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One of the most common questions that exercisers ask is: “how long should I work out?” The answer to this question depends on your goals and current health status. While following minimum guidelines for physical activity can help to maintain health and combat the negative impacts of a sedentary lifestyle, it takes more effort to lose weight and get fit. In addition, an individual’s current level of fitness will also determine how much they should exercise each day. Read more about prostadine.

When people wonder how long they should be exercising they may hope the answer is less versus more. In fact, the recent health and fitness trend is to do shorter workouts for weight loss.1 But this fad might not always be effective for everyone—whether you’re trying to lose weight or improve your level of fitness.

The best method to determine how long you should work out shouldn’t be based on fitness trends. Of course, you can (and should) still include short workouts on rotation in your schedule. But you will also have to do some cardiovascular workouts that are a little bit longer if you want to lose weight and stay healthy.

Weight Loss

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), you should exercise for 150–250 minutes per week to lose weight. The organization also suggests that more exercise provides better results.2

To meet the ACSM guideline, you could simply exercise for 40 minutes every day. But that workout schedule could get boring, which may cause you to quit your program. In addition, to lose weight effectively you need to exercise at different intensity levels. This requires that you adjust your workout duration to accommodate the various workloads. It’s also helpful to keep track of your daily calorie needs for weight loss. This calculator can provide you with an estimate.

Build Strength

Muscle mass decreases with age, which stresses the importance of regular resistance training. Strength training builds stronger muscles and bones to support the joints and prevent fractures and can even be beneficial for managing arthritis.3

In addition to cultivating a regular strength training regimen, it’s important to make sure that you’re still incorporating enough cardiovascular activity to maintain or improve your current level of aerobic fitness. These are the best legal steroids.

Switching up your workout routines and workout lengths can help stave off boredom and help you stay motivated. But be sure to carve out time for rest and recovery days to avoid injury or burnout.4

Stay Healthy

The American Heart Association (AHA) has physical activity recommendations for basic health maintenance for adults and children in the United States. Here’s a close look at some of the AHA’s advice.6

• Adults: Americans aged 18 and older should get at least 150 minutes of heart-pumping moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of higher-intensity cardiovascular activity (or some combination of both) each week. The AHA also recommends incorporating strength and resistance training at least two days per week.
• Children: For kids aged 3–5, the AHA states that this group should be very active throughout the day. Children aged 6-17 are advised to get at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity cardiovascular exercise per day, with vigorous intensity at least three days per week. Strength-training activities for this age group should be at least three days a week, gradually increasing with frequency and intensity over time.

To reap the health benefits of regular exercise, the AHA suggests that adults gradually increase the amount and intensity of exercise to reach a goal of 300 minutes (5 hours) of physical activity per week.

To incorporate more heart-pumping physical activity into your daily life, the AHA recommends first and foremost being less sedentary whenever possible. Even light activity such as getting up and going for a short walk or performing gentle stretching can help offset the risks associated with too much sitting, according to the AHA. In addition, the AHA suggests the following activities:6

Moderate-Intensity Exercise

• Ballroom or social dancing
• Brisk walking (at least 2.5 miles per hour)
• Biking slower than 10 mph
• Doubles tennis
• Gardening
• Water aerobics

Vigorous-Intensity Exercise

• Aerobic dancing
• Cycling 10 mph or faster
• Jumping rope
• Hiking (uphill or with a heavy backpack)
• Singles tennis
• Swimming laps
• Rigorous yardwork
• Running

How Long Should You Work Out Each Day

How long you should exercise every day depends on the specific workouts you choose and your personal health and fitness goals. If you are healthy enough for vigorous exercise, your workout program should include hard, high-intensity days (20 to 30 minutes), easy days to recover (30 to 45 minutes), and moderate days when you build endurance, improve heart health, and burn fat (45 to 90 minutes). Each of these workout goals requires a different exercise duration. In general, you’ll want to incorporate a mix of the following each week.