Benchmarking to National Health Goals
to increase physical activity among your employees

Employers can help increase levels of physical activity among employees and their families.  

Healthy People 2020 goals for physical activity:

1. Reduce the number of adults who engage in no leisure time physical activity

• Baseline: In 2008, 36.2% adults engaged in no leisure time physical activity
• Target: The goal is to reduce that to 32.6% of adults, a 10% reduction.

2. Increase the number of adults who meet the current federal physical activity standards for aerobic activities. 

• Baseline: 43.5% of adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity or a combination of the two each week.
• Target: Increase percentage to 47.9%, a 10% increase.

3. Increase the number of adults who meet current standards for muscle training activities 2 or more days a week.

• Baseline: Currently, 21.9% of adults engage in muscle training activities 2 or more days a week.
• Target: Increase the percentage to 24.1%, a 10% increase.

What you can do

1. Assess the current levels of physical activity and/or muscle training activities.
2. Compare results to the recommended levels. Identify the percentage of employees engaging in physical activity.
3. Take any or all of these HP2020 goals and set a 10% target for improvement.
4. Evalute throughout your program and make changes based on participation, feedback challenges and successes.

Read more about America's physical activity goals in Healthy People 2020.

Build a physical activity program based on best practices.