Guidance

Physical activity guidelines: UK Chief Medical Officers' report

A report from the Chief Medical Officers in the UK on the amount and type of physical activity people should be doing to improve their health.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 7 September 2019
• Last updated: 10 July 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 10 July 2026

     Guidelines reformatted in HTML and updated to include: more recent evidence in the adult supporting evidence section; a revised introduction to reflect new evidence; a new foreword. A supplementary information document has also been published, which includes the methodology for updating the guidelines and acknowledgements from the 2019 version.

  2. 9 January 2020

     Added welsh language version of physical activity guidelines report: 'Canllawiau Gweithgarwch Corfforol Prif Swyddogion Meddygol y DU'.

  3. 19 September 2019

     The infographic on physical exercise for children and young people on page 28 has been corrected to represent the guidelines more clearly. The recommendation to ‘include muscle and bone strengthening activities 3 times per week’ has been changed to ‘activities to develop movement skills, and muscle and bone strength across the week'.

  4. 7 September 2019

     First published.

Documents

UK Chief Medical Officers' physical activity guidelines

HTML

UK Chief Medical Officers' physical activity guidelines: supplementary information

HTML

Details

The report contains guidance for health professionals, policymakers and others working to promote physical activity, sport and exercise for health benefits.