Physical activity guidelines for adults

How much physical activity do adults aged 19-64 years old need to do to stay healthy?

To stay healthy or improve health, adults need to do two types of physical activity each week: aerobic and strength exercises.

How much physical activity you need to do each week depends on your age. Click on the links below for the recommendations for other age groups:

• Early childhood (under 5 years old)
• Young people (5 to 18 years old)
• Older adults (65 and over)

To stay healthy, adults aged 19-64 should try to be active daily and should do:

• at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity such as cycling or brisk walking every week, and
• strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms)

• 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, such as running or a game of singles tennis every week, and
• strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms)

• A mix of moderate and vigorous aerobic activity every week. For example, two 30-minute runs plus 30 minutes of brisk walking equates to 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, and
• strength exercises on two or more days a week that work all the major muscles (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms)

A good rule is that one minute of vigorous activity provides the same health benefits as two minutes of moderate activity.

One way to do your recommended 150 minutes of weekly physical activity is to do 30 minutes on five days every week.

All adults should also break up long periods of sitting with light activity. Find out why sitting is bad for your health.

What counts as moderate aerobic activity?

Examples of activities that require moderate effort for most people include:

• brisk walking
• water aerobics
• riding a bike on level ground or with few hills
• doubles tennis
• pushing a lawn mower
• hiking
• skateboarding
• rollerblading
• volleyball
• basketball

Try the aerobic workout videos in the NHS Fitness Studio.

Moderate activity will raise your heart rate, and make you breathe faster and feel warmer. One way to tell if you're working at a moderate level is if you can still talk, but you can't sing the words to a song.

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What counts as vigorous activity?

There is good evidence that vigorous activity can bring health benefits over and above that of moderate activity.

Examples of activities that require vigorous effort for most people include:

• jogging or running
• swimming fast
• riding a bike fast or on hills
• singles tennis
• football
• rugby
• skipping rope
• hockey
• aerobics
• gymnastics
• martial arts

Try the aerobic workout videos in the NHS Fitness Studio.

Vigorous activity makes you breathe hard and fast. If you're working at this level, you won't be able to say more than a few words without pausing for breath.

In general, 75 minutes of vigorous activity can give similar health benefits to 150 minutes of moderate activity.

For a moderate to vigorous workout, try Couch to 5K, a nine-week running plan for beginners.

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What activities strengthen muscles?

Muscle strength is necessary for:

• all daily movement
• to build and maintain strong bones
• to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure
• to help maintain a healthy weight

Muscle-strengthening exercises are counted in repetitions and sets. A repetition is one complete movement of an activity, like a bicep curl or a sit-up. A set is a group of repetitions.

For each strength exercise, try to do:

• at least one set
• 8 to 12 repetitions in each set

To get health benefits from strength exercises, you should do them to the point where you struggle to complete another repetition.

There are many ways you can strengthen your muscles, whether it's at home or in the gym. Examples of muscle-strengthening activities for most people include:

• lifting weights
• working with resistance bands
• doing exercises that use your own body weight, such as push-ups and sit-ups
• heavy gardening, such as digging and shovelling
• yoga

Try the strength workout videos in the NHS Fitness Studio.

Try Strength and Flex, a five-week exercise plan for beginners to improve your strength and flexibility.

You can do activities that strengthen your muscles on the same day or on different days as your aerobic activity – whatever's best for you.

Muscle-strengthening exercises are not an aerobic activity, so you'll need to do them in addition to your 150 minutes of aerobic activity.

Some vigorous activities count as both an aerobic activity and a muscle-strengthening activity.

Examples include:

• circuit training
• aerobics
• running
• football
• rugby
• netball
• hockey

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Download a factsheet on physical activity guidelines for adults (19-64 years) (PDF, 568kb).

For a summary on the health benefits of being more active, check out this Department of Health infographic (PDF, 500kb).