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How Much Exercise is Enough?

How to Determine How Much Exercise is Enough for You

Setting Your Exercise Goals

Exercise: How Much is Enough?

I’ve written an article about how you can dramatically improve health and mobility even into your eighties with a minimal strength training program. That raises the question of how much exercise is enough.

There is no simple answer. Perhaps a better question would be “How much exercise is enough to ….?

If you’re specific about your exercise goals, the answers are pretty clear.

How Much Exercise is Enough to Burn Calories

Any exercise you do, every move you make – from fidgeting to rolling over in your sleep – burns calories. The more calories you want to burn, the more you must move.

Further, you can boost your calorie burn for each minute of exercise by building muscle mass.

Think of your body as a car which burns gas. Your fat cells are the car’s gas tank. Fill the gas tank with gasoline (stored fat) and it just sits there until the car requires fuel.

More muscle gives your car more horsepower and, as you know, muscle cars burn more fuel.

To carry the analogy one step further, the fat in your body does not burn calories. Like gas in the gas tank, it just sits there waiting to be burned.

The only sense in which it makes you burn calories is that a heavier car requires more fuel to lug the heavier load. When you overload your car, you can't wait to get home and unload because of the strain the load is placing on the engine, the shocks, the transmission ... Think about it.

To burn more calories, move more and build more muscle.

How Much Exercise is Enough for Heart Health?

First, you need to work hard enough to get your heart into the aerobic range. Strength training is anaerobic; it doesn’t require much oxygen.

When you start moving and breathing more rapidly, your heart pumps faster to get the oxygen into the bloodstream and to the muscles.

Experts say you ought to exercise aerobically at least three times a week for 20 minutes straight. Four to six times is better.

Aim to work consistently in the 4-6 range on the Scale of Perceived Exertion (SPE). You should be moving vigorously and feel like you’re exerting yourself but still be able to carry on a simple conversation.

If 20 minutes on the treadmill bores you to tears, you can also get a good aerobic workout running, biking, swimming or taking an aerobics class.

Or you might want to try interval training. Work in the 8-9 SPE range for 3-4 minutes, then slow down to 3-4 SPE for 3 minutes. Repeat three times.

Interval training is more stressful for your heart than working 20 minutes in the 4-6 SPE range, so be sure to check with your doctor before beginning a program of interval training, especially if you’re over 45, overweight or have any heart problems.

The second part of the answer is that you can benefit your heart even more by extending your aerobic workouts to 30 minutes or more and putting in at least two hours a week.

Such extended aerobic workouts boost HDL. According to a recent compilation of studies involving over 1,400 subjects, the gains in HDL cholesterol levels translate to a 5% drop in men’s heart disease risk and more than a 7% drop in women’s heart disease risk.

To strengthen your heart, exercise aerobically at least three times a week for 20 minutes straight. To lower your cholesterol, up your aerobic sessions to at least 30 minutes four times a week.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to be taken as medical advice.

 

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