A new study has found that “weekend warrior” physical activity may be just as effective as regular exercise across a week.
Massachusetts General Hospital researchers said they found similar lower risks of disease across 16 health categories.
Shaan Khurshid from the hospital’s Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias said physical activity was known to reduce the risks of many diseases.
The latest research compared different types of physical activity and their relative health impacts.
“Our findings were consistent across many different definitions of weekend warrior activity, as well as other thresholds used to categorise people as active,” Dr Khurshid.
“The results suggest that physical activity is broadly beneficial for lowering the risk of future diseases, especially cardiometabolic conditions.
“Because there appears to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most.”
The research report said many people who were busy with work and other obligations concentrated their moderate-to-vigorous exercise in one or two days of the week or weekend.
Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week for overall health.
The Massachusetts researchers analysed information on 89,573 individuals in the UK Biobank study who wore wrist accelerometers that recorded their total physical activity and time spent at different exercise intensities over one week.
Their physical activity patterns were categorized as weekend warrior, regular, or inactive, using the guideline-based threshold of 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
The team then looked for associations between physical activity patterns and incidence of 678 conditions across 16 types of diseases, including mental health, digestive, neurological, and other categories.
“The investigators’ analyses revealed that weekend warrior and regular physical activity patterns were each associated with substantially lower risks of over 200 diseases compared with inactivity,” the research report said.
“Associations were strongest for cardiometabolic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes. However, associations also spanned all disease categories tested.
“Our findings were consistent across many different definitions of weekend warrior activity, as well as other thresholds used to categorize people as active.”
The full report is on the Massachusetts General Hospital website.
