Most of us are familiar with goals like “walking 10,000 steps a day,” or “strength training three times a week,” but these big, arbitrary numbers can feel overwhelming. Between work demands, family life, and errands, carving out time to prioritize your fitness is hard. Not to mention the additional challenge if your body is carrying extra weight, you’re dealing with pain, or you’re just trying to feel good again rather than chase new records.
So here’s the question: How much do we really need to move each week to improve our health?
The good news is you don’t need a perfect routine or hour-long gym sessions to make improvements in your health. Research and real-life experience shows that small, consistent movements over time that hit a few key areas — cardio, strength and mobility — add up. These small habits can significantly improve your heart health, bone strength, mood and overall quality of life.
This is about getting strong enough to carry groceries without struggling, reduce aches and pains, boost your energy and mood, as well as protect your independence as you age. So let’s break down what your body actually needs to stay strong and mobile and how to accomplish it with a doable, sustainable weekly routine.
How Much We Need to Move Each Week
You don’t have to hit every category perfectly every week, but here’s a balanced, beginner-friendly guideline to aim for:
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Cardio: 150 minutes/week of moderate movement
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Strength: 2-3 workouts/week
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Mobility/Stretch: 5–10 minutes/day
Cardiovascular Guidelines: Keep Your Heart Happy
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GOAL: At least 150 minutes per week of moderate movement.
Moderate movement means your heart is beating a bit faster and you’re breathing harder than at rest, but you can still talk. (Think: brisk walking, swimming, dancing, bike rides, water aerobics). You will also see more benefits once you can increase the time to 300 minutes per week.
Cardio exercise strengthens your heart and lungs, lowers the risk of heart disease and diabetes and helps with weight control. Plus, it’s beneficial for our mental health, as it boosts mood.
According to the American Heart Association, you can split up your 150 minutes into aerobic activity and vigorous aerobic activity, preferably spread throughout the week.
Examples of Moderate-Intensity Exercise
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Tennis (doubles = more rest)
Examples of Vigorous-Intensity Exercise
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A hilly hike or with a backpack
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Tennis (singles = more work)
Cardio Workout Schedule
Here are some ideas of how to break down your cardio workouts to hit the goal of 150 minutes a week:
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30 minutes/5 days: Take all the guesswork out of which workout to do with this 31-Day Cardio Workout Plan, which sends you daily workout to your phone each day.
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20 minutes/7 days: Even a 10-minute brisk walk after lunch or before dinner counts! Pop on one of our walking podcasts in the Start TODAY app and 20 minutes will fly by!
If you want more intensity and to improve your fitness level versus simply maintaining it, add 1-2 days of higher-effort bursts (like fast intervals or hills). This is optional, but it will give you more bang for your buck! Give it a try with this 20-Minute Guided HIIT Walk for Beginners.
Strength Guidelines: Protect Your Joints and Bones
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GOAL: 2-3 strength sessions per week.
Strength training isn’t just about aesthetics, it helps you build and maintain muscle mass, which is important since after the age of 30 we lose 3-8% of our muscle each decade of our lives — and it only gets harder to build! Strength training also supports joints, builds bone density, improves balance, and preserves our independence as we age.
Muscle naturally declines with each decade, but strength training slows the decline. Strong muscles mean better posture and less aches and pains. Daily movements like standing up, lifting bags and climbing stairs become easier, and this makes for a better quality of life and more independence in the long term.
The best part? Strength training doesn’t require a gym, a lot of time or fancy equipment. Some accessible exercises you can do at home to build strength include:
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Bodyweight squats or lunges
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Pushups on a wall or against countertop
For an effective strength workout, choose 6-8 different exercises. You can choose to focus on one area of the body, or choose a mix of moves that hit the upper body, lower body and core. Perform two sets of 8-12 reps per movement (where the last 1–2 reps feel challenging). Try one of these full-body strength workouts designed for beginners: Seated Full-Body Strength Routine, 5-Minute Full-Body Bootcamp, 5-Miniute Bodyweight Strength HIIT.
Mobility and Stretching Guidelines: Stay Mobile As You Age
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GOAL: Daily movement or mobility breaks (even just 5-10 minutes)
Mobility work keeps your joints happy and reduces stiffness. It’s especially important if you sit a lot during the day. It improves posture, reduces aches in the low back, hips and shoulders and helps you move more confidently with quicker reflexes.
Mobility training also supports better movement in your strength and cardio workouts, which can help you reach new goals like walking or running faster or lifting heavier weights.
Type of Mobility Exercises:
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Gentle dynamic warmups like leg swings and arm circles
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Functional moves like cat cow, hip openers, shoulder rolls
Simple Daily Mobility Routine
You can perform this routine before or after a walk or strength session:
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1-2 minutes hip openers (CARs)
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1-2 minutes shoulder mobility (overhead range of motion)
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1-2 minutes cat cow or gentle backbends (focus on mid-back bending)
I’ve taken all the guesswork out of mobility training by designing targeted routines that will improve range of motion in the hips, back, shoulder and more. Check out some of my routines heres:
Bottom Line: Aim For a Small Amount of Cardio and Mobility Each Day and Strength a Few Times a Week
A question I get a lot is, what if I don’t have time for “formal” workouts?
The good news is that movement doesn’t have to be scheduled like a meeting. It can be as simple as parking farther away from store entrances, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, escalators, walking while on calls, marching in place during TV commercials or doing lunges while your coffee brews. Every bit counts — and consistency matters more than perfection.
Your body is built for movement, but there is no “perfect plan” while you’re balancing life, stress, and aging joints. The goal is simply to keep your heart strong, your muscles powerful and your joints resilient.
Spend a little time in each area, and your health, mood and the ease of daily activities can and will improve dramatically. Remember: Something is better than nothing! So, focus on small steps and increase the intensity and duration over time.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com