People who have to juggle their work obligations with housework or childcare often don’t find time to exercise on weekdays. A new study has found a reason why you shouldn’t feel guilty about skipping exercise on weekdays… The reality is that experts recommend spending at least 150 minutes a week engaging in moderate to vigorous physical activity, but it’s not clear whether spreading all this exercise evenly over seven days or concentrating on the weekend is just as healthy.
New research appears to have cleared up that question, concluding that what’s known as ‘weekend warrior’ physical activity provides heart health benefits similar to more regular exercise; In other words, all those who do not have enough time on weekdays and concentrate their physical activity on one or two days a week or on the weekend would enjoy the same advantages.
The study was conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) who analyzed this ‘weekend warrior’ exercise pattern and found that it was associated with similarly lower risks of heart disease and stroke compared to more evenly distributed exercise. The results have been published in JAMA.
Do you exercise every day, or just on the weekend?
The researchers examined data from 89,573 people in the UK Biobank prospective study who wore wrist accelerometers that recorded their total physical activity and time spent at different intensities over a full week. 33.7% of participants were inactive (less than 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week), 42.2% were active weekend warriors (at least 150 minutes, and at least half on one to two days), and 24% were active-regular (at least 150 minutes, with most of the exercise spread over multiple days).
“Interventions to increase physical activity, even when concentrated on one or two days per week, can improve cardiovascular outcomes”
Results showed that both activity patterns were associated with equally lower risks of heart attack (27% and 35% lower risks for active and active-regular weekend warriors, respectively, compared with inactive), heart failure (38% and 36% lower risks), atrial fibrillation (22% and 19% lower risk), and stroke (21% and 17% lower risk).
“Our findings suggest that interventions to increase physical activity, even when concentrated on one to two days per week, can improve cardiovascular outcomes,” said Patrick T. Ellinor, MD, acting chief of cardiology and co-director of the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center at MGH and lead author. The team’s next goal is to test whether weekend warrior-type activity might also be associated with reduced risks for a broader set of diseases.
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