# 150min cardio per week **URL:** \ **Category:** Medical Q&A \[Moderated\]\ **Created:** [August 24, 2019, 2:56am UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847 "2019-08-24T02:56:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Richard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Richard](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Richard)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 10:51am UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/21 "2019-08-30T10:51:05Z")
Hello, If I may jump into this discussion , for what outcomes exactly are these recommendations for? And would adding 40 min cardio session after each workout if training 4 times a week cut it? ---
**Author:** ![coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@coldfire](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/22 "2019-08-30T13:11:51Z")
> [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](#): > > but the benefits to meeting it (and the consequences for not) persist whether one finds it convenient or not. What are those consequences (for the strength training population)? ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:04pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/23 "2019-08-30T15:04:34Z")
> [@BobbyD](#): > > Those personal experiences has driven my desire for strength and LBM acquisition because I want to have the most ability to live as full of a life as possible throughout whatever years I’m blessed with but that probably means I short change my cardiovascular health. So how does one work with all these factors to build more motivation to find the time for cardio? What can I do to get more enjoyment out of the modalities I do have easy access to? I actually think this pokes at something deeper: _How to get people to change behavior?_ In short, I think it’s pretty typical that folks have their own exercise preferences, perceived time restrictions, and motivations. How do we integrate these to make a recommendation that people can adhere to? I’m of the opinion that this is a backwards way of looking at behavioral change, as most people don’t need _more education_ in order to change, rather they need to want to do it themselves. How to get people to that state of change is an individualized process, but rather than just tell people what to do- I think a good practitioner should be focused on evoking the individual’s own motivations and resources for change prior to directing them towards and particular strategy. Just as an aside, these conditioning recommendations are unlikely to compromise LBM and strength acquisition. Quite the opposite, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/24 "2019-08-30T15:06:02Z")
> [@Pat\_Hughes](#): > > Hi Jordan - is there a reason that the templates you provide don’t reach these minimum levels of moderate and vigorous aerobic training? I’m currently running Powerbuilding 1, and I believe the maximum steady state prescribed on any one week is 60 mins (30 mins 2x per week) and the maximum HIIT seems to be 22 mins 1x per week. Should we be supplementing this? I am hopeful individuals will be more active through other less formal activities, e.g. walking, recreational sports, etc. In general, our templates get folks about halfway there each week 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/25 "2019-08-30T15:09:48Z")
> [@hunter04j](#): > > Okay, thumbs up I assume that’s German for, “I stand corrected.” ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:11pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/26 "2019-08-30T15:11:08Z")
> [@Richard](#): > > Hello, If I may jump into this discussion , for what outcomes exactly are these recommendations for? And would adding 40 min cardio session after each workout if training 4 times a week cut it? See the next post for “why” these are important. If you did 4 sessions of 40 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic conditioning, that’d be 160 minutes, which would meet the minimum recommendations. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/27 "2019-08-30T15:17:15Z")
> [@coldfire](#): > > What are those consequences (for the strength training population)? Again, this is for all populations as the strength training population is not unique in this context. Meeting the physical activity guidelines can: -Improve quality of sleep (decreased sleep latency, increased deep sleep duration, reduced daytime sleepiness) - Improved cognitive function (planning, organizing, self-monitoring, etc.) - Reduced risk of depression and adjunctive treatment of depression - Reduced symptoms of anxiety - reduced incidence of excessive weight gain - reduced risk of falls and fall-related injuries -reduced risk of certain types of cancer (e.g. breast, colon, esophageal, bladder, kidney, lung, stomach) - reduced risk of hypertension and improvement of existing hypertension - reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and improved of existing diabetes - improvement of osteoarthritis ---
**Author:** ![Radford\_McAwesome](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/radford_mcawesome/32/1178_2.png) [@Radford\_McAwesome](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Radford_McAwesome)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/28 "2019-08-30T15:23:24Z")
The recommendations are quite broad, which I suppose is the nature of such things, and simply recommending more seems to lead to further ambiguity. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/29 "2019-08-30T15:30:16Z")
> [@Radford\_McAwesome](#): > > The recommendations are quite broad, which I suppose is the nature of such things, and simply recommending more seems to lead to further ambiguity. I’m not sure what you mean. Can you explain? The recommendations are: 75-150 min of vigorous aerobic activity per week or 150-300 min of moderate intensity aerobic activity per week (or some combination of the two) 2x/wk resistance training They’ve been exactly this for 10 years and I’m not sure what you mean by ambiguity or that eliminating the range would increase adherence. ---
**Author:** ![Pat\_Hughes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Pat\_Hughes](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Pat_Hughes)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/30 "2019-08-30T16:01:17Z")
> [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](#): > > I am hopeful individuals will be more active through other less formal activities, e.g. walking, recreational sports, etc. In general, our templates get folks about halfway there each week 🙂 Thanks Jordan. At first glace this does seem like a lot to fit in (classic excuse, I know), but breaking it down doesn’t seem too bad - I’m just thinking that to get minimum 150 moderate intensity per week would require c.20mins steady state cardio per day, and then on top of that to get minimum 75 mins vigorous would require c.10mins HIIT at the end of the moderate cardio (assuming it’s okay to do both moderate and vigorous intensity in the same session?). Equates to about 30-40 mins per day, which could easily be done before breakfast - right? ---
