Current health guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly. But how you decide to tackle those two and a half hours is a debate amongst gym goers. Some prefer daily workouts, while others save exercise for the weekend.
Is one approach better than the other for health? The new Journal of the American Heart Association study, published earlier this week, sets the record straight.
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Good news for my fellow weekend warriors—you don’t need to work out every single day. The new study found that exercising one to two days rather than spreading them out throughout the week is enough to improve health and lower the risk of death.
“This message is encouraging news for busy people who struggle to fit in daily workouts but can manage a concentrated burst of activity on weekends or over a couple of days,” says Dr. Zhi-Hao Li, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Southern Medical University in China and one of the study’s authors. “The research provides reassuring evidence that even sporadic physical activity can have lasting health benefits, making it easier for people to prioritize their well-being amid busy schedules.”
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What Did the Study Find?
Li and his team came to this conclusion after studying the physical activity of 93,409 people aged 37 to 73 from 2013 to 2015. Over half of the participants were women, and the average age was 62.
The goal was to explore how their exercise patterns affected their risk of dying, especially from cancer and heart disease. Movement data came from wrist fitness tracker data from people in the United Kingdom doing various activities, such as walking and cycling, to dancing and household chores.
Based on the recommended 150 minutes of weekly physical activity, people were categorized as inactive, active weekend warrior or regularly active. After 8.1 years, the researchers found 3,965 adults had died, including 667 from heart disease and 1,780 from cancer. However, the number of people who passed away in each group varied.
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Exercising one to two days a week reaped the same health benefits as those who exercised throughout the week. “You don’t need to exercise every day to stay healthy. As long as you get 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week—whether packed into one to two days or spread out—you can significantly reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, cancer or other causes,” Li explains.
Both weekend warriors and regularly active individuals had a reduced risk of dying, especially from cancer and heart disease. The differences in risk reduction were minimal. Compared to weekend warriors, whose risk of death was 32% lower, regularly active people had a 26% lower risk of death.
“This reinforces the idea that meeting the 150 minutes of physical activity per week guideline is key to longevity, regardless of the activity pattern,” Li says. “Any activity—whether structured exercise such as jogging or daily tasks such as gardening—can be included if the intensity is moderate to vigorous.”
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Not having to workout everyday takes some of the guilt away if you didn’t make it to the gym today. However, one caveat to being a weekend warrior is the physical toll of cramming a ton of activity in such a short amount of time.
“Some research suggests that weekend warriors have a slightly higher risk of musculoskeletal injuries compared to those who exercise more regularly,” says Dr. Keith Diaz, Ph.D., an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, in a statement to the American Heart Association.
This is important when looking at the current study’s limitations. People who were weekend warriors were most likely to be young, slim men who regularly took care of their health. Still, this shouldn’t discourage you from exercising, even if it’s on the weekend.
“The benefits of exercising just on the weekend far outweigh the potential risks. If you are going to be a weekend warrior, make sure you do proper warm-ups and build up and progress to higher volumes of activity over time. This will help to reduce your risk of injuries,” advises Diaz.
Ultimately, it’s not the number of days you work out, but the total amount of physical activity that counts. Something is better than nothing.
Up Next:
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Sources
"Adult Activity: An Overview." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."Association of Accelerometer‐Derived Physical Activity Pattern With the Risks of All‐Cause, Cardiovascular Disease, and Cancer Death." Journal of the American Heart Association.Zhi-Hao Li, Ph.D., epidemiologist in the School of Public Health at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, ChinaKeith Diaz, Ph.D., associate professor of Behavioral Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center in New York Read More Details
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