Minimum amount of exercise necessary for physical well being?

[Zem]

When I don't exercise, I get headaches about weekly, and I feel generally blah. When I do, no headaches, and physically I feel fantastic. What has been your experience as to the minimum amount of exercise you needed to feel great all the time?

For me it was running about 3-4 times a week at medium effort, about 10-15 minutes with a few tiny walking breaks, and 1 long run of anywhere from 40 minutes to 1h30m. I wasn't trying to minimize my time then, I think it will be less than that for me, curious if anyone has explored along these lines...

[Dimond]

Apparently your body is telling you to keep exercising. Every single person is different. For me, I need a substantial amount because I spend a lot of time sitting. So just a regular amount of exercise is too little. I need to take lots of breaks and make sure I exercise several times per day.

[Scott Marcaccio]

From a personal trainer's perspective...

I think the MINIMUM amount to feel healthy and good would be at least two workouts with weights a week where you try and push yourself, and then 2-3 low intensity sessions of cardio, whether that's taking the dog for a 30 minute walk or going for a hike, etc.

Flexibility is a big factor to feeling healthy too - I use a Theracane on my trigger points and Foam roller 3-5 times a week in addition to stretching every day and it feels very, very good.

[Zem]

I've never paid attention to whether stretching affected my feelings of well-being, that's very interesting. I'm going to try and see.

I live in a city and on a third floor with no elevator, so in the course of a regular day I get a good bit of low-level cardio. I'm sure that does me some good, but it really feels like I also need to get the heart rate up and break a sweat a few times a week, not even necessarily at high intensity. It really doesn't seem like I need all that much.

I didn't used to exercise consistently until a few years ago, and when I did I paid no attention to what it did to my feelings of well-being. It still surprises me how much it adds to my quality of life, it is phenomenal.