If exercise takes a back seat in the working week, take heart. Cramming 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 worth of exercise into one or two days had a lower risk of developing more than 200 diseases compared with inactive people.
Scientists followed people’s health for years after monitoring their exercise patterns and saw reduced risks across the full spectrum of human disease.
The more concentrated bouts of physical activity favoured by weekend warriors seemed as effective at reducing the risk of future disease as regular sessions spread evenly through the week, leading researchers to suspect the total amount of exercise people got was more important than how frequently they trained.
"I think this is empowering," said Dr Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Massachusetts general hospital in Boston, who led the study. "It shows that, in terms of health benefits, it’s really the volume of physical activity rather than the pattern that matters. The key is, however you are going to get that volume, do it in the way that works for you."
Writing in Circulation, the researchers describe how they analysed health records of 89,573 UK Biobank volunteers who had worn 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 classed 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 fewer than 150 minutes a week were classed as inactive.
In the years after wearing the exercise monitor, weekend warriors had a lower risk of 264 medical conditions compared with those deemed inactive. The regular exercisers experienced similar benefits.
The strongest effects were for cardiometabolic disorders. Compared with inactive people, the risk of hypertension was more than 20% lower in weekend warriors and regular exercisers, while the risk of diabetes was down more than 40%.
Previous studies have reported similar findings. In 2017, Gary O’Donovan, a physical activity researcher then at Loughborough University, found that weekend warriors and regular exercisers who met physical activity targets were less likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular conditions than sedentary people. Another study, in 2022, echoed the benefits. — The Guardian News & Media
