Physical activity guidelines

In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) published clear guidelines: each week, adults should do 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, and strengthen their muscles on at least two days. Moderate means you get slightly out of breath but can still talk – brisk walking, cycling, swimming.

For children and teenagers aged 5 to 17, the guideline is an average of 60 minutes a day, mostly aerobic, plus vigorous, bone-strengthening activity on at least three days a week – hopping, climbing, ball games. Toddlers aged 1 to 4 should be active for at least 180 minutes spread across the day, including 60 minutes of really energetic play from age 3. Germany's 2016 National Recommendations for Physical Activity and Physical Activity Promotion – published by the German Federal Institute for Public Health (BIÖG, formerly BZgA) – even set 90 minutes a day for primary school children and teenagers, of which 60 minutes can be everyday activity such as walking to school.

The reality looks rather different: according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Germany's public health agency (KiGGS study), only around 22% of girls and 29% of boys get their 60 minutes a day; among adults, roughly one in two meets the aerobic activity recommendation. At the same time, the WHO explicitly recommends limiting time spent sitting – for children, above all recreational screen time.

The key principle is “every move counts”: even if you don't reach the guidelines, every extra step does you good. The recommendations are goals, not a threshold below which activity is pointless. Ten minutes of brisk walking three times a day is just as good as half an hour in one go.

A family plan could look like this: walking or cycling to school and to the shops, an active outing at the weekend, rough-and-tumble play, climbing or a sports club together twice a week – and screen time that doesn't eat into time for being active.