**Author:** ![Radford\_McAwesome](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/radford_mcawesome/32/1178_2.png) [@Radford\_McAwesome](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Radford_McAwesome)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/31 "2019-08-30T16:07:45Z")
75 min of vigorous to 300 min of moderate and, I guess, any combination in between seems like a fairly broad recommendation to me, and you recommended 'to ‘exceed’ that. I know these general population based recommendations tend to be broad and I don’t know what would increase adherence. I suppose I’m just a little surprised by the level. I mean, you are doing your BBM template and not even skipping the GPP days, feeling pretty good about yourself and then find out you need to run 3 miles 4 days a week in addition. Seems like quite a bit, however there it is. I’d be curious how the numbers were determined. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/32 "2019-08-30T16:20:18Z")
> [@Pat\_Hughes](#): > > Thanks Jordan. At first glace this does seem like a lot to fit in (classic excuse, I know), but breaking it down doesn’t seem too bad - I’m just thinking that to get minimum 150 moderate intensity per week would require c.20mins steady state cardio per day, and then on top of that to get minimum 75 mins vigorous would require c.10mins HIIT at the end of the moderate cardio (assuming it’s okay to do both moderate and vigorous intensity in the same session?). > > Equates to about 30-40 mins per day, which could easily be done before breakfast - right? It’s either or (or some combination of the two) to meet the conditioning recommendations. In other words, you don’t have to do both, but rather do one or the other. This would be 25 min of vigorous aerobic activity 3x/wk or 40 min of moderate aerobic activity 3x/wk accumulated in 5 minute bouts. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/33 "2019-08-30T16:23:05Z")
> [@Radford\_McAwesome](#): > > 75 min of vigorous to 300 min of moderate and, I guess, any combination in between seems like a fairly broad recommendation to me, and you recommended 'to ‘exceed’ that. They’re different recommendations and yes, we’d like you to be more active than less. > [@Radford\_McAwesome](#): > > I know these general population based recommendations tend to be broad and I don’t know what would increase adherence. I suppose I’m just a little surprised by the level. I mean, you are doing your BBM template and not even skipping the GPP days, feeling pretty good about yourself and then find out you need to run 3 miles 4 days a week in addition. Seems like quite a bit, however there it is. I’d be curious how the numbers were determined. No, you don’t need to run 3 miles 4x/wk to meet the recommendations. You’d need to do about 20-30 minutes of activity 2 additional times per week. I’d really encourage you to read the guidelines. ---
**Author:** ![scampos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@scampos](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/scampos)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/34 "2019-08-30T16:50:41Z")
thanks Jordan, I guess a lot of people wanted to know more too. I settled with 200min of moderate intensity per week for now, adding sessions of brisky walking. My training sessions are close to my bedtime now, because the new routine of cardio. Only 1 hour before bedtime, it is a issue? Another issue is that I am getting dizzy, when I am brisk walking at treadmill, I guess it is motion sickness. I hope my body will adapt over time ---
**Author:** ![Pat\_Hughes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Pat\_Hughes](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Pat_Hughes)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/35 "2019-08-30T17:14:26Z")
> [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](#): > > It’s either or (or some combination of the two) to meet the conditioning recommendations. In other words, you don’t have to do both, but rather do one or the other. > > This would be 25 min of vigorous aerobic activity 3x/wk or 40 min of moderate aerobic activity 3x/wk accumulated in 5 minute bouts. Ahh right, apologies I thought the requirement was for both. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Radford\_McAwesome](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/radford_mcawesome/32/1178_2.png) [@Radford\_McAwesome](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Radford_McAwesome)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 5:47pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/36 "2019-08-30T17:47:17Z")
Not sure that math works out, Doc, but don’t want to come off as pedantic. Good day! ---
**Author:** ![coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@coldfire](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/coldfire)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 5:54pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/37 "2019-08-30T17:54:09Z")
> [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](#): > > Again, this is for all populations as the strength training population is not unique in this context. > > Meeting the physical activity guidelines can: > > -Improve quality of sleep (decreased sleep latency, increased deep sleep duration, reduced daytime sleepiness) > > - Improved cognitive function (planning, organizing, self-monitoring, etc.) > - Reduced risk of depression and adjunctive treatment of depression > - Reduced symptoms of anxiety > - reduced incidence of excessive weight gain > - reduced risk of falls and fall-related injuries > -reduced risk of certain types of cancer (e.g. breast, colon, esophageal, bladder, kidney, lung, stomach) > - reduced risk of hypertension and improvement of existing hypertension > - reduced risk of type 2 diabetes and improved of existing diabetes > - improvement of osteoarthritis All of these can be said about strength training alone, so in this sense the strength training population is unique. Hence the question: What are the benefits of doing (or consequences of not doing) 150-300 minutes of aerobic training each week? ---
**Author:** ![hunter04j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eb9ed0/32.png) [@hunter04j](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/hunter04j)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/38 "2019-08-30T17:57:04Z")
> [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](#): > > I assume that’s German for, “I stand corrected.” It’s emoji speak, come on old man get with the times! ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/39 "2019-08-31T23:24:22Z")
> [@coldfire](#): > > All of these can be said about strength training alone, so in this sense the strength training population is unique. Hence the question: What are the benefits of doing (or consequences of not doing) 150-300 minutes of aerobic training each week? Not really, no. The benefit is additive and there is a dose-dependent relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and improvement in many of these outcomes. The consequences of not meeting the aerobic training minimums is that your health benefits from training are likely to be worse for all listed health conditions and increased mortality risk. ---
**Author:** ![Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/forum.barbellmedicine.com/jordan_feigenbaum/32/1315_2.png) [@Jordan\_Feigenbaum](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/u/Jordan_Feigenbaum)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847/40 "2019-08-31T23:28:34Z")
> [@Radford\_McAwesome](#): > > Not sure that math works out, Doc, but don’t want to come off as pedantic. Good day! Let’s look at this closer. If the template recommends something like 35 min of steady state conditioning (35 of 150) and 24 min HIIT (24 of 75) would be pretty close to halfway there. [Previous page](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847.md?page=1) [Next page](https://forum.barbellmedicine.com/t/150min-cardio-per-week/6847.md?page=3)