What's the minimum amount of exercise you need to stay healthy?

While some of us are setting big exercise goals at the start of the year, like preparing for a marathon, others are simply aiming to put in the bare minimum needed to stay fit and healthy. Get to know the guidelines Australia's national exercise guidelines suggest accumulating 150 to 300 minutes of "moderate intensity" physical activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of "vigorous intensity" physical activity, each week. Depending on your distance from the office, "walking to and from work is a great thing to do because it builds it into your day and it just becomes routine," says Professor Wendy Brown from the University of Queensland's School of Human Movement Studies and lead author on the report that led to the current guidelines. "If someone hits 10,000 steps a day, then I'd be guessing that they'd be hitting their minimum number of physical activity targets," Dr Fairchild says. "The one recommendation we would say is you shouldn't have any more than one day back-to-back where you haven't performed exercise," says Dr Fairchild.