Oct. 17, 2024 – Can't make time for exercise throughout the work week? Scientists have excellent news for you.
Evidence is accumulating that concentrating exercise on only one or two days per week – being a “weekend warrior” – is sufficient to reap the numerous advantages of physical activity.
The latest such study, published in Trafficshows that a weekend warrior routine can ward off an extended list of great illnesses. The exercise pattern was related to a lower risk of 264 diseases and seemed to be just as effective at reducing risk when exercise was more frequent throughout the week.
Most of the diseases studied affected the guts and blood vessels—arteriosclerosis, heart attack, heart failure, diabetes, stroke—but researchers found that the advantages prolonged to a surprisingly big selection of conditions.
“It was encouraging to see strong associations with chronic kidney disease,” said Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, lead writer of the study and cardiac electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. “We also saw the connection with sleep apnea and even things like gallstones and heartburn. This all makes sense, but it hasn’t been shown in this level of detail before.”
The concept of the “weekend warrior” is nothing recent. In fact, the term dates back to the Thirties and referred to a military reservist who attended his unit's weekend meetings. In the Nineteen Eighties, the name was expanded to incorporate individuals who engage in strenuous activities on the side or only on weekends.
Today, nevertheless, the concept is attracting more scientific attention because it is the topic of a growing body of impressive research that guarantees greater flexibility in the way you complete your workouts.
What the research shows
In the brand new study, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed data from 89,573 people from the UK Biobank, a gaggle of relatively healthy middle- to older-aged adults within the United Kingdom. Participants wore accelerometers on their wrists that recorded their physical activity for every week.
Scientists examined the info and divided people into three groups: regular exercisers who exercised several times every week; weekend athletes who accomplished at the least half of their training in a single or two days; and inactive people, those that got lower than that Recommended duration in the USA: 150 minutes moderate activity per week.
Compared to inactive people, each regular exercisers and weekend exercisers had a much lower risk of illness.
Technically, the regular exercisers had barely higher results – for instance, a 28% lower risk of hypertension in comparison with 23% for the weekend exercisers, and a 46% lower risk of diabetes in comparison with 43%. However, the differences weren’t large enough to be scientifically significant, leading researchers to conclude that reducing the chance of disease relies on the entire exercise, not how often you do it or the way you divide it up.
Another 2024 Attempt In Aging in nature found that weekend warriors had a 26% lower risk of dementia, a 21% lower risk of stroke, and a forty five% lower likelihood of developing Parkinson's disease than inactive people. As with the more moderen study, the info set was huge, with greater than 75,000 people.
The weekend warrior pattern was also evident this yr just as effective as more frequent training for Fat lossIt helps people lose belly fat no matter dietary changes.
In 2022 a study After surveying greater than 350,000 Americans, they concluded that there aren’t any significant differences in mortality rates between weekend exercisers and regular exercisers.
Why scientists are suddenly so involved in weekend warrior workouts
Two reasons, said Khurshid.
On the one hand, advances in technology make it easier than ever to gather accurate details about people's activity levels. “They used to have them answer questionnaires,” Khurshid said, “and we know that they tended to overestimate their activity.”
But it's also a response to the growing popularity of weekend workouts.
“[People] work and have a lifestyle that makes it more difficult to exercise during the week,” said Khurshid. “The incidence of cardiometabolic diseases is increasing worldwide. We are trying to find optimal recommendations that we believe can potentially be followed by the largest population to reduce the public health burden.”
Have US physical activity guidelines previously really helpful to coach more frequently and to set specific exercise lengths. Research from doctors like Khurshid shows that exercise regulations don't must be so strict.
“We shouldn't impose restrictions on patients by telling them they have to train 'this way,'” Khurshid said, “because it could prevent them from actually achieving the right volume, which is most important.”
So one or two days is enough? Well, yes – but there’s a “but”
Speaking of volume, note that the weekend exercisers in the brand new study didn't accomplish all of their activity in a single to 2 days, just the vast majority of it. And if you happen to decide to do the vast majority of your training in such a small window of time, you higher be prepared to place the “warrior” within the weekend warrior and train for longer than you do in a typical training session would.
“It appeared that many in the regular group were engaging in more activity overall,” said study co-author Shinwan Kany, MD, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. The regular exercisers averaged about 400 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity, while the weekend exercisers averaged a bit lower than 300. “This shows that if you train every day, it will be easier for you to increase your numbers.”
The study also had some notable limitations. The researchers didn’t collect details about people's lifestyles, particularly what kind of exercise they did or exactly how intense it was. They also only followed people for every week. While Kany said this was intended to be a prediction of how they lived the opposite 51 weeks of the yr, he acknowledges that it's possible that among the participants picked up their pace once they got their accelerometers and did more activity , than they normally would, potentially skewing the outcomes.
There can also be a matter of security. A Study 2014 found that 55% of participants with a serious injury exercised on the weekend. Since weekend warriors like to participate in as much as possible, it’s conceivable that they are going to push themselves harder and get injured because of this.
However, Khurshid said his study didn’t show an increased risk of musculoskeletal injuries.
On the contrary: “The literature shows that exercise is good for musculoskeletal disorders,” said Khurshid, “such as chronic back pain.” In a population of just about 90,000 people, the signal for profit is a lot stronger that we saw no risk , but that doesn’t mean injuries aren’t possible.”
This risk could also be greater for beginners or those with low fitness levels. “If you haven't exercised for three months and you decide out of the blue to become a weekend warrior, I think there's a high risk of getting injured,” Khurshid said.
Still, the underside line is that this: Given all of the scientifically proven advantages of exercise for a lot of health conditions, it seems most significant to do it consistently, irrespective of what your schedule allows.
“What I tell people is to exercise at least 150 minutes a week,” Khurshid said. “If you can do more, that's a good thing, and it doesn't matter how you distribute it. Do it in a way that makes sense to you and allows you to remain consistent over time.”
How to coach 150 minutes every week
While being a weekend warrior can keep you healthy, Robert Linkul, an authorized strength and conditioning specialist and trainer in Sacramento, California, who focuses on older adults, still recommends being lively more often when possible.
“Ideally, you should be doing some activity every day,” said Linkul, a board member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He suggests breaking the 150-minute goal into sessions, averaging a manageable 20 minutes per day.
If you're recent to exercise, start with walking two or three days every week after which progress to rucking – walking with a weighted backpack or vest (5 kilos is sufficient). Rucking increases the guts rate while keeping the exercise low-impact, and it also provides a strength component that may prevent muscle loss. On three additional days every week, it is best to do strength training (a suggestion that can also be part of presidency physical activity guidelines but was not analyzed in Weekend Warrior studies).
Shorter, more frequent sessions help establish a training pattern, making it easier to include into your routine and reducing the likelihood of overdoing it on the weekend.
“The body gets used to performing an action when you do it more often,” Linkul said. Not exercising for days could make you’re feeling drained the subsequent time you're lively, increasing your possibilities of injury.
If you're having trouble sticking to a routine, discover a fitness class at your local gym or community center. “When people exercise together, there is a camaraderie that really helps people stay motivated,” said Linkul, who leads group workouts. “Every week I hear considered one of my clients say to the group at the top, 'You ladies are the perfect.' I actually didn't want to return today, but I knew you could be here so I forced myself to do it.' The older the person, the more their community shrinks and the more vital the responsibility becomes.”