Fitness
We’ve Been Thinking About Exercise During Pregnancy All Wrong
During all three of my pregnancies, as my body grew and shifted in ways that made it feel foreign, I found comfort in movement. Walking helped me feel grounded. Pilates helped me feel connected to my changing form. Weight training helped me feel strong. But the physical benefits weren’t nearly as meaningful as the emotional ones. Between preeclampsia, a late-term loss, and placenta previa, my three pregnancies all felt like gauntlets, but focusing on what was in my control — putting one foot in front of the other on a walk, lifting a dumbbell — helped me to weather the anxiety.
Historically speaking, I know I’m lucky: Less than 40 years ago, women were unequivocally told to take it as easy as possible while pregnant. It was only in 1985 that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published its first guidelines for exercise during pregnancy. Today, the group encourages most low-risk pregnant people “to engage in aerobic and strength-conditioning exercises before, during, and after pregnancy.”
Since then, research has revealed a host of benefits for exercising during pregnancy for both pregnant people and babies. “We now know a whole lot more about the safety and efficacy of being active,” says Rachel Tinius, Ph.D., an assistant professor of exercise science at Western Kentucky University, who researches the effects of physical activity during pregnancy — and ran the Boston Marathon while 12 weeks pregnant with her fourth child. “The research that we have shows overwhelmingly how much better moms do with delivery, with fetal outcomes, postpartum outcomes, mental health, blood pressure, [and] gestational diabetes” when they’re active, she says, all of which positively impacts the developing fetus, too.
For years, pregnant women were told by doctors not to let their heart rate go above 140 beats per minute, despite the fact that this advice wasn’t based on any evidence.
And yet, outdated fears persist around pregnant women and exertion, which may help to explain why, according to some estimates, only 40% of pregnant women exercise during pregnancy. Women who do work out while pregnant still receive unsolicited commentary from family or even strangers, questioning their safety and the safety of their unborn child. When I polled people on social media about their experiences with exercise during pregnancy, I heard stories of women who were warned by fellow gymgoers that doing squats with weights would make the baby “fall out” (nope), or that too much cardio would make their future child hyperactive (a hard no). Powerlifters were told by their doctors to switch to tiny 10-pound weights.
Kyle Georgina Marsh, a Pilates teacher and strength coach based in New York City, balked when her obstetrician advised her to scale back her physical activity simply because she was pregnant. When Marsh pushed back, her doctor told her, “You can keep doing these things, but if you end up injured or compromising your pregnancy, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” (Marsh switched doctors.)
While the last four decades have seen a major uptick in research exploring exercise during pregnancy, the scientific community is still playing catch-up for the complete void of data that existed until — well, very recently. Beyond simply filling the void, researchers are also working to replace earlier, misguided beliefs, recommendations, and fears with evidence-based information. For example, when ACOG released its first physical activity guidelines for pregnant women in 1985, the group cautioned that pregnant women should be sure their heart rate did not go above 140 beats per minute. For years, this advice was standard in doctors’ offices — despite the fact that, according to several researchers, it wasn’t based on any evidence.
In the absence of studies examining the effects of exercise on pregnancies, obstetricians simply came up with a number that seemed reasonable, says Tinius. “It was based on a bunch of smart doctors that sat down together and basically said, ‘Well, let’s protect ourselves and make sure that our patients are safe,’” she told me.
Evidence now suggests that, for many pregnant women, it is safe — and can be beneficial — to work out at a moderate-to-high intensity, particularly if they were active before pregnancy. And yet, several pregnant women I spoke with report being told — in 2024 — to keep their heart rate below 140, for no good reason. The same goes for lifting heavy objects. “We know so much more now,” says Tinius, but “it was just 30-something years ago the recommendations were completely different.”
The fact that the common wisdom about pregnancy exercise has changed so dramatically in roughly one generation means that a lot of the previous advice is still circulating, and many people are skeptical about defying it. “[Pregnancy] is a time that is just filled with stress and anxiety and worry,” says Tinius, and so “sometimes the emotional can outweigh logic.” The challenge is translating scientific advances “into actually getting people moving, and not being afraid to move.”
