Four Follow-Along Videos for Heart Health
In honor of American Heart Month, every week in February 2025, I created a new video designed to help you get your moderate-intensity aerobic activity. Each 15-minute video has 10 minutes of moderate level activity.
The recommendation for 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity comes from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (PAGA). For an exploration of all the guidelines, read though my “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans“ article. For these videos, we will focus on these two guidelines:
Do at least 150 to 300 minutes (2 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity throughout the week,
or do 75 to 150 minutes (1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes) of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity,
or do an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity.If unable to do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, be as physically active as your abilities and conditions allow.
Moderate vs. Vigorous Aerobic Activity
There are some different ways of setting your moderate and vigorous activity zones. I discuss them in my “Your Max Heart Rate Doesn’t Matter“ article if you want to look at them.
Right now, I recommend you start looking at your activity with the perceived exertion method that I will describe here. The “moderate” and “vigorous” zones as used in PAGA map nicely onto this four zone chart:
(Ignore the VT1 and VT2 lines for now)
Moderate aerobic activity is zone 2. When moving at this intensity you will find yourself taking larger breaths. Your speech needs to be timed around those breaths and does not flow as smoothly as when you are simply walking. You may describe this effort as “moderate” or “somewhat hard,” and it feels like 5 or 6 on a 1–10 scale.
If you were talking to someone on the phone while exercising in zone 2, they would be able to tell that you were exercising, but you would be able to hold up your end of the conversation.
Vigorous aerobic activity is zone 3. Your breathing becomes very deep and you can only speak short phrases between breaths. You may describe this effort as “hard” or “very hard.” Your perceived exertion ranks a 7 or 8.
You need 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity. Basically, in the case of this goal, every vigorous minute counts for two moderate minutes. For example, you could get 100 moderate minutes during the week and then go for a 25-minute run on Saturday, and it would satisfy the guideline.
These videos will focus on moderate-intensity aerobic activity—the yellow section of the chart.
Minutes per Day
Those 150 minutes work out to about 22 minutes a day. You can divide that into even smaller durations of activity.
You can get up in the morning and go for a brisk 12-minute walk and then do one of these videos in the afternoon.
You can do two videos in one day and then do stair-climb repeats for two minutes.
You can do aerobic activity in a chair for six minutes, do one video, and then take a six-minute dance break later in the day.
You can go for a hour-long stroll that includes 22 one-minute intervals of brisk walking. These are sometimes called fartleks.
You don’t even need to get 22 minutes in a day. You can break that 150 minutes down like this: 22 + 10 + 0 + 60 + 20 + 18 + 20.
The Videos
My goal for you is that you get more fit. My goal for me is that I learn to make better videos. I didn't get music rights figured out before the deadline I promised, so this first one is a little "dry."
My goal for you is that you get more fit. My goal for me is that I learn to make better videos. This second video has music and my elusive cat, so that's good!
This third video has music and one of my cats. And I think my cueing is getting better!
This final video doesn’t have any cats—sorry!—but it will get your heart rate up!
I’d like to leave you with this quote from Ira Glass. It has been my constant reassurance through this project. Maybe it can be of help to you.
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Note: If you are healthy and make only gradual increases to your activity level, you do not need to consult a health care professional. However, if you have one or more chronic conditions or plan to make a big change, see your doctor first. Always work within your ability. With any activity/exercise program, if you feel faint or dizzy or experience pain or loss of balance, you should stop immediately.
