Prescribing Medically Appropriate Exercise

​Assignment D2:
Exercise Dose Equivalents
Instructions:
Get familiar with the Exercise Dose Equivalents and complete the quiz below.
The Physical Activity (exercise) Guidelines for Americans issued by the CDC & ACSM in 2019 recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity or an equivalent combination each week. However...
Prescribing exercise in minutes is imprecise and ineffective clinically, because different people perform different amounts of work within the same time period. Therefore, exercise, as powerful medicine, is prescribed as doses of exercise, not minutes.
  • A "dose" of exercise is roughly equivalent to what a fit individual could do in 1 minute, including recovery time.
  • Each dose of exercise is "work-load" dependent, not "time" dependent.
  • Less fit individuals take longer than 1 minute to complete a given dose of exercise.
  • Extra fit individuals can complete a given dose of exercise in less than 1 minute.
Exercise Dose Equivalents
QUIZ D2