Evidence now suggests that, for many pregnant women, it is safe — and can be beneficial — to work out at a moderate-to-high intensity.
“We have an information dissemination crisis,” sayss Gráinne Donnelly, a pelvic floor physical therapist and editor of the Journal of Pelvic Obstetric and Gynaecological Physiotherapy. In her research, she has found that many women receive no advice about physical activity during pregnancy and postpartum. “I think education and public health messaging has a huge importance, and we need to improve on it.”
On top of this, earlier guidance has also presented a challenge for researchers who want to study exercise during pregnancy. “I think the biggest limitation [to more research] is these limitations we have put onto the research area previously,” like keeping pregnant women’s heart rates below 140 beats per minute, says Margie Davenport, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at the University of Alberta who runs a lab dedicated to researching physical activity during and after pregnancy. “As soon as you have these limitations that really get into the social fabric of our lives, it’s really difficult to propose these studies, get them funded, and get them approved by the ethics board, because they’re seen as being really risky,” she says. “But in my opinion, the riskier thing is not doing the research.”
So what do we know? For starters, ACOG recommends that pregnant women get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity every week, the same recommended dose of weekly exercises for non-pregnant people. While the latest guidelines don’t suggest a specific amount of strength training weekly, the group says strength conditioning is generally beneficial.
Researchers also agree that, for most women who are experiencing normal-risk pregnancies, staying active during pregnancy can be an “exceptionally powerful” tool for boosting health and well-being, says Davenport. Physical activity has the potential to ease back pain and constipation, strengthen your heart and blood vessels, and decrease your risk of gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, preterm delivery, and cesarean birth. Some women also find that moving helps with nausea. Exercise during pregnancy can lead to a speedier recovery postpartum, too.
And crucially, for many women — particularly those who exercised regularly before pregnancy — staying active can support their mental health, says Davenport. In 2021, she and her team reviewed population studies looking at the impact of exercise on anxiety and depression during pregnancy and found that women who stayed very active reduced their risk of both depression and anxiety by around 32%, compared to control groups. “We are just starting to scratch the surface” of understanding the potential of exercise for mental health during pregnancy, Davenport says — in part because the scientific community has only been studying pregnant people’s mental health for a little over a decade.
Exercise during pregnancy also benefits the fetus, says Dr. Cynthia Gyamfi-Bannerman, M.D., a professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of California-San Diego, who co-authored ACOG’s most recent guidelines on exercise during pregnancy. This mutually beneficial relationship is especially clear when it comes to preterm delivery. “We know that stress is a pretty big cause of preterm birth,” she says, and “exercise in and of itself releases endorphins that mitigate stress.”
But even when physical activity doesn’t prevent complications or less-than-ideal outcomes, it can still benefit a pregnant person by simply helping them feel better, calmer, and stronger. This was the case for me. Despite staying active throughout my pregnancies, I developed multiple complications — and yet, I’m convinced that my movement habit helped me endure these ordeals far better than I could have if I’d been forced to sit still.
The gaps in knowledge that scientists are working to fill are particularly wide at the far ends of the exercise spectrum, says Davenport. That includes pregnant people who have medical conditions for which doctors advise against exercising, and elite athletes who want to continue to train at the highest level during pregnancy. “People who have contraindications to exercise — we actually know very little about it,” says Davenport. “Many of those contraindications are based on theoretical issues rather than actual evidence. But that [research] is certainly building.”
More than two dozen athletes have competed in the Olympics while pregnant, several of whom have medaled.
At the other end of the spectrum are athletes who regularly exceed current recommendations with high intensity, long duration, and high volumes of activity. That we know even less about, says Davenport. This dearth of knowledge can be especially challenging for elite athletes who want to continue to train or compete during pregnancy. “It creates a lot of anxiety, and oftentimes distress, because [we] don’t have evidence to demonstrate what the true limits are, or if it’s safe or not,” she says.
Dr. Megan Roche, M.D., Ph.D., an Olympic trail runner who researches and coaches pregnant athletes, agrees. “That’s still a big question in my mind,” she says. “If an athlete goes out and runs an all-out 5K, there’s just not enough evidence to be like, how does this support a developing fetus?”
