A new study says you need 10 hours of exercise a week. Can that really be possible?<\/p>\n
Experts question this study\u2019s design and its recommendations\u2014and point out that you probably get more exercise than you think<\/p>\n
By Claire Cameron<\/a> edited by Seth Fletcher<\/a><\/p>\n A study published this week<\/a> in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that the average adult should aim to get around nine to 10 hours of exercise a week\u2014far above the World Health Organization\u2019s (WHO\u2019s) guidance of 150 minutes a week\u2014to see a substantial reduction in their risk of stroke or heart attack. But some cardiovascular and fitness experts say the new research needs to be approached with a healthy dose of caution.<\/p>\n The study\u2019s authors are \u201cplaying down the benefit of physical activity,\u201d says Sean Heffron, an assistant professor of medicine and a cardiologist specializing in exercise science at New York University.<\/p>\n The study analyzes accelerometer data collected over the course of a week from 17,000 individuals included in the U.K. Biobank, a long-term health study. It finds that for the average person to experience a 30 percent reduction in the risk of stroke or heart attack, they need to be doing around 560 to 610 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week. And people who are less fit may need to do as much as 50 minutes more exercise than people who are more fit to see the same benefits, according to the study.<\/p>\n On supporting science journalism<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing<\/a>. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n For comparison, the WHO guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week is associated with an 8 to 9 percent reduction in risk. That\u2019s not nothing, Heffron says. \u201cIf we came up with a new medicine that improved risk that much, we\u2019d be thrilled,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The results don\u2019t indicate that the WHO\u2019s guidance on exercise is wrong, Heffron says. Nor do they suggest that short, high-intensity bursts of exercise such as high-intensity interval training aren\u2019t also associated with large reductions in cardiovascular disease risk, says Ulrik Wisl\u00f8ff, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who heads the university\u2019s Cardiac Exercise Research Group.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 150-minute recommendation was never intended to represent an \u2018optimal\u2019 target,\u201d Wisl\u00f8ff says. \u201cRather it was designed as a realistic, achievable public health threshold associated with meaningful health benefits in the population.\u201d<\/p>\n The study\u2019s design also risks obscuring the relative intensity of physical activity for different individuals, Wisl\u00f8ff says. An older person, for example, might view the same task, say, a walk around the block<\/a>, as vigorous exercise, while a younger and fitter person might not see that as exercise at all.<\/p>\n In turn, many individuals may underestimate how much exercise they are already getting, Heffron says. Moderate walking, tennis playing, gardening or anything else that makes you eventually break a sweat counts as vigorous activity. \u201cThe gym does not hold a monopoly on exercise,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Wisl\u00f8ff agrees, stressing that the health effect of any kind of activity depends on its intensity. He points to previous studies that found that even five minutes a day<\/a> of moderate to vigorous physical activity could reduce mortality risk<\/a> by around 30 percent in people who otherwise didn\u2019t exercise. \u201cSmall amounts of relatively intense activity appear extraordinarily powerful,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Genetics also plays a role in fitness that the study just can\u2019t account for, Heffron says. And the study only includes a week of data: it\u2019s entirely possible participants exercised more than usual during that week, which would complicate the findings. And as for the result that less fit people need to do more to see the same benefits, Heffron says that \u201cas a clinician, I would ignore that wholly.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour individual health and longevity is not a competition,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re confident that exercising is beneficial for multiple reasons, and we can\u2019t determine who is going to benefit most from exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s clear that no activity puts you at markedly increased risk [of conditions such as diabetes and hypertension],\u201d he adds. \u201cGoing from zero to anything on an individual basis can be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s Time to Stand Up for Science<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/a>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts<\/a>, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters<\/a>, must-watch videos, challenging games<\/a>, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. 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I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 21, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm A new study says you need 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[589,163,85,46],"class_list":["post-453706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sport-study.jpg\")
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