Staying in top shape and excellent health requires working out. In the US, federal exercise recommendations underline a minimum of 150 minutes a week of “moderate exercise” to achieve both, yet, until recently, what this specific term means has never been made clear. Researchers have just translated it into exact figures – for the best results, we should all walk 100 steps per minute for at least 150 minutes a week, WebMD informs.

Since moderate-intensity exercises are often held as more efficient that vigorous ones, walking is one of the cheapest (and most effortless) methods of staying in perfect health. This is how researchers have come up with the idea of measuring the intensity of several types of exercises, to see what exactly a moderate workout should include. “This presents a challenge because health benefits are dependent on the intensity of activity, yet there are few valid and reliable monitoring tools available to the public that are affordable and easy to use.” researchers say, as quoted by the aforementioned publication.

In order to translate the general recommendations into targets anyone could interpret and achieve, researchers constituted a group of 58 women and 39 men, whose activity they closely monitored. All subjects completed 4 distinct, 6-minute sessions on the treadmill at different speeds, while researchers observed their oxygen uptake (the amount of oxygen taken in by the body during exercise) and the number of steps each took. The conclusion was that the moderate exercise meant 92-102 steps per minute for men, and 91-115 steps per minute for women.

“We believe that these data support a general recommendation of walking at more than 100 steps per minute on level terrain to meet the minimum of the moderate-intensity guideline. Because health benefits can be achieved with bouts of exercise lasting at least 10 minutes, a useful starting point is to try and accumulate 1,000 steps in 10 minutes, before building up to 3,000 steps in 30 minutes. Individuals can monitor their progress using a simple pedometer and a wristwatch.” researcher Simon J. Marshall, PhD, reveals for the aforementioned source.