Tone and Tighten

Real Fitness For Real People

How much physical activity do you need? Are you getting enough?

How much physical activity do you need? Are you getting enough?

September 5, 2013 |

Ever wonder about how much to exercise? Patients ask me all the time, “how much exercise do you recommend?” or “now that my ______ is better, what kind of activity should I do to stay healthy?” According to the national physical activity guidelines, we should be getting “150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week”. They further going to recommend that “aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes”. I don’t know about you, but sometimes even a simple 10 minute increment can be kind of hard to come by. Between work, getting the kids to school, preparing meals, cleaning the house, and soccer practice/piano/little league/karate, etc. there just aren’t enough hours in the day! Where do I have time to squeeze in exercise? Well despair no more! There’s a new study out about physical fitness that has filled busy people like you and I with newfound hope!


A new study published by researchers at the University of Utah in the American Journal of Health Promotion suggests that reaching those 2 1/2 hours one minute at a time is just fine. You don’t have to try to find those 10-minute blocks of time to be active; total activity is the real difference-maker. Those who were able to achieve 150 minutes/week (regardless of when they fit them in) enjoyed decreased BMI and increased weight loss. 

Said the article’s author on a recent interview with The Today Show, “I think it’s easier to process that message; otherwise, if they don’t have a block of time they might be discouraged, and they don’t do anything.”

Well, this just squashed one of my easiest excuses: “I don’t have the time”. There are hundreds of things you can do to increase daily activity. With that, I introduce you to

Tone and Tighten’s 
150 Weekly 
Challenge

What I’ve done is put together a daily tracker for you that lasts for 4 weeks. What I want you to do is print off this PDF and put it somewhere you can see it. Each day, write in what you did to be active that day and for how long (I’ve got multiple lines to write in multiple activities). You tally your daily progress by adding up activity minutes for that day and tally weekly minutes by adding all the daily minutes at the end of the week. Did you get in your 150 minutes? Having trouble defining “moderate activity? I’ve also included an enormous list of recommended moderate-intensity activities. Try it out! See how you fare!

Click the following link:

Tone and Tighten 150 Weekly Challenge


Also, I would love to hear from you about this! Is it easy for you to get 150 minutes in weekly? Are there certain days/times that you struggle more than others? What are some of your favorite activities that help you get up and get active? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment below and together we can all benefit from each others’ experiences. 

It doesn’t matter where, when, or how… it matters that you do it!

Make it happen,

Jared

Need some quick workout ideas? Try these!


Burn 100 #1
Burn 100 #2
Burn 100 #3
6-Minute Total Body Plank Workout

Make it happen,

Jared

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 By Jared Beckstrand

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Have a great day!

Jared

Filed Under: Challenge, Motivation, Physical Activity

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