While they wait for the research to catch up, many pregnant athletes forge ahead with competition, trusting their bodies. Serena Williams famously won the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant, and elite runners now win races while pregnant. More than two dozen athletes have competed in the Olympics while pregnant, several of whom have medaled.
Both Davenport and Roche stressed the need for more high-quality studies — which, again, can be difficult to get approved, since they might require pregnant women to push their bodies to a limit that isn’t currently sanctioned by medical guidelines.
And yet, just because some pregnant people can push themselves physically while pregnant doesn’t mean everyone should. Since Jane Fonda released her groundbreaking pregnancy workout in the 1980s, fitness culture has come for pregnancy full-throttle. To be pregnant in 2024 is to be barraged with images and videos of women working out until the day they give birth, their abs somehow still visible over their bumps. As pregnant athletes have become more commonplace — crossing marathon finish lines, CrossFitting, teaching workout classes — some women now feel pressure to keep working out as if they weren’t pregnant at all. Exercise can feel like one more item on a never-ending list of pregnancy wellness to-dos. And women who need to temper their movement habits during pregnancy for legitimate health reasons now fear the potential repercussions of not moving.
Sometimes in the cultural enthusiasm for encouraging pregnant women to work out, the nuances of what it actually feels like to exercise while pregnant can get overlooked. The reality is that, during pregnancy, women’s bodies transform in both visible and invisible ways that can have a profound impact on their experience of exercise and movement. Understanding these changes can help to both reduce women’s anxiety around exercise and set realistic goals, experts say. Some of these changes involve the cardiovascular system. When pregnant, your resting heart rate tends to increase, and your heart rate may spike doing relatively gentle activities, such as walking up a hill. This is, in part, because your blood volume practically doubles during pregnancy, and your heart has to work harder to pump it through your body and to the developing fetus. “Pregnancy is like a stress test,” says Gyamfi-Bannerman. “And it’s essentially like being on a stress test for your entire nine months.” It’s taxing.
Fatigue and nausea can also weigh down even the most motivated exercisers. “The first trimester is so hard,” says Roche. “I’ve seen athletes struggle with momentum after the first trimester, even if things start feeling better into the second. Sometimes picking up and restarting exercise can be really hard.”
Then there are the hormonal changes, including a surge of the aptly-named hormone relaxin, which causes your joints and ligaments to become looser and less stable, particularly in the third trimester. These changes are beneficial for uterine growth and delivery, but they can make certain workouts more challenging. “With athletes that I’ve worked with, I’ve seen a lot of rolled ankles or sprained ankles, just from the ligament instability,” says Roche. “And then things like pelvic pain or hip pain.” For this and other reasons, back pain is very common, too.
As your pregnancy progresses, you may also feel out of breath if you lie flat on your back, since your growing uterus can press on one of the main arteries that supplies oxygen to your brain. You’ll want to avoid this position for long stretches. As your uterus grows, your center of gravity can change, too.
“Maintaining your balance is not going to be the same as it was before you were pregnant,” says Gyamfi-Bannerman. “So understanding that, and factoring that into what you do, is important.” (Many pregnant women also report feeling more comfortable when wearing a belly band or compression garment, such as support leggings or bike shorts, during physical activity.)
“You really cannot compare yourself to the person next to you or to the person three lanes over, because their story is very different from yours.”
More than anything, Roche says, during pregnancy, you’re best off listening to your body, and asking yourself: How does this feel? Does it feel reasonable? “It can be stressful to have heart rate data pop up during a run. Seeing that data at all times is actually kind of overwhelming. It’s like, what is my heart doing now?” she says. The guidance around exercise during pregnancy has “evolved to become … more intuitive with the body.”
If you were extremely active before pregnancy and you can maintain your workout without any negative side effects, you can probably keep doing what you’ve been doing, she says. But if you’re new to working out, “it’s really about easing into it and building into it slowly.”
The experts I spoke with also emphasized that a pregnancy exercise routine doesn’t have to look like a sweaty session at the gym. Walking, yoga, and even running errands are all beneficial. “We talk a lot about doing 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity,” says Davenport, “but what is often missed is that even well below those recommendations, there are significant benefits.” Any movement is better than no movement.
