How much physical activity is enough?

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Being active will help you to stay healthy, live longer and improve your quality of life.

Here are some guidelines for healthy adults from the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines (for older adults, children, and youth, please read the FAQ: "How can Canada's Physical Activity Guides help me improve my health?")

The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines recommends that you get at least 150 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, in bouts of 10 minutes or more.

Very Light Effort	Light Effort 60 minutes	Moderate Effort 30-60 minutes	Vigorous Effort 20-30 minutes	Maximum Effort
Strolling Dusting	Light walking Volleyball Easy gardening Stretching	Brisk walking Biking Raking leaves Swimming Dancing Water aerobics	Aerobics Jogging Hockey Basketball Fast swimming Fast dancing	Sprinting Racing
How does it feel? How warm am I? What is my breathing like?
No change from resting state Normal breathing	Starting to feel warm Slight increase in breathing rate	Warmer Greater increase in breathing rate	Quite warm More out of breath	Very hot/perspiring heavily Completely out of breath
Range needed to stay healthy
Less than is required	Where you want to be			More than is required

Start slowly, and build up your activities. Aim for at least 10 minutes of activity each time. Try to fit in different types of activities as well. The Physical Activity Guide breaks activities down into three groups:

Endurance (4 - 7 days per week)
Endurance activities increase your heart rate and breathing rate. These activities help your heart, lungs and circulatory system stay healthy and give you more energy. Endurance activities range from walking and household chores (such as vacuuming or shovelling snow), to dancing, aerobic exercise classes and sports.

Flexibility (4 - 7 days per week)
Flexibility activities help to keep your muscles and joints moving well and help to relax tense muscles. Good flexibility is essential to prevent injuries such as lower back problems. Flexibility activities include gentle reaching, bending and stretching of all your muscle groups.

Strength (2 - 4 days per week)
Strength training exercises help to increase and maintain muscle mass. These exercises also help your bones to stay strong. This strength is especially important for good posture and preventing diseases such as osteoporosis. Strength activities make you work your muscles against some kind of resistance — for example, when you lift groceries or other weights, do aquacize or paddle a canoe (working against water resistance).

Production of this material has been made possible through a financial contribution from the Public Health Agency of Canada.