The guide

What counts as exercise?

By GyroscopeUpdated November 14, 20267 sources

Anything that gets you breathing harder counts toward the 150 minutes, as long as you can talk but not sing, or you’re walking at about 100 steps a minute. A fast flight of stairs counts, however short. A slow stroll still helps your health, it just doesn’t add to the 150.

People get this wrong in both directions. Some think only a proper workout counts, in gym clothes, for at least half an hour, so the brisk walk to the train and the hour of digging in the yard go uncounted. Others count a slow lap of the mall as their exercise for the day. The test that sorts it out takes about five seconds, and you can do it mid-walk.

How do you know if it’s brisk enough?

The CDC gives you the talk test. At a moderate pace you “can talk, but not sing, during the activity”. At a vigorous pace you “cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath”. It works for any activity, on any day, without a watch.

For walking there’s a number too. In 2019, a team led by Catrine Tudor-Locke put 76 adults aged 21 to 40 on a treadmill, starting at half a mile an hour and speeding up every five minutes while the researchers counted every step by hand and measured the oxygen each person used. At 100 steps a minute, people were at moderate effort (3 METs) 91.4% of the time. At 130 steps a minute, they were at vigorous effort 70.7% of the time.

You can check yours in 15 seconds. Count your steps while you walk, then multiply by 4. Or use Is my walk brisk enough?, which counts your taps and plays a 100-step beat to walk to. Those thresholds were set in adults 21 to 40, so for older adults the talk test is the better guide.

A picture from daily life

Think of charging your phone. A weak old USB port trickles a little charge in, and that’s better than nothing. The fast charger is the one that gets you to full by lunchtime.

A slow stroll is the trickle. It still helps, and the guideline says some activity is better than none. Brisk walking is the fast charger, and it’s the one the 150 minutes are counted in.

What counts as moderate, and what counts as vigorous?

These are the CDC’s own examples.

The rule underneath the list is how hard your body works, whatever you’re doing and wherever you are. Shoveling snow is vigorous exercise by this table, and a gentle bike ride to the store is moderate.

Does it count if it’s only a few minutes?

Yes, since 2018. The first US guideline counted only bouts of 10 minutes or more. The second edition removed that requirement “to encourage Americans to move more frequently throughout the day”, and the government’s own summary says Americans “can benefit from small amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout the day.”

The newest evidence goes further than that. In 2022, researchers looked at 25,241 adults in the UK Biobank, mean age 62, who said they did no exercise at all, and gave them wrist trackers for a week. Many still had short bursts of hard effort in their day, like a fast climb up the stairs or a hurried walk to catch a bus. The median was 4.4 minutes a day. Over about 7 years, people with that much had 26% to 30% lower risk of death than people with none, and three bursts of 1 to 2 minutes a day went with 38% to 40% lower risk.

There’s a small trial behind the stairs too. Sedentary young adults who climbed a 60-step stairwell hard, three times a day, three days a week for six weeks, raised their fitness against a group that didn’t, though “the absolute increase was modest”. What are exercise snacks?

Does housework count?

When it gets you breathing harder, yes. General yard work and home repair are on the CDC’s moderate list, and digging or shoveling with your heart rate up is on the vigorous one. Pushing a vacuum at a gentle pace is light activity, which still helps, and doesn’t count toward the 150.

Do strength and balance count toward the 150?

They count, just toward their own halves of the week. The guideline asks for muscle-strengthening work on 2 or more days, at moderate or greater effort, for all the major muscle groups. Lifting weights, resistance bands and push-ups all qualify. Balance work, like walking heel to toe, is added for adults 65 and up. A hard circuit can leave you breathing like a run, but the guideline counts the cardio minutes and the strength days separately, and so does Your week.

Do slow steps count?

For your step count, every step counts. In a study of 47,471 adults in 15 groups around the world, the speed people walked at mattered little once their total steps were counted. So a slow day of errands still moves you along the steps curve. It only falls short on the 150 minutes, which are counted at brisk effort. How many steps do you need?

Shouldn’t only real workouts count?