Weekly Aerobic Volume Targets

The major public-health guidelines converge on the same weekly aerobic dose for adults aged 18–64:

• WHO 2020 Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour: at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity per week, or an equivalent combination of the two.
• U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd ed. (2018): the same 150–300 min moderate / 75–150 min vigorous range for substantial health benefits, preferably spread throughout the week.

Important details:

• Equivalence rule: 1 minute of vigorous activity counts roughly as 2 minutes of moderate, which is why the vigorous target is half the moderate target. Moderate and vigorous minutes can be combined (e.g., 90 min moderate + 30 min vigorous).
• No 10-minute minimum: the 2nd-edition U.S. guidelines removed the old requirement that activity occur in bouts of at least 10 minutes — short bouts now count toward the total.
• Dose-response: "some is better than none," and more activity yields additional benefits; the 300 min / 150 min upper figures mark additional health gains, not a cap.
• Plus strength: both guidelines add muscle-strengthening activity on 2+ days/week for all major muscle groups (a resistance-training, not cardio, recommendation).

Volume can also be expressed in MET-minutes/week (METs × minutes; see mets); the moderate target corresponds very roughly to ~500–1000 MET-min/week. These targets are the "V" (Volume) of the FITT-VP prescription (see fitt-vp-cardio).

• 150–300 min/week moderate or 75–150 min/week vigorous (or equivalent mix). [WHO 2020; PAG 2nd ed.]
• Vigorous counts ~2× moderate (equivalence rule).
• No 10-minute-bout minimum (PAG 2nd ed.); short bouts count.
• Dose-response: some is better than none; more yields more benefit.
• Plus muscle strengthening on ≥2 days/week (all major muscle groups).

• fitt-vp-cardio — these targets are the Volume component.
• intensity-classification — defines the "moderate" and "vigorous" used here.
• mets — the MET-minute alternative currency.
• cardio-progression — building up toward and beyond the target.
• cardiorespiratory-guidelines — the manual-derived guideline counterpart.