How to Calculate Exercise Equivalents
How to Calculate Exercise Equivalents
The primary goal of Everybody Walk Across Pennsylvania is to encourage people to take part in regular physical activities that will help to improve their overall health. Because some participants may prefer options for activity other than walking, we put together the following instructions for how to calculate exercise equivalents for those types of activities.
1. The first step is to determine an accurate level of intensity for your workout. See the following guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS):
- A moderately intense activity will vary from person to person, but is generally considered to be an effort of five or six on a 10-point scale. For most people, brisk walking would be considered a moderately intense activity.
- A vigorously intense activity is generally considered to be an effort of seven or eight out of 10. Jogging or running is categorized as a vigorously intense activity.
- If you need help determining an intensity level, see the additional information in the table found on page two. If you don't see your activity listed, select an equivalent. (For example, pickleball would likely be similar to doubles tennis, which is a moderately intense activity.)
2. Next, to convert your activity to miles for the program log, consider the time you spent performing the activity. For the purposes of Everybody Walk Across Pennsylvania,
- approximately 20 minutes of a moderately intense activity equals one mile, and
- approximately 10 minutes of a vigorously intense activity equals one mile.
For example, if, as one of your activities, you swam laps for 30 consecutive minutes, you should log three miles in your tracker. (Swimming laps is a vigorously intense activity; 10 minutes of a vigorous activity equates to one mile of walking.)
3. Finally, be sure that the activity you are logging was intended as an activity. In other words, you shouldn't be logging the time or distance you walked to run an errand or collect papers from your office printer. The log is intended only for intentional exercise.
Please remember that, although competition with others is an excellent motivator, we encourage people to participate in Everybody Walk Across Pennsylvania to enjoy the many benefits of exercise at their own pace and level.
| Moderately Intense Activities | Vigorously Intense Activities |
|---|---|
| Walking briskly (2.5 miles per hour or faster) | Jogging or running |
| Recreational swimming | Swimming laps |
| Bicycling slower than 10 miles per hour on level terrain | Bicycling faster than 10 miles per hour |
| Tennis (doubles) | Tennis (singles) |
| Active forms of yoga (for example, Vinyasa or power yoga) | Jumping rope |
| Ballroom or line dancing | Vigorous dancing |
| General yard work and home repair work | Heavy yard work (digging or shoveling, with heart rate increases) |
| Exercise classes like water aerobics | Exercise classes like vigorous step aerobics or kickboxing |
| Walking as part of golf | Hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack |
(activity list adapted from HHS, 2018)
