Only 17% of the population meets the physical activity guidelines for significantly improving individual health outcomes. Let’s work on fixing that. In this post I am going to explain what those guidelines are and share a plan for meeting the guidelines in the least amount of time.
Physical Activity Guidelines
The World Health Organization has a set of physical activity guidelines to improve individual health outcomes significantly. And to reach that threshold, you don’t need to do a ton.
I will share the minimum effective dose you can do and a plan for what it could look like.
You are looking at the following:
- 2 Resistance Training workouts a week (full body)
- 500 MET minutes.
(A MET is a fancy unit for oxygen consumed)
500 Mets could be 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity -or- 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity -or- a combo of the two.
They define moderate intensity as a brisk walk.
And vigorous intensity as something like a vigorous effort of cycling.
So think intervals/HIIT on the bike/rower/ski erg, etc.
Don’t worry; I did the fancy math and conversions to hit our 500 METs with a combo of the two.
Sample Plan
Our weekly simple, minimum effective dose plan to be part of the 17% who meet the guidelines:
- 2 full body resistance training sessions
- 15 minutes of high-intensity intervals
- 105 minutes of brisk walking
You can execute this weekly allotment of exercise however you would like; I would do it like this:
- Pick two days a week with at least two days in between, ex. Monday & Thursday. Do a full-body resistance training workout followed by an 8-minute interval finisher on those days.
- Go for a brisk 15-minute walk daily.
Do this consistently. Weekly, monthly, yearly.
That’s it!
Sample Workout
Here is a sample training session you could alternate between for your twice-a-week workouts:
Perform 3 sets of 6-12 reps for each exercise with 2-3 minutes of rest between sets.
- DB Bench Press or Overhead Press
- Cable Pulldown or Row
- Leg Extension or Squat Variation
- Leg Curl or Deadlift Variation
- Bike or Rower: 15s hard: 45s easy x 8
There you have it!
Summary
You can SIGNIFICANTLY improve your health outcomes by reaching the physical activity guidelines set by the World Health Organization.
You can do so with:
- A daily brisk 15-minute walk
- Doing 2 workouts a week consisting of:
- 30-40 minutes of full-body resistance training
- 8-minute high-intensity finisher
Dedicated to Your Success,
Gary
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