The world’s eminent health organizations (World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and American Heart Association) are all aligned in what they recommend as the physical activity baseline to live long and functional lives. 150-300 minutes of cardio and 2 strength training workouts each week.
Stamina
To be more precise, 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio per week or 75-150 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise. To discern whether you’re doing moderate or vigorous intensity, apply the talk test. 5 minutes into the workout, can you talk in full sentences without gasping for air? If yes then the intensity is moderate. If no then intensity is vigorous.
Examples of moderate-intensity cardio could be a brisk walk, a slow jog, and casual bike ride or swim. You sustain a elevated heart rate though the activity isn’t overly demanding. You’re somewhat comfortable doing it.
Examples of vigorous-intensity includes doing fast runs, cycling, or swimming, sprints, and high intensity interval training (HIIT). You go hard and it’s tough. Heart rate spikes and you either do intervals of max/near-max intensity with recovery between bouts, or maintain steady states at hard paces.
Beginners are recommended to start with moderate-intensity first and build the foundational capacity of strong hearts and ligaments. Then implement vigorous-intensity workouts a few weeks-months into training.
Each minute spent doing vigorous-intensity exercise burns the same amount of calories as two minutes of moderate-intensity. So have the quota for 150-300 minutes/week as your stamina quota and count each moderate minute as one and each vigorous minute as two.
However, once you start applying vigorous-intensity cardio workouts, stamina adaptation accrues at a faster rate. Then you gain increased race-pace, higher VO2 max (how much oxygen your body can effectively use), and stroke volume (your heart pumps more blood per beat). Though vigorous-intensity also comes with greater recovery time. It takes longer for your body to heal fully as the adaptations go deeper.
Strength Training
To maintain muscle integrity and function, especially as we age, two strength training sessions are recommended with each workout targeting all major muscle groups. The major muscle groups include the front and back legs, the core, the arms, the chest, the shoulders, and the back. Doing so will preserve functional dignity so you can continue enjoying your favorite physical activities even into your final decades.
So for each workout to develop all the aforementioned muscle groups, one exercise for each muscle group done for 1-2 tough sets is sufficient to preserve existing muscle mass. An example workout would be squats, deadlifts, shoulder press, chest press, rows, and sit-ups.
Doing 1-2 sets of each (6-12 reps/set) would roughly take 20-30 minutes, so two 20-30 minute strength workouts a week is sufficient for maintenance and modest growth.
Stretching (optional though still important)
The leading health authorities omit stretching because it isn’t implicitly tied to mortality, though I would still include stretching as a necessary component of a high quality life. Where strength and cardio are concerned with lifespan, i.e., how long you live, stretching contributes to healthspan, i.e., how well you live in good health.
Modern life consists of a lot of sitting for either office work or travel, as well as being hunched over screens. This degrades muscular balance and leads to tight, immobile areas, especially in the low back, shoulders, neck, and hips. Stretching actively opens these areas up to restore balance and move with grace.
Aim to accumulate 60s of total stretch time per major muscle group, holding each static stretch position for a minimum 10-15s for maintaining flexibility, and 30s plus for improving flexibility. Age causes stiffness and slower adaptation so older adults should stretch even longer; 30-60s plus per position.
This adds up to 10-20 minute stretch sessions 2-3x/week as the minimum amount of dedicated stretch time to maintain your current level of flexibility. Do more for even greater results.
Yoga is an additional discipline you may endeavor in which adds in mobility, mindfulness, muscular endurance, and a spiritual component alongside improving flexibility.
Adding it All Up
Taking the low ends of each of the recommended disciplines and we get 150 minutes of cardio, two 20 minute strength workouts, and two 10 minute stretch sessions as the absolute minimum I would be comfortable recommending to mitigate risk of sedentary illness and live a life with functional capacity.
Here is an example schedule of what this training program would look like:
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
| 50 minute brisk walk | 20 minute strength workout + 10 minutes stretching | 50 minute brisk walk | 20 minute strength workout + 10 minutes stretching | 50 minute brisk walk |
This may feel daunting to some but it’s quite manageable. An hour is 4.17% of your day so this amount of work is a fair trade for a healthy, happy, and functional body. Start with 5-10 minutes a day and build up to this program. You can choose what kind of cardio and strength exercises you would like to do, and as long as you go hard, you’re good. This program will give you a long life.
Once you achieve this program consistently for a month or two, you may choose to stay here if your fitness goals are for simple maintenance, or up the challenge to supercharge your improvement. Depends on what your goals are.