The American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine has released new activity guidelines for healthy adults ages 18- 65. If you have diabetes or some other chronic disease or have not been exercising regularly, see your doctor for a check-up before you attempt these goals.

To build aerobic capacity, to decrease heart disease risk and control weight, choose a light activity with no increase in pulse or breathing rate as part of your daily routine. Examples of light activity include walking and normal daily activities. Do these in combination with moderately intense activites, such as brisk walking, biking on flat surfaces, leisurely swimming and shooting basketball. Those activities should be done for 30 minutes, five days per week.

If you are able, you can instead do vigorously intense activity with rapid pulse and breathing for 20 minutes per day, three days per week. Those activities include walking very briskly, jogging or running, shoveling, digging ditches, biking hard or uphill, soccer or volleyball, or swimming at a brisk pace.

In addition to aerobic activity, healthy adults should also do strength and endurance training twice per week, with at least 48 hours between sessions.

Strength training examples include eight to 10 different exercises with weights and abdominal crunches. Each exercise should be done for eight to 10 repetitions using the major muscle groups. After eight to 12 repetitions, you should experience substantial fatigue. - Adapted from a chart in the American Diabetes Association Professional Section Quarterly, Fall 2007.