How much cardio per week: the guideline numbers, a build-up for beginners and a week beside lifting

"Cardio" here means aerobic activity: anything that raises your breathing and heart rate and that you can keep up for minutes at a time. How much of it to do in a week is a common question, and the guideline answers it in minutes. This page covers the numbers from the World Health Organization and the American College of Sports Medicine, what counts as moderate and vigorous, a build-up for beginners, and three weeks beside lifting. It's about training, not the scale; walking and steps and why you can't lose fat are the pages for that.

What cardio does to your lifting, and the order to do them in, is on cardio and lifting. How to find a moderate pace is on zone 2 cardio.

The numbers

• Under the WHO's 2020 wording, bout length doesn't matter. The guidelines count bouts of any duration toward the totals, where the earlier ones asked for bouts of at least ten minutes.¹
• A vigorous minute stands in for about two moderate ones. Both organizations set the vigorous total at half the moderate one: 75 to 150 minutes against 150 to 300 for the WHO, and 75 against 150 for the ACSM.^1,2
• Strength is the other half. The WHO asks for muscle-strengthening on two or more days a week, covering all the major muscle groups;¹ the ACSM asks for resistance exercise for each major muscle group on two to three days.²
• The ACSM's recommendation is for most adults, and its position stand is written for apparently healthy ones.²

What counts as moderate or vigorous

• Effort out of 10. The WHO describes moderate activity as usually a 5 or 6 on a 0-to-10 scale of perceived exertion and vigorous as usually a 7 or 8. Slow walking sits below both, as light activity at about 2 to 4.¹
• The talk test. You can say a sentence or two out loud, but it isn't effortless. In 16 physically active volunteers, 30-minute runs held at the last stage where they still passed the talk test produced an intensity compatible with training in healthy adults.³ Zone 2 cardio has the heart-rate version.
• Steps a minute, for walking. In 76 healthy adults aged 21 to 40 on a treadmill, the authors set rounded cadence thresholds of 100 steps a minute for moderate intensity and 130 for vigorous.⁴ That's a rule of thumb from one age group, so use effort as the check.

Cardio for beginners: a build-up

The WHO's advice for anyone not yet meeting the guideline is to start with small amounts of activity and gradually increase frequency, intensity and duration over time, and it says doing some physical activity is better than doing none.¹ The table is one practical way to do that, not a protocol from a trial.

• Pick something you can do at a talking pace. Walking, a stationary bike, a rowing machine, the elliptical and the treadmill all fit. The low-impact workout covers the no-jump options.
• Short bouts count. Three 10-minute walks add to the same weekly total as one 30-minute walk under the WHO's wording.¹
• Move up when the last week felt easy, not on a date. If a week didn't happen, repeat it. The table is a build-up, not a deadline.

Three weeks beside lifting

All three assume three lifting days and moderate cardio at a talking pace. They're practical weeks, not a prescription. Cardio and lifting covers how far to space the cardio from the lifting.

Count vigorous minutes as double: 20 vigorous minutes stand in for about 40 moderate ones. HIIT vs steady-state cardio covers how to mix the two.

Common questions

Does walking count as cardio?

Yes, at a moderate pace. Slow walking is light activity in the WHO's terms, below the moderate band,¹ and a cadence of about 100 steps a minute was the rule-of-thumb threshold for moderate in adults aged 21 to 40.⁴

Do short bouts count?

Under the WHO's 2020 wording, yes: bouts of any duration count toward the weekly totals.¹

How much cardio if I also lift?

Both halves of the guideline: cardio minutes and strength days.¹ Cardio and lifting covers the order and the timing.

How much cardio do I need to lose weight?

This page makes no weight claim. The guideline numbers above are activity amounts, not a weight target, and the pages linked at the top cover that side.

Should I check with a doctor first?

If you have a medical condition, or aren't sure it's safe to start, a doctor should set the limits first; this page is general guidance for healthy adults.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Starting cardio is easy to plan and hard to keep going. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. Coaching for beginners explains how that works, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: pick one activity and do 20 minutes of it, at a talking pace, twice this week.