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Exercise for the heart
The dose and the kind that actually reduce risk.
The guideline dose: 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity, plus two strength sessions. The dose-response keeps going past that — more movement keeps lowering risk, just with diminishing returns — and the biggest single step is the first one: going from none to some captures most of the benefit.
Strength training matters through a different door: muscle mass and metabolic health, the same machinery that decides blood sugar and blood pressure. For the heart itself, the aerobic minutes do the heavy lifting; for the whole risk picture, the two kinds work together.
The numbers
- 150 min/week moderate aerobic activity, plus 2 strength sessions (ESC/WHO).
- Going from none to some captures most of the benefit.
Source: ESC — 2021 guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention · checked 2026-09-07
Reference, not medical advice. Your targets are set by a clinician from your total risk. Chest pain, breathlessness at rest or fainting are emergency symptoms — get help, do not read on.