Cramming your week’s worth of recommended exercise into a weekend visit or two to the gym? New research suggests so-called “weekend warriors” gain plenty of health benefits even if they aren’t breaking a sweat daily.
Exercise recommendations call for about 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity or 150 minutes of moderate working out. British scientists out of Loughborough University suggest that it doesn’t matter if you’re logging these minutes in one or two sessions.
Even if you’re putting in less exercise than the guidelines, you’re still lessening the risk compared to your counterparts who aren’t working out at all, they say.
READ MORE: Your guide to what to eat before and after a workout
The scientists looked at data from almost 64,000 people living in England and Scotland from 1994 to 2012. By 2012, 8,802 people died from heart attacks, strokes or cancer.
The study participants were categorized according to how much exercise they did: they were either inactive, regular exercisers who met the guidelines, weekend warriors, or they were insufficiently active.
Their exercise habits were compared with their risk of death from all causes.
Turns out, the risk of dying was about 30 per cent lower in weekend warriors compared to people who weren’t active at all. Regular exercisers lowered risk just a bit more at 35 per cent.
Across the board, any amount of activity was better than being a couch potato.
READ MORE: Want to lose weight and gain muscle? Canadian study suggests the perfect formula
Does this mean you should do all of your exercise on weekends only? Not necessarily, experts say.
Exercising more often helps with staving off dementia and high blood pressure and can help regulate sleep, according to experts.
“I don’t know that we’re ready to say, based on this study, that people shouldn’t try to exercise more than that if they can,” Dr. Daniel Rader, preventive cardiology chief at the University of Pennsylvania, told The Associated Press.
READ MORE: Lifting lighter weights is ‘as effective’ at building muscle as lifting heavy ones
“People who exercise more regularly report that they feel like they have a better quality of life,” among other benefits, he said.
Still, the results are “quite fascinating and a bit surprising” on the “dose” of exercise needed for benefit, Rader told the wire service. “Even if you only have time to do something once a week, this study would suggest it’s still worth doing.”
— With files from The Associated Press
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
Follow @Carmen_Chai
Comments