What is the Godin-Shephard Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire?

A three-question measure of how many times a week you do strenuous, moderate and mild exercise for more than 15 minutes in your free time, published by Gaston Godin and Roy Shephard in 1985. The counts are weighted by intensity and added to give a Leisure Score Index. It is one of the shortest validated physical activity questionnaires and is free to use.

How is the Godin-Shephard score interpreted?

In Godin's 2011 update, only the strenuous and moderate counts are used for the health classification: 9 times strenuous plus 5 times moderate. A score of 24 or more is classed as active, 14 to 23 as moderately active, and under 14 as insufficiently active. The traditional total also adds 3 times the mild count.

Is a low score bad if I have ME/CFS or POTS?

No. The bands were built for the general population, where more exercise is nearly always better. In conditions with post-exertional malaise, the right amount of exercise is the amount that does not cause a crash, and for many people that is little or none. The score is useful as a record of what you actually did, not as a target.

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Godin-Shephard Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire

Three questions about a typical week, scored as a Leisure Score Index

Published by Gaston Godin and Roy Shephard in 1985, this is one of the shortest physical activity questionnaires in use. It asks how many times in a typical week you do strenuous, moderate and mild exercise for more than 15 minutes in your free time. The counts are weighted by intensity and added up. It has been validated against fitness testing and accelerometers and is widely used in research, including in cancer and cardiac populations, because it takes about a minute.

On this site it is offered as a record, not a target. The activity bands were derived for healthy adults, where more is generally better. In post-exertional conditions the right amount of exercise is the amount your body can absorb without a crash, and that can be a very low number, or zero, for a long time. What the questionnaire is good for is capturing what you actually did, week by week, so that changes in capacity are visible, and so that a clinician sees your real activity level rather than a guess. For a more detailed record, including sitting time, see the IPAQ short form.

This is not a diagnostic tool or an exercise prescription. It records your leisure-time exercise; it does not say what you should do. If you have post-exertional malaise, see the exercise readiness screen before changing your activity. Source: Godin G, Shephard RJ. A simple method to assess exercise behavior in the community. Can J Appl Sport Sci. 1985;10(3):141–146. Scoring bands from Godin G. The Godin-Shephard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire. Health Fitness J Can. 2011;4(1):18–22. The questionnaire is free to use and reproduced here with attribution.

During a typical 7-day period (a week), how many times on average do you do the following kinds of exercise for more than 15 minutes during your free time? Write in the number of times per week. If none, enter 0.

a. Strenuous exercise (heart beats rapidly)

e.g. running, jogging, hockey, football, squash, basketball, cross-country skiing, judo, roller skating, vigorous swimming, vigorous long-distance cycling

Times per week

b. Moderate exercise (not exhausting)

e.g. fast walking, baseball, tennis, easy cycling, volleyball, badminton, easy swimming, alpine skiing, popular and folk dancing

Times per week

c. Mild exercise (minimal effort)

e.g. yoga, archery, fishing from a river bank, bowling, horseshoes, golf, snowmobiling, easy walking

Times per week

The original 1985 questionnaire also asked how often you engage in activity long enough to work up a sweat. That item is not part of the scoring and is left out here.

Your Leisure Score Index

— strenuous and moderate only (2011 scoring)

Understanding your score

The weekly counts are multiplied by a weight that reflects the intensity of each category, roughly its energy cost in METs: strenuous ×9, moderate ×5, mild ×3. Godin's 2011 update uses only the strenuous and moderate parts for the health classification, because mild activity contributes little to fitness: 24 or more is classed as active, 14 to 23 as moderately active, and under 14 as insufficiently active. A score of 24 corresponds to the public-health guideline of about 150 minutes of moderate activity a week. The traditional total including mild activity is shown in the breakdown.

The bands describe the general population. They do not apply cleanly to people with post-exertional malaise, for whom the "active" band may be unreachable or actively harmful, and for whom mild activity may be all of the exercise there is. If that is you, the number to watch is your own score over time, and what happened to your symptoms afterwards. A steady score with stable symptoms is a success. A rising score followed by a crash is information.

Note what the questionnaire leaves out: it only counts leisure-time exercise in bouts of more than 15 minutes, so housework, work, short walks and the effort of daily living are not included. For someone with a limited energy envelope those may be the bulk of the week's exertion. The IPAQ short form captures walking and sitting time as well.

This is not an exercise prescription. If you are considering increasing activity, the readiness screen and the pacing guide are the places to start, and your clinician's advice outranks any questionnaire.

Symptom scores change slowly. A monthly retake is enough to see a trend.

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Godin-Shephard Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire

Your Leisure Score Index

Understanding your score

Your results over time

Shared results (not saved on this device)