Exercise Right Week What’s the best exercise for your health?
Exercise Right Week: what’s the best exercise for your health?
If you’ve ever wondered “What’s the best exercise for my health?” the real answer is refreshingly simple.
The best exercise is the one you can keep doing. Not the trendiest. Not the hardest. Not the one your friend swears by. The one that fits your life and your body.
But exercise right week is also a great opportunity to check in with what the latest science, and this year there’s a significant update. Australia has just released updated 24 hour movement guidelines for adults, and for the first time, they bring together physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep into one holistic snapshot of health. And they also now include a daily step recommendation, but it’s not 10,000.
What the new guidelines recommend
1. Moderate to vigorous activity: 30 minutes a day
Aim for 30 minutes or more on most days (approximately 150–300 minutes per week). This includes brisk walking, cycling, swimming, dancing, or anything that elevates your heart rate.
2. Strength training: 2 times a week
At least two days per week, working major muscle groups. Weights, Pilates, resistance bands, and bodyweight exercises all count.
3. Light activity: every day
In a significant first, the guidelines now recommend several hours of light intensity movement every day reflecting strong evidence that every move counts and replacing sedentary time with light, simple activity improves health. This includes limiting long periods of sitting, breaking up sedentary time as often as possible and replacing sitting with movement.
4. Mobility, balance and coordination: 3 times a week
Previously recommended for older adults, the guidelines now recommend all adults engage in activities to improve mobility, balance and coordination at least three times every week. This includes stretching, yoga, tai chi, and balance exercises.
5. Sleep: 7 to 9 hours a night
Adults should aim for seven to nine hours of good‑quality sleep with a consistent pattern of going to sleep and waking times. Also importantly, you should not trade sleep for exercise. Increased activity should come from reducing sedentary time, not reducing sleep.
6. The step count update: 7,000 steps a day
Australia is the first country to include a specific step count in its national guidelines. A major meta analysis found that most of the significant health benefits such as reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancers, depression, dementia, and falls occur around 7,000 steps per day. So the new recommendation is to aim for 7,000 or more steps per day.
However your current baseline is important and while these guidelines are recommended to help prevent or manage many different health conditions, it’s important to gradually build movement into your routine if you’re not already living an active lifestyle.
For example, if your baseline is low e.g. walking 2,000 steps on average a day, going straight to 7,000 isn’t usually realistic or sustainable. Increasing your steps by even 1,000–2,000 per day can meaningfully improve your health.
The most important factor is sustainability
Guidelines give us targets, but everyone’s preferences, lifestyles and capabilities are different. If you dislike running, don’t run. If you prefer Pilates to the gym, embrace it. If you’re time poor, squeezing in short five-minute exercise blocks throughout the day all count.
The main thing is, progress and consistency matter more than perfection. The best exercise is the one you can keep doing.
In the spirit of Exercise Right Week, we encourage everyone to simply move a little more today than yesterday.
