The Less Fit You Are, the More Exercise You May Need To Protect Your Heart

More Is Better: In order to achieve “substantial protection” (a 30% risk reduction) against cardiovascular health events like stroke, at least 560 minutes — more than 9 hours — per week of moderate to vigorous exercise are needed, per a new study. That’s a big ask considering most of the population doesn’t meet the current recommendation of 2.5 hours per week. 

The Study: More than 17,000 adults completed cycling tests to find their VO2 max and wore a fitness tracker to record activity levels. Participants were tracked for about eight years, during which cardiovascular events like strokes and heart attacks were recorded. The findings were twofold: Those who exercised the most experienced the greatest risk reduction; and those with the lowest VO2 max required more exercise for the same risk reduction.

The Takeaway: Meeting the minimum recommendation of 150 minutes of cardio exercise is a good start, but more reduces your chance of deteriorating heart health. And if you’re not very fit to start, you may need more exercise than someone who is fitter than you — for the same level of protection.

Keep in Mind: The research is, as some experts put it, “misguided.” Performing 9 to 10 hours of exercise per week “is not a sensible public health message,” a biomedical informatics professor told The Guardian.