Experts also stressed that every body, and every pregnancy, is different. “You really cannot compare yourself to the person next to you or to the person three lanes over, because their story is very different from yours. And their body is very different from yours. And what they’re feeling is different from yours,” Tinius says. “Just having an appreciation for what the body is doing, and giving yourself grace in the process” can help you focus on what’s right for you, says Roche. “It’s not going to look the same for everyone.”
Danielle Friedman is an award-winning journalist who focuses on the intersection of health, sexuality, and culture. She is the author of Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World, and her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Cut, Vogue, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, the Washington Post, NBC News, InStyle, The Daily Beast, Health, and more. She has previously written for Romper about how to reframe your relationship with exercise and whether teens should take Ozempic for weight loss.
Fitness
How busy women can realistically hit 10 hours of exercise a week – and unlock the biggest health benefits
A huge new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine – which analysed the activity levels of more than 17,000 participants – suggests that to achieve a substantial (defined as greater than 30%) reduction in heart attack and stroke risk, adults should aim for 560–610 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week. That’s considerably more than the current 150-minute minimum guidelines for health benefits, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that only 12% of people in the study achieved it.
It’s not to say there wasn’t any reduction in risk for lower totals – just not what scientists class as ‘substantial’. And it’s also important to note that the study was observational, meaning it cannot prove any kind of direct link; just association. It could be the case, for instance, that participants were already healthier and fitter than the general population. Plus, neither sedentary time nor less vigorous exercise were measured.
When WH put the findings to personal trainers, they were very keen to stress that something is always better than nothing – and they also had some useful tips for giving it your best shot at getting those golden 10 hours in.
4 tips for adding more movement into your week
Olivia Horncastle is a personal trainer helping busy women and mums fit exercise into their schedules.
Habit stack
‘I get my busiest clients to habit stack movement – so every time they fill up a kettle, they might do some squats, when they brush their teeth, they might do a wall sit,’ says Horncastle. ‘Other small things like trying to take calls while walking, or stretching in front of the TV at night work well. It doesn’t need to always be adding a full workout – all small additions help.’
5-minute workouts matter
‘Even starting with a 5-minute bodyweight circuit and building that up over time starts a habit – something is always better than nothing.’
Set yourself daily or weekly challenges
That might be trying to do 50 squats throughout the day, increasing your steps by parking further away at the shops, or taking the stairs instead of the lift, says Horncastle.
Tie exercise into your social plans
‘Instead of drinks with friends, I might suggest we go for a walk and grab a drink at the end, or try a new Pilates class instead of brunch etc.’
What type of exercise should you prioritise?
Michael Baah is a strength coach and oncology exercise specialist working with busy professionals, athletes and people recovering from cancer. ‘All that protection for your heart works best if you maintain your muscle mass, too,’ he cautions. ‘If you walk a lot but never do any strength work, you actually lose muscle faster, and after age 30, women naturally lose about 1% of their muscle every year unless they use it.’
Baah recommends doing three 45-minute strength sessions a week, using simple, compound moves (think: squats and deadlifts) that work your whole body. ‘You should finish each exercise feeling like you could maybe do just one or two more reps – this is the safe and effective method we use in clinics.’
‘The rest of your target comes from walking,’ adds Baah. ‘Just 40-50 minutes of brisk walking every day gets you there easily. Add a swim, yoga or dance class once a week if you like, and you’re all set.’
But don’t forget to adequately fuel, notes Baah. ‘Once you’re moving regularly, food matters, too. You need enough protein every day to help your body get stronger – aim for 1.4-1.8g for every kg of bodyweight. Without this, you do the work but miss out on the best results.’
If you’re more deterred than motivated by the recent study results, Horncastle wants to leave you with a few words. ‘Start small and slow, whether that’s one workout a week and building up, or starting with a few small walks – that’s how you achieve long-term, consistent change.’
‘And don’t compare yourself – who cares if Susan does hot yoga five times a week? She isn’t living your life. You need to find what works for and benefits you, but is realistic, too.’
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Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women’s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner’s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She’s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.
In the last few years, the fitness tracker market has grown exponentially. Now, you can find something for every taste, whether you prefer a discreet ring or a large screen, as well as for every personality, from the health metric-obsessed to the person who simply wants better sleep.
