Guidelines for healthy adults under age 65

Guidelines for adults over age 65, or age 50-64 with chronic conditions


The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have updated physical activity guidelines. These guidelines outline exercise recommendations for healthy adults and older adults and are an update from the 1995 guidelines. Choose your category below, and find recommendations, research and tips from ACSM and AHA. Together, we are proud to serve as a public resource to help people live healthier, more active lives.

Read the healthy adults manuscript Read the older adults manuscript


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Guidelines for healthy adults under age 65

Basic recommendations from ACSM and AHA:

Do moderately intense cardio 30 minutes a day, five days a week
Or
Do vigorously intense cardio 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week
And
Do eight to 10 strength-training exercises, eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise twice a week.

Moderate-intensity physical activity means working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat, yet still being able to carry on a conversation. It should be noted that to lose weight or maintain weight loss, 60 to 90 minutes of physical activity may be necessary. The 30-minute recommendation is for the average healthy adult to maintain health and reduce the risk for chronic disease.

Use the links below to learn more about the guidelines and to make physical activity a regular part of your life.

Tips for meeting the guidelines

Starting an exercise program

Improvements from the 1995 recommendation

Frequently Asked Questions

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Tips for meeting the guidelines

With busy work schedules, family obligations, and packed weekends, it can often be difficult to get the recommended amount of physical activity. Try these tips for incorporating exercise into your life:
* Do it in short bouts. Research shows that moderate-intensity physical activity can be accumulated throughout the day in 10-minute bouts, which can be just as effective as exercising for 30 minutes straight. This can be useful when trying to fit physical activity into a busy schedule.


* Mix it up. Combinations of moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity can be used to meet the guidelines. For example, you can walk briskly for 30 minutes twice per week and jog at a higher intensity on two other days.


* Set your schedule. Maybe it’s easier for you to walk during your lunch hour, or perhaps hitting the pavement right after dinner is best for you. The key is to set aside specific days and times for exercise, making it just as much a regular part of your schedule as everything else.


* The gym isn’t a necessity. It doesn’t take an expensive gym membership to get the daily recommended amount of physical activity. A pair of athletic shoes and a little motivation are all you need to live a more active, healthier life.



* Make it a family affair. Take your spouse, your children, or a friend with you during exercise to add some fun to your routine. This is also a good way to encourage your kids to be physically active and get them committed early to a lifetime of health.




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Starting an exercise program

Starting an exercise program can sound like a daunting task, but just remember that your main goal is to boost your health by meeting the basic physical activity recommendations: 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity at least five days per week, or vigorous-intensity activity at least three days per week, and strength training at least twice per week.

Choose activities you enjoy, such as swimming, biking, or playing basketball with friends to get your daily physical activity. If you need variety of activities to stay motivated, combine a few that appeal to you.

Physical activity can be accumulated through a variety of activities, not just running. Walking is a great way to do moderate-intensity physical activity. This issue of ACSM’s Fit Society Page® Newsletter contains an article on walking for health, as well as other features on getting active.

These Current Comments and brochures may also be helpful in designing your own activity program, gathering ideas for ways to accumulate physical activity, or learning about exercise and health:

Exercise While Traveling
Women’s Heart Health and a Physically Active Lifestyle
Energy Expenditure in Different Modes of Exercise
Exercise and Age-Related Weight Gain

From the “Selecting and Effectively Using” brochure series:
Heart Rate Monitors
Pedometers
Rubber Band Resistance Exercise
Health/Fitness Facilities
Home Treadmills
Stability Balls
Free Weights
Home Weights
Elliptical Trainers
Personal Trainers
Stair Steppers/Climbers
Stationary Bicycles

Click here to view ACSM’s news and publications page, with links to all Current Comments and brochures.

ACSM produces the Fit Society Page® Newsletter for the public on a quarterly basis. Each issue contains helpful articles on health and fitness. To view the latest issues, click here.
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Improvements from the 1995 recommendation

Although the 2007 recommendations are similar to the 1995 recommendations at the core, eight improvements have been made:

1. Moderate-intensity physical activity has been clarified.
The 1995 document simply specified “most, preferably all days per week” as the recommended frequency while the new recommendation identifies five days per week as the recommended minimum.

2. Vigorous-intensity physical activity has been explicitly incorporated into the recommendation.
To acknowledge both the preferences of some adults for vigorous-intensity physical activity and the substantial science base related to participation in such activity, the recommendation has been clarified to encourage participation in either moderate- and/or vigorous-intensity physical activity. Vigorous-intensity physical activity was implicit in the 1995 recommendation. It is now explicitly an integral part of the physical activity recommendation.

3. Specified: Moderate- and vigorous-intensity activities are complementary in the production of health benefits and that a variety of activities can be combined to meet the recommendation.
This combining of activities is based on the amount (intensity x duration) of activity performed during the week and uses the concept of METs (metabolic equivalents) to assign an intensity value to a specific activity.

4. Specified: Aerobic activity needed is in addition to routine activities of daily life.
The updated recommendation now clearly states that the recommended amount of aerobic activity (whether of moderate- or vigorous-intensity) is in addition to routine activities of daily living which are of light intensity, such as self care, casual walking or grocery shopping, or less than 10 minutes of duration such as walking to the parking lot or taking out the trash. Few activities in contemporary life are conducted routinely at a moderate intensity for at least 10 minutes in duration. However, moderate- or vigorous-intensity activities performed as a part of daily life (e.g., brisk walking to work, gardening with shovel, carpentry) performed in bouts of 10 minutes or more can be counted towards the recommendation. Although implied, this concept was not effectively communicated in the original recommendation.

5. “More is better.”
The new recommendation emphasizes the important fact that physical activity above the recommended minimum amount provides even greater health benefits. The point of maximum benefit for most health benefits has not been established but likely varies with genetic endowment, age, sex, health status, body composition and other factors. Exceeding the minimum recommendation further reduces the risk of inactivity-related chronic disease. Although the dose-response relation was acknowledged in the 1995 recommendation, this fact is now explicit.

6. Short bouts of exercise.
Although the original recommendation introduced the concept of accumulating short bouts of physical activity toward the 30-minute goal, there was confusion regarding how short these episodes could be. For consistency and clarity, the minimum length of these short bouts is clarified as being 10 minutes.

7. Muscle-strengthening recommendation now included.
Muscle-strengthening activities have now been incorporated into the physical activity recommendation. Although the 1995 recommendation mentioned the importance of muscular strength and endurance, it stopped short of making specific declarations in this area. Available evidence now allows the integration of muscle strengthening activities into the core recommendation.

8. Clarification in wording.
Minor wording changes in the recommendation have been made to enhance clarity in communications. For example, the term “aerobic,” or endurance, has been added to clarify the type of physical activity being recommended and to differentiate it from muscle-strengthening exercises, which are now part of the core recommendation.