do years of endurance sport have a separate question about heart rhythm, which the myth page covers. Too much exercise wears out your heart.

What these studies can’t tell you

Everyone in them chose how much to exercise and reported it themselves, and people who exercise a lot tend to differ in other ways too, from income to diet to how sick they were to begin with. The researchers adjusted for what they could measure. The trials that assign people to exercise are much shorter, so the long-term numbers come from studies like these. None of them gives you a personal risk, and none says how many years you’d gain. Years of life are lifespan.guide’s subject.