For years, the advice has been simple: get about 150 minutes of exercise a week and your heart will thank you. That breaks down to roughly 30 minutes a day, five days a week. It sounds reasonable, achievable, and for many people, pleasantly manageable.
But new research suggests that if your goal is not simply “good enough” heart health, but major protection against heart attacks and strokes, you may need to think a lot bigger. Much bigger.
How much bigger? Try about 10 hours of exercise per week.
Yes, for older adults already wondering if unloading groceries counts as cardio, this may sound less like a health recommendation and more like a part-time job. Still, researchers behind a new study say the findings deserve attention, especially for people serious about protecting long-term cardiovascular health.
Meet the Researcher Behind the Study
The study was led in part by Ziheng Ning, a PhD researcher and professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sports at Macao Polytechnic University. Ning and his colleagues wanted to answer an important question: is the long-standing recommendation of 150 minutes of exercise each week really enough to offer meaningful protection from heart disease, or is there a better target for people who want stronger results?
Their findings were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and challenge the idea that exercise recommendations should be the same for everyone. Instead, Ning argues that heart health may require a more personalized approach, especially depending on how fit a person already is.
How the Research Was Done
To investigate the question, researchers analyzed data from more than 17,000 adults enrolled in the UK Biobank study. Participants averaged 57 years old, 56% were women, and most were white. Instead of simply asking people how much they exercised, the researchers took a more detailed approach.
Participants wore wrist-based activity trackers continuously for seven days to measure physical activity. They also completed exercise testing designed to estimate VO2 max, a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness. In simple terms, VO2 max estimates how efficiently the body uses oxygen during intense exercise and reflects how well the heart, lungs, and blood vessels support physical performance.
The researchers also accounted for smoking, alcohol intake, diet, body mass index, blood pressure, resting heart rate, and self-rated health. Then they followed participants for nearly eight years and recorded more than 1,200 cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure.
In other words, this was not somebody asking, “Hey, do you jog sometimes?” and calling it science.
The Surprising Numbers at 150 Minutes Per Week
The study confirmed that the current exercise guideline still matters.
Adults who completed about 150 minutes of moderate activity per week experienced an 8% to 9% reduction in cardiovascular risk regardless of fitness level. That means the long-standing recommendation from the World Health Organization still offers meaningful benefits.
Ning strongly cautioned people not to misunderstand the results.
“I think it is important that people interpret this finding carefully and not conclude that 150 minutes is ‘insufficient’ or ‘meaningless.’ The current WHO guideline remains extremely important because it is achievable, evidence-based, and clearly beneficial,” he explained.
Still, the findings suggest something slightly uncomfortable: 150 minutes may be more like the minimum admission price for cardiovascular benefits rather than the premium package.
As Ning put it, “150 minutes per week may function more as a minimum effective threshold rather than the amount associated with maximal cardiovascular protection.”
For older adults already congratulating themselves for a brisk neighborhood walk three times a week, this may feel mildly offensive.
The 560 to 610 Minute Shock
Here is where the study starts sounding like something designed for retired marathon enthusiasts.
Researchers found that adults who completed between 560 and 610 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each week had more than a 30% reduction in cardiovascular risk compared with inactive individuals. That equals about 80 to 87 minutes of exercise every day, or roughly nine to ten hours every week.
That is a dramatic jump from the current guideline.
And before anyone feels guilty for not immediately signing up for daily hill sprints, consider this detail: only about 12% of participants actually achieved that amount of exercise. Most people are not exactly waking up eager to spend an hour and a half power walking before breakfast.
Still, Ning emphasized that this does not mean people must suddenly transform into endurance athletes.
“Many people hear ‘500 to 600 minutes’ and imagine intense athletic training, but much of this activity can come from brisk walking, cycling, commuting, recreational sports, hiking, [and] sustained daily movement,” he explained.
In theory, that sounds encouraging. In practice, some retirees may hear “560 minutes” and immediately begin searching for a comfortable chair.
Fitness Matters More Than You Think
One of the study’s more interesting findings was that not everyone needs the exact same amount of exercise.
People with lower cardiorespiratory fitness generally needed 30 to 50 extra minutes of activity each week to gain the same heart protection as fitter individuals. For example, less-fit participants needed roughly 370 minutes of activity to lower cardiovascular risk by 20%, while fitter participants needed about 340 minutes for similar benefits.
That means the person who already jogs, hikes, or cycles regularly may not have to work quite as hard to see benefits compared with someone starting from scratch.
Ning believes this could eventually push medicine toward more individualized recommendations.
“Exercise should probably not be viewed as a simple pass/fail threshold,” he said. “Cardiovascular protection appears to exist along a continuum. Some movement is better than none, more movement may provide additional benefit, and fitness itself plays an important independent role.”
So, Are Older Adults Really Going to Exercise Ten Hours a Week?
Let us be honest.
For many people in their 50s, 60s, and beyond, 10 hours a week of exercise sounds heroic, exhausting, or faintly ridiculous.
Many older adults already struggle to hit the 150-minute guideline because of schedules, joint pain, old injuries, or simply life getting in the way. Suggesting nearly four times that amount may feel like asking someone to casually train for a wilderness expedition.
But perhaps that misses the point.
The study does not say that 150 minutes is useless. Quite the opposite. It says that more exercise appears to produce greater cardiovascular protection, particularly for highly motivated people willing to invest serious time and consistency.
For the average person, 150 minutes still matters. For the unusually disciplined retiree who somehow enjoys 90-minute daily walks, cycling, swimming, or hiking sessions, perhaps the new gold standard offers an intriguing challenge.
At the very least, the research offers one clear message: when it comes to heart health, movement is not an all-or-nothing test. A little helps, more may help more, and apparently, if you are willing to treat exercise like a second career, your heart may reward you for it.
