How much exercise for good health (not weight loss)?

stephaniegcoffey

Hi Folks,

I'm hoping to get some opinions on how much daily exercise one should get for good cardiovascular health and to slow the loss of muscle mass with aging.

I'm a 26 year old female who is 5' 6.5" tall. My set weight for when I am active regularly seems to be 122-123 pounds. However, I spent the months of September - January traveling and gained some weight due to lack of regular exercise and a disruption in my eating habits, and now weigh 126 lbs. I'm not terribly concerned about the gain, as I think I will gradually get back to normal now that I have an exercise and eating routine in place again. To get back into shape, I'm more or less doing the c25k plan where you do run/ walk intervals for 30 minutes 3 x a week. I'm not following it precisely but am gradually increasing the running intervals until I can run for 30 minutes straight. Once I can do that I'll work on speed and/or distance.

I alternate the running days with a body weight interval workout that takes about 30 minutes and includes push ups, squats, lunges, planks, bear crawls, crunches, hip raises, chair dips, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, and reverse flies (using water bottles as I don't have dumbbells). I don't rest more than a few seconds between exercises so it ends up being a good cardio workout. I do this 3x which gives one rest day when combined with c25k.

I also walk to and from work most days which is about 20 minutes away.

So, I'm wondering whether working out only about 30 minutes per day is enough to get back into shape and maintain a good level of fitness. I don't care about looking like a model, I just want to take care of my body and be able to do the activities I want to do, such as overnight hiking trips carrying a heavy pack come summer. From what I've seen, most people on MFP work out an hour at a time, or more.

If it's not enough, what other activities should I add in? I am still living abroad and don't have access to a gym, and I don't want to do anything high impact on the days I don't run as upsets my joints.

Thanks!