This Is How Much Exercise You Need to Benefit Your Health

Age determines how much exercise you need to do to benefit

Although I mention that you don’t need to do much exercise to gain benefits — a certain amount is required to achieve specific antioxidant results on a cellular level.

Don’t get me wrong, doing something is better than doing nothing, but we have to put in some mighty effort to gain specific results regularly.

But don’t worry; these things develop as you gain more experience in the game.

So in the first instance, all we have to do is start somewhere, and that place is currently where we are at.

When you are older, a 30-minute workout window will not give you the added benefits on a cellular level that a younger person would achieve.

But don’t let that deceive you into believing that 30 minutes isn’t adequate for overall health and wellbeing — because it most certainly is.

Let’s look at the study which generated these results so you can compare your age and level of fitness.

This study contained a group of men aged 18–30 and was tested against men who were 55 years and older.

All these participants were generally in good health; non-smokers were not taking any drugs or supplements during the two weeks leading up to the experiment.

These two age groups cycled for 30 minutes and drew blood at different times to measure the cell function and antioxidant response.

The results showed that older adults do not achieve the same beneficial cellular responses to a 30-minute singular bout of exercise as younger participants.

Although the research does not give any direct specific age groups of those who did and did not benefit, I would be interested to know at what age is the cellular level considered ‘old.’

One other downfall is that this is a singular bout of exercise that doesn’t determine the responses of older adults who have been active most of their lives.

Despite this, we still have an excellent baseline to start putting some plans in place through our training program that will allow us to gain benefits on a more cellular level.

Key takeaways

Please don’t dismiss 30 minutes of exercise, because sometimes that’s all we can do.

Instead, aim for a bit more intensity and adding an extra 15 minutes to our workout for optimal cellular results.

For example, you could work out in the gym or outdoors for 45 minutes at a higher intensity in the mornings or evenings, but perhaps throw in a couple of lower intensity walks during the day.

Naturally, as you begin to exercise, your strength, fitness, and stamina should start to increase, increasing your capacity to work at higher intensities.

This is what I love about exercising consistently. You may very well get some profound results in a short period of time.

But what else can we do to increase our movement during the day with incidental exercise?

The Mayo Clinic emphasizes the need to reduce time sitting down as much as possible. I couldn’t agree more.

The longer you sit down, the more likely you will risk developing metabolic problems while negatively impacting your health and longevity.

In that case, may I highly recommend making the much-needed investment in an adjustable desk?

I have had a standing (and sitting) desk during the lockdown, and it’s made a world of difference to my step count and health.

If you find it hard to get away from your desk, standing and shuffling around is still considered an incidental exercise — every single bit helps.

If you would like to read the details of the study, please have a look at this research paper.