If exercise takes a back seat during the work week, take heart. Cram-in the recommended amount of physical activity into the weekend still has significant health benefits, research suggests.
A study of nearly 90,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank Project found that “weekend warriors” who fit a week’s exercise into one or two days had a lower risk of developing more than 200 diseases compared to inactive people.
Scientists have followed people’s health for years after monitoring their exercise patterns and have seen reduced risks across the full spectrum of human diseases, from hypertension and diabetes to mood disorders and kidney disease.
The more concentrated exercise favored by weekend warriors appeared to be just as effective at reducing the risk of future illness as regular sessions spread evenly throughout the week, leading researchers to suspect that the total amount of exercise people got was more important than how often they exercised.
“I think it’s empowering,” said Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who led the study. “This shows that, in terms of health benefits, it’s actually the volume of physical activity rather than the pattern that matters. The key is, however you’re going to get that volume, do it in the way that works for you.”
The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise a week to stay healthy, with even one or two sessions a week reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. As a rule of thumb, the line between moderate and vigorous exercise is when it becomes too difficult to complete spoken sentences while exercising.
Write in Circulationdescribe how the researchers analyzed health records of 89,573 UK Biobank volunteers who, as part of the project, wore a device on their wrist to measure their exercise patterns for a week.
Those who managed at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise were classified as regular exercisers if their physical activity was spread out, and weekend warriors if most of their exercise was crammed into one or two days. Those who did less than 150 minutes per week were classified as inactive.
In the years after wearing the exercise monitor, weekend warriors had a lower risk of 264 medical conditions compared to those considered inactive. The regular exercisers experienced similar benefits.
The strongest effects were for cardiometabolic disorders. Compared to inactive people, the risk of hypertension was more than 20% lower in weekend warriors and regular exercisers, while the risk of diabetes was more than 40% lower.
Previous studies have reported similar findings. In 2017, Gary O’Donovan, then a physical activity researcher at Loughborough University, found that weekend warriors and regular exercisers who met physical activity targets less likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular conditions than sedentary people. Another studyin 2022, reflected the benefits.
One question that hangs over such observational studies is whether exercise actually prevents disease, or whether healthier people, who already have a lower risk of disease, simply exercise more. Both will probably be at work. In the latest study, the researchers tried to address this by excluding people who developed medical conditions within two years of exercise monitoring.
Khurshid said further studies are needed to investigate whether concentrated exercise can help people achieve physical activity more easily. “It may be more convenient for some people, it may increase adherence to public health interventions,” he said.
Dr. Leandro Rezende, an expert in preventive medicine at the Federal University of São Paulo, who led the 2022 study on health and exercise, said: “These findings confirm that the total volume is the most important, regardless of the weekly frequency.
“This is good news for those trying to reach the world Health Organization guidelines and only have a few days a week to do it. However, it is important to consider that, for those already meeting the guidelines, increasing the frequency may help to increase the total volume of physical activity and therefore obtain further health benefits.”