And in 2026, I tried many of the most popular devices on the market, from Apple, Oura, Garmin and more. Some days, I had a forearm-high stack of watches as I compared how they tracked my data for runs, strength training sessions, sleep and more. And I had some clear favorites.
Below, I’m sharing the top trackers that I tried last year, from screen-free options to the best pick for runners.
Best smart watches
Best affordable tracker:
If you’re looking for a fitness tracker that can give you all of the basics (and then some) at a relatively affordable price, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is one of the best devices out there, in my opinion. While it doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles that other gadgets offer, it really does quite a bit. Over the course of about a month of wear, I found the sleep, activity and general health data to be pretty accurate.
I also like that the device feels less bulky than many of the other trackers with screens that I have tried. The screen is 5 millimeters, which is just enough to show you the relevant stats during workouts, read notifications and texts and more without feeling like an eyesore on your wrist. However, that comes with the caveat that those with larger fingers may struggle with the small touchscreen.
To access all of your data, you’ll have to go to the app. It takes some playing around to figure out where to find everything, but once I did, it was easy to stay up to date on all my metrics. While you can access most of the basic data with just the app and watch, you’ll also get a six-month Fitbit Premium membership when you purchase, where you can see even more metrics and access additional workout videos as well.
Best for runners:
While I’ve tried a couple of Garmin’s devices and loved them all, for casual runners, the Garmin Forerunner 55 is a great entry point. That’s not to say you can’t use it for other activities. It allows you to log different activities and monitor sleep data, but I’ve found it to be the most helpful for running.
If you’re someone who regularly runs races, whether it be 10Ks or full marathons, you can find your race on the Garmin app and start a countdown and the app will even create a custom training plan for you with workouts that you can send to your device. I love the ability to create custom workouts with different pace and distance goals throughout your run (which is particularly great for anyone working on speed). If you’re running below or above your desired pace, the watch will send you an alert to keep you on track.
It has an impressive battery life of up to two weeks on a single charge, too, so I’ve been able to go on trips and leave the charger behind. In fact, on a 14-day trip, I got home and still had a day’s worth of charge left.
This is also the only device I tried without a touchscreen, which I really liked. That meant that I wasn’t fumbling with the buttons with sweaty hands on hot days or cold, gloved ones in the winter. The buttons are large enough that I could press them to pause or restart my workout, even when the watch was hidden by a jacket sleeve.
Best affordable Apple Watch:
The Apple Watch SE is the brand’s most affordable model, and I recommend it for the person who wants to stay connected, track workouts, monitor health and more, but doesn’t mind charging every day. (Though a big benefit of this new model is that it charges much faster than previous versions.)
New features include temperature sensing for more accurate vitals measurements, a daily sleep score to give you a better idea of how well-rested you are for the day, an always-on display and the ability to start workouts on your phone and track them on the watch.
Plus, if you have an iPhone, an Apple Watch is by far the best option out of all the available trackers for staying connected. You can easily respond to texts, check your email, use your Apple Wallet, answer calls and more. It makes functioning without a phone easy if I need to accomplish something without my phone nearby.
Best for iPhone users:
Lowest price ever
Apple released its Apple Watch 11 earlier this year, and for anyone questioning if they should make the upgrade, the new watch has one major perk: Extended battery life. According to the brand, you can get up to 24 hours of normal use from one charge, and I find that to be pretty accurate. But when you put it on low power mode (which I often do), you can get more than a day of use.
When looking at the other models, I would say the biggest draw of this one is that you get a much better battery life for just a little more money than the SE (considering that it’s on sale right now). Plus, like the other new models Apple released this year, the Series 11 includes the sleep score feature and can be used to spot signs of possible hypertension or high blood pressure.
I’ve also had issues with my Apple Watch screens scratching in the past, so I appreciate that the brand says this one is twice as scratch-resistant as the previous model.
Best for endurance athletes:
If it weren’t for the high price, I would recommend the Apple Watch Ultra to everyone. But for those who are active and willing to invest, I consider it to be the all-around best option among Apple’s watches.
