10.4 Physical Activity Guidelines: Recommendations for Cardiorespiratory Endurance

The Physical Activity guidelines recommend that all healthy adults ages 18-64 engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week (Garber et al., 2011; 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, 2018). Ideally, this activity should be spread across three to five days. For example, 30 minutes five days a week, or 50 minutes three days a week, meets the recommendation. In 2020, the World Health Organization released updated guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior (Bull, et al., 2020). These guidelines suggested children and adolescents should have an average of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day and also modified the adult recommendations to ranges of 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75-150 minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity per week. These guidelines also state the benefits of replacing sedentary time with any level of physical activity, including light intensity.

Because vigorous-intensity activities make the cardiorespiratory system work harder, they provide similar health benefits as moderate-intensity activities in less time. In general, 15 minutes of vigorous activity provides the same benefits as 30 minutes of moderate activity. Thus, 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week would meet the 150-minute moderate activity recommendation. This could be achieved through 25 minutes three days a week, 15 minutes five days a week, or in some other combination.

The recommendations can be met by doing all moderate activities, all vigorous activities, or some of each. Short bursts of moderate- or vigorous-intensity activities count toward the recommendation.