You are trying to exercise as much as you can, however, you are wondering: “Am I doing enough?” The answer to this question depends on whether you are exercising to lose weight, increase endurance, stay healthy, stay physically active or reduce stress. Before responding to the question about how much exercise you need and if you are you doing enough, you need to know what your fitness goals are?
How Much Exercise is Enough? Enough for What?
If you want to stay healthy and active, a daily walk might be sufficient. On the other hand, if you have more specific goals such as to improve cardiovascular fitness, lower blood pressure or lose weight, you need to either exercise more or practice high-intensity interval training.
Figuring out your goals is the key to achieving them, right? Sometimes we have unspecific goals, and we don’t know what we are chasing in life. Once you determine your goals, you should identify the type of exercise and how much of exercise you need. The answer to this question depends on where you are right now and where you want to be, therefore talking to an expert could be helpful.
No matter what your goals are, we all need two types of physical activity in our life. Can you guess what they are? Muscle-strengthening activity and aerobic exercise! With aerobic, you will use large muscles of your body and increase respiration and heart rate. Aerobic activity includes running, cycling, brisk walking or swimming.
On the other hand, muscle-strengthening activities target one or more particular muscle groups: hips, legs, abdomen, shoulders, back, chest or arms. Simple forms of muscle-strengthening activities are working out with resistance bands, lifting weights or doing pushups.
How Much Exercise is Enough for a Healthy Adult?
Let’s ignore specific goals for a minute and answer the question about how much do we really need to exercise on average. A healthy adult needs 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on a weekly basis or 75 minutes of activity that’s vigorous in intensity. Of course, more is always better.
Moreover, it’s better to stay physically active throughout the week, rather than choosing one day and exercising for two hours (less or more).
Keep in mind that diet is crucial for your overall health, however dieting alone is not enough to stay healthy and lose weight. As always a combination of diet and exercise is best.
