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The 150-Minute Rule

So, you’ve probably heard the whole “150 minutes of moderate exercise a week” thing from the big health organizations.

This is the recommended number of minutes per week of activity for adults to improve health.

Moderate exercise can be things like brisk walking or an easy bike ride.

Or, if you like to really push it (think jogging over walking), they say you can get away with 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week.

This is actually one of the guidelines I use when I put together the monthly workout calendars for Over Fifty Fitness and my Patreon crew.

But that always brings up a question: where does strength training fit into all this?
Well, according to those same health organizations, it doesn’t. They basically say, “Nope, sorry.”

On top of the 75 vigorous minutes to 150 moderate minutes of aerobic (cardio), they want you to do muscle-strengthening stuff for all your major muscle groups at least two days a week.

Here’s the thing, though: that advice is seriously outdated.

Those recommendations came out around 2008, and a lot has changed in the fitness world since then!

We’ve seen a huge boom in at-home workouts on YouTube and in apps that mix cardio and strength.

You get the best of both worlds with workouts like:

  • Metabolic conditioning (Metcons)
  • Circuit workouts
  • Crossfit-style classes
  • Power & plyometric training
  • HIIT-based strength workouts

In every one of those workouts, your heart is racing, and your muscles are screaming. And they totally line up with the official definition of “vigorous activity”:

Breathlessness: You can only spit out a few words at a time.
Heart Rate: You’re working at about 70-85% of your max heart rate.
Effort: Your body is chugging oxygen and working hard (6+ METs).

My concern with these recommendations is that, for most people, hearing “150 minutes of aerobic activity” can feel completely overwhelming and lead them to think they don’t have time for anything else.

So they get their steps in, but they don’t pick up their dumbbells.

I argue that some strength workouts (like those listed above) can count toward the 75 minutes of vigorous activity, and I hope these organizations reframe their guidelines accordingly.

Because I think we’d see many more people lifting and fewer people feeling discouraged.

We want a legion of strong older adults pumping iron, not an army of power-walkers.