The Ultra is designed specifically with athletes and adventurers in mind. It has the longest battery life of any of the Apple Watches, with up to 42 hours of battery life (and up to 72 hours on low power mode), so it will last through long races and backpacking trips — or even just a couple of days of going through your normal routine. It’s also designed to be much more durable than other models, as it has a titanium case and a display made from sapphire crystal (which Apple says is one of the strongest naturally occurring metals on Earth). It’s also said to have a better-than-average GPS, so your data won’t be as affected when running in urban areas where there are a lot of tall buildings.
Another thing that I really love about the Ultra is the additional Action button, which is customizable, so you can use it to control your workout, start a new interval or mark a segment. You can pause and end your workout using the buttons as well, so you don’t have to fumble with the touchscreen (which, if you have sweaty hands, you know is a big win).
If you spend a lot of time off the grid — say, trail running or climbing in remote areas — you can use the satellite feature to stay connected and send texts or your location, even if you don’t have WiFi or cell service. It can also be used to get help in case of an emergency.
Best screen-free trackers
Best for the data-obsessed:
If you’re a true wellness obsessive who loves data and seeing how behavior changes affect sleep, workouts and more, this is a great device to consider.
For each activity you do, you get an estimated strain score that tells you how taxing the activity was on your body (the score can range from zero to 21). These all factor into your strain score for the day, which includes everything from workouts to general daily movement, as well as stress and anxiety. After a night’s rest, you’ll also get a recovery score — a percentage between one and 100 — which factors in your activities and stress from the day before, your sleep performance, HRV, heart rate and respiratory rate. Each day, you also get the option to journal, so you can track behaviors, like stretching or taking supplements, and over time, you can track how the habits affect your recovery.
The Whoop provides you with a lot of interesting data, but it also has features to help you understand it better. It uses AI to create a daily outlook, which will give you activity recommendations based on your sleep and activity data. There’s also a Healthspan feature, which takes your data (after 21 consistent nights of wear) and gives you your Whoop Age (a measure of your physiological age, which can be different from your actual age) and Pace of Aging (which is impacted by your daily lifestyle choices and can range from -1x to 3).
The battery life is also pretty hard to beat. The brand shares that you can get up to 14 days, and I’ve found that estimate to be pretty accurate. In fact, I’ve even occasionally gotten more than two weeks of use out of it from one charge. To charge the Whoop, you charge its battery pack separately and then can slide it onto the device while you’re still wearing it to add juice, so you don’t even have to miss a minute of data.
As someone who is super interested in using data to optimize health, I love the Whoop. However, as a runner who spends a lot of time focused on proper pacing during workouts, for those activities, I also typically wear a device with a screen, like my Garmin or Apple Watch, to make sure I’m meeting my goals.
When you purchase using one of the above links, you’ll get a year-long membership. After that, you can choose from one of Whoop’s three membership options: One ($149 per year), Peak ($239 per year) or Life ($359 per year).
The most discreet fitness tracker:
Editor’s pick
The Oura Ring has become one of the most trendy trackers of the last few years, thanks to its discreet — and I would even say, stylish — design. The ring features sensors along the inner band, which measure things like blood oxygen levels, temperature, respiration, heart rate variability and more.
In my opinion, one of the best things about the Oura ring (outside of its look) is how simply it breaks down the data. Each morning, it takes your data from the night and day before, and gives you three scores: Sleep, Activity and Readiness, all of which fall between zero and 100. Each one provides you with a broader view of how well rested you are for the day and how ready you are to challenge yourself.
If you’re in it for the workout tracking aspect, this is not the best option. Aside from the fact that it doesn’t have a screen (so you can’t actively see your stats while you’re in a workout), it doesn’t always sense lower-intensity workouts, like yoga or Pilates, so you often have to go into the app and add them after. Plus, in addition to the cost of the ring, accessing your data and all the features on the app costs $6 per month.
How we chose
Last year, I tried over a dozen fitness trackers, wearing them each for at least a week straight (most of the time much longer) for workouts, sleep and everyday activities. Throughout the year, I trained for multiple races, including a marathon and two half marathons, so I used many of the trackers for workouts related to my training. When choosing the best trackers, I kept in mind a range of factors, including price, battery life, connectivity and general features.
