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This paper categorizes the many benefits of physical activity, offering information concerning the type of dose necessary to get that benefit. In 2000, Health Canada and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with other agencies, sponsored a symposium to determine whether there was a dose-response relationship between physical activity and several health related outcomes. A group of 24 experts from six countries reviewed the published research on several health outcomes (all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer, blood pressure, body weight and body composition, bone density, blood lipids and lipoproteins, hemostatic factors, low back pain and osteoarthritis, and quality of life and independent living in the elderly, depression, and anxiety. Results showed ample evidence supporting the beneficial effects of regular physical activity on all reviewed health outcomes. There was a strong suggestion of an inverse and linear relationship between regular physical activity and rates of all-cause mortality, total cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease incidence and mortality, and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus. For other health outcomes, the dose-response relationship with physical activity was less clear. (Contains 15 references.) (SM)