Physical activity simply means movement of the body that uses energy such as walking, gardening, pushing a baby stroller, climbing the stairs, playing soccer, or dancing. The USDA recommends that for health benefits, physical activity should be moderate or vigorous intensity.

Some examples of moderate physical activities include:

• Walking briskly (about 3 ½ miles per hour)
• Bicycling (less than 10 miles per hour)
• General gardening (raking, trimming shrubs, pulling weeds)
• Dancing
• Golf (walking and carrying clubs)
• Water aerobics
• Tennis (doubles)

Some examples of vigorous physical activities include:

• Running or jogging (5 miles per hour)
• Walking very fast (4 ½ miles per hour)
• Bicycling (more than 10 miles per hour)
• Heavy yard work, such as chopping wood
• Swimming (freestyle laps)
• Aerobics
• Basketball (competitive)
• Tennis (singles)

You can choose moderate or vigorous intensity activities, or a mix of both each week. Activities can be vigorous, moderate, or light in intensity depending on the extent to which they make you breathe harder and increase your heart. Only moderate and vigorous intensity activities count toward meeting your physical activity needs. Although you are moving, light intensity activities do not increase your heart rate; therefore, you should not count these activities towards meeting the physical activity recommendations. Examples of light intensity activities include walking at a casual pace, such as while grocery shopping, and doing light household chores.