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World Health Organization 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour
WHO-commissioned guideline and evidence synthesis in BJSM (2020) updating global recommendations for children, adults, older adults, pregnancy/postpartum, and chronic conditions/disability, with parallel statements on sedentary behaviour and muscle-strengthening activity.
What this row is
Official WHO 2020 guideline text published in Br J Sports Med—a policy + GRADE evidence map, not one new primary trial.
Adult headline targets (public-facing abstract)
- Aerobic: about 150–300 min/week of moderate-intensity or 75–150 min/week vigorous or equivalent mixed bouts ≥10 min
- Muscle strengthening: ≥2 days/week major muscle groups
- Sedentary behaviour: reduce prolonged sitting—insufficient evidence in the guideline process to pick a single quantitative sedentary threshold for all outcomes
Evidence hygiene
Effect sizes for specific diseases remain in the underlying systematic reviews cited by the guideline panel—use this page for dose targets, then jump to linked PubMed cohorts / RCTs on each protocol for numbers.
Publication
Bull FC, Al-Ansari SS, Biddle S, et al. Br J Sports Med. 2020 Dec;54(24):1451-1462. PMID 33239350.
Outcomes
- Adults: guideline recommends ~150–300 min/week moderate-intensity aerobic activity, ~75–150 min/week vigorous, or equivalent combinations of moderate + vigorous bouts ≥10 min.
- Adults: muscle-strengthening activities involving major muscle groups on ≥2 days/week recommended in addition to aerobic targets.
- Sedentary behaviour: guideline emphasizes reducing sedentary time while noting insufficient evidence to quantify one universal sedentary threshold across all health outcomes.