Please click here to read the original Yahoo! Health article.

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have updated their 1995 exercise guidelines for healthy adults ages 18 to 65.

I know what you are thinking — more exercise guidelines that we can't meet. But before you stop reading this, I want to challenge that way of thinking.

First, if you are a healthy adult, you can meet these exercise guidelines; it is a matter of making exercise a priority. Second, these guidelines were created to maintain health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, and some types of cancer.

Surely, these new principles are important enough to warrant a fair hearing.

So what are the new guidelines? In a nutshell, they are:

• Moderate-intensity cardiovascular activities for 30 minutes per day, five days a week OR vigorous-intensity cardiovascular activities for 20 minutes per day, three days per week 
• Eight to 10 different strength-training exercises of the major muscle groups, eight to 12 repetitions of each, two times per week.

How do the 2007 guidelines differ from the 1995 guidelines?   

• Strength training has been added to the recommendations.
• ACSM and AHA have now made the distinction between moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity physical activity.
• Instead of moderate-intensity physical activity "on most days of the week," the new recommendations are for five days each week. 
• The two organizations have also clarified how one is supposed to add up several smaller bouts of physical activity through the day to arrive at your total of 30 minutes for the day: Each bout must be made up of continuous activity that lasts for at least 10 minutes. This means that walking to your car or taking out the trash does not count toward your 30-minute total. 

The take-home message from these new guidelines? More is better, and is actually needed to maintain health. Make exercise a priority in your day.

- # # # -

This article was written by Yahoo! Health expert Christine McKinney, M.S., R.D., C.D.E. Copyright 2007.