For anyone interested in the relationship between exercise and a longer life, one of the biggest concerns is how much exercise do we really need to stay healthy?
Is 30 minutes a day enough? Can we get by with less? Do we have to do the whole exercise in one session, or can we spread it out throughout the day? And when we talk regarding exercise, does it have to be difficult to count?
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In search of the ideal “dose”
For years, exercise scientists have tried to quantify the ideal “dose” of exercise for most people.
They finally reached broad consensus in 2008 with the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which were updated in 2018 following an extensive review of the available science on movement, sedentary lifestyle, and health. In both versions, the guidelines advised anyone physically able to rack up 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week, and half as much if it’s intense.
But what is the best way to space out those weekly minutes? And what does “moderate” mean? Here’s what some of the top exercise science researchers are saying regarding step counting, stairs, weekend warriors, increased longevity, and why the healthiest step we can take is the one that makes us lift of the armchair.
Couple doing physical exercise 
The sweet spot of 150 minutes
“For longevity, 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity is clearly sufficient,” says Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, who has studied movement extensively. and health and has helped write the current US guidelines for physical activity.
For practical purposes, exercise scientists typically recommend dividing that 150 minutes into 30-minute bouts of brisk walking or a similar activity five times a week.
“Numerous, well-conducted, large-scale epidemiological studies show that 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity on most days reduces the risk of premature death and many diseases, including stroke, heart attack, type 2 diabetes, and many types of diabetes.” of cancer,” says Ulf Ekelund, a professor specializing in the epidemiology of physical activity at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences in Oslo, who led many of these studies.
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Moderate exercise, he continued, means “activities that increase your breathing and heart rate so that exertion feels like a five or six on a scale of one to ten.” In other words, pick up the pace a bit if you’re inclined to stroll, but don’t feel compelled to run.
Think regarding the segments of the exercise
You can also break the exercise into even smaller segments. “It doesn’t matter if the exercise is done in one long, continuous 30-minute session or spread out throughout the day in shorter sessions,” says Emmanuel Stamatakis, an exercise scientist at the University of Sydney, Australia, who studies physical activity and health.
Recent studies overwhelmingly show that we can stack our weekly 150 minutes of moderate exercise in any way that suits us.
A man ready to play basketball 
“Many people may find it easier and more sustainable to include a few dozen one- or two-minute walks between work tasks” or other commitments. “There’s no special magic in a sustained 30-minute session of exercise” when it comes to most health benefits.
Stamatakis proposes to think of those short workouts as exercise bites. “Activities like brisk bursts of walking, climbing stairs, and carrying grocery bags provide great opportunities for movement snacks.”
To reap the health benefits of these bits of physical activity, he added, you have to keep the intensity relatively high, so that you feel somewhat drained.
A couple ride a bike 
The weekend warriors
You may also be able to squeeze all your exercise into long Saturday and Sunday workouts. In a 2017 study by Stamatakis and his colleagues, people who reported exercising almost entirely on weekends were less likely to die prematurely than those who said they rarely exercised.
But being a weekend warrior has drawbacks. “It’s certainly not ideal to go through the work week totally sedentary and then try to compensate,” he said.
Many of the health benefits of regular exercise, such as better blood sugar control and improved mood, are lost on days you don’t exercise, he explained. It also increases the risk of exercise-related injuries.
Senior man running 
count your steps
Exercise recommendations remain the same if exercise is measured in steps instead of minutes. For most people, “150 minutes of exercise a week would translate to regarding 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day,” says Lee.
In a new large-scale study by Lee and Ekelund on the relationship between steps and longevity, published in March in The Lancet, the optimal step count for people under 60 was between 8,000 and 10,000 a day, and for those over 60, between 6,000 and 8,000 a day.
consider doing more
Of course, these step and minute recommendations focus on health and lifespan, not physical performance. “If you want to run a marathon or a 10K as fast as possible, you need a lot more exercise,” Ekelund said.
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The recommended 150 minutes per week may also be too little to prevent weight gain with age. In a 2010 study of nearly 35,000 women led by Lee, only those who walked or did some other moderate exercise for an hour a day during middle age maintained their weight as they aged.
So if you have the time and desire, move more than 30 minutes a day, Lee and the other scientists suggest. In general, according to his research and other studies, the more active we are, beyond 30 minutes a day, the more our risks of chronic disease decrease and the longer we live.
But any activity is better than none. “Every minute counts,” says Ekelund. “Going up the stairs has health benefits, even if it only lasts a minute or two, if repeated regularly.”