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The Shop TODAY editors and writers search the internet to find the best products out there. We interview expert sources and use our own personal experiences with the product and brand to make shopping easier for our readers.
Emma Stessman is a writer for Shop TODAY. She has over a decade of experience in digital media — with nearly half of that time being focused on the health and wellness space. She has owned multiple fitness trackers from top brands over the years. At Shop TODAY she covers a range of topics, from new tech releases to expert-approved beauty trends. She is an avid runner and fitness enthusiast with a personal passion for health.
Fitness
The 150-minute Exercise Rule Helps Your Heart. But If You’re Serious About It, Better Aim for 600 Minutes
Public health advice says you should get at least 150 minutes of brisk walking, cycling, running or other moderate-to-vigorous exercise each week.
However, a new study suggests that the target is just the bare minimum.
The widely cited 150-minute goal is not wrong. The new study found it offers a reliable first layer of protection against heart disease. But for people seeking a much larger reduction in cardiovascular risk, the amount of exercise associated with that benefit was far higher: roughly 560 to 610 minutes a week, or about 80 to 90 minutes a day.
A Minimum, Not a Magic Number
The study analyzed more than 17,000 adults in the UK Biobank who wore wrist activity monitors and completed a fitness test. Over nearly eight years of follow-up, researchers tracked heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and atrial fibrillation.
They found that meeting the current guideline was linked to a modest 8 to 9 percent reduction in cardiovascular risk across fitness levels. A reduction greater than 30 percent was associated with about three to four times as much weekly exercise.
The findings do not mean that 150 minutes a week is useless — quite the opposite. The study suggests it works as a simple public health floor, one that benefits people regardless of whether they start out fit or deconditioned.
But the results also challenge the way many people understand the guideline. The number is often treated as a target to reach and stop at.
The researchers studied moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a category that includes exercise intense enough to raise the heart rate, such as brisk walking, running and cycling. They also measured cardiorespiratory fitness using estimated VO₂ max, a measure of how efficiently the heart, lungs and muscles deliver and use oxygen during exertion.
This is a pretty important distinction. Fitness and physical activity are of course related, but they are not the same thing. Two people may report similar exercise habits and still differ in cardiovascular fitness because of genetics, age, health history, training response or earlier-life conditioning.
“Future guidelines may need to differentiate between the minimal moderate to vigorous exercise volume required for a basic safety margin and the substantially higher volumes necessary for optimal cardiovascular risk reduction,” they conclude.
Less Fit People Faced a Steeper Climb
Participants wore an accelerometer for seven consecutive days between 2013 and 2015. They also completed a submaximal cycling test used to estimate VO₂ max. The researchers then linked these data to hospital and death records through October 2022.
During a median follow-up of 7.85 years, 1,233 cardiovascular events occurred. These included 874 cases of atrial fibrillation, 156 heart attacks, 111 cases of heart failure and 92 strokes.
The pattern was not simply “more exercise is better” in a straight line. Instead, the researchers found a non-linear relationship between activity, fitness and risk. Higher fitness appeared to provide its own protective margin. At the same time, increasing weekly activity lowered risk across the fitness spectrum.
For a 20 percent reduction in cardiovascular risk, people with the lowest fitness needed about 370 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per week. People with the highest fitness needed about 340 minutes. For a 30 percent reduction, the estimates rose to about 610 minutes per week for the least fit and 560 minutes for the most fit.
You might not like to hear this, but if you’re already unfit, you need to invest much more time and effort than someone who is fitter to reach the same cardiovascular protection. If that sounds like common sense, it is. But the new study is helpful because the figures it offers help frame things more clearly and offer a measurable goal.
Set Achievable Goals
The study was observational, so it cannot prove that exercising 600 minutes a week caused the lower risk. People who exercise more may differ in other ways, such as diet, income, sleep, access to care, smoking history or underlying health.
Also, not everyone can afford to exercise for 10 hours a week. In fact, most don’t. For older adults, people with heart disease, or those who have been inactive for years, that could be unrealistic or unsafe without medical guidance.
For broad public health, 150 minutes a week remains a useful and achievable goal. But if you can safely do more, the heart may keep benefiting well beyond that threshold.
The findings appeared in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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