Physical Activity, Even Just a Few Days a Week, Can be the Key to Better Health

Engaging in one to two days per week of physical activity, often referred to as “weekend warriors,” may provide comparable health and life-prolonging benefits to those of smaller doses of daily physical activity when the physical exertion is moderate-to-vigorous and adds up to 150 minutes per week, which is the recommended guidelines for weekly physical activity, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal of the American Heart Association.

To What Extent Should Physical Activity be Practiced

“You don’t have to exercise every day to stay healthy. As long as you get 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity – whether in one or two sessions or spread across several days – you can substantially lower your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, cancer, or other causes,” said the study’s corresponding author, Dr. Zhi-Hao Li, an epidemiologist at the School of Public Health, Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China. The study provides reassuring evidence that even sporadic physical activity can have lasting health benefits, making it easier for people to prioritize their well-being in their busy schedules.

To achieve health benefits, both the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association recommend that adults get 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity, throughout the week. Researchers examined health and movement data from more than 93,000 people in a large biomedical database in the United Kingdom to explore how different movement patterns may affect mortality risk, particularly the risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. They reviewed movement data collected by wrist-worn accelerometers, devices that measure movement and are thought to be more accurate than asking participants about their activity.

What the Analysis Showed

The study divided the data into three groups: “weekend athletes” – people who did most of their exercise in one or two days; “regularly active people” – people who spread their activity throughout the week; and “inactive people” – participants who did not meet the recommended minimum of 150 minutes of weekly physical activity. Compared to the inactive group, the weekend exercisers and regular active groups had a significantly lower risk of death from all causes, cardiovascular disease and cancer if they were physically active for 150 minutes per week.

• Weekend athletes had a 32% lower risk of dying from all causes, a 31% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and a 21% lower risk of dying from cancer.
• Among the participants in the group of regular active people, the overall mortality risk was 26% lower, the mortality risk from cardiovascular disease was 24% lower, and the mortality risk from cancer was 13% lower.
• No significant differences in mortality risk were found between weekend athletes and the group of regular active people.

While consistent with previous research, this is the first study to analyze the association between accelerometer-measured patterns of activity and risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. Some of the findings surprised the research team, who originally assumed that evenly distributed activity throughout the week would be more beneficial. They did not expect that the concentrated physical activity of weekend athletes would lower the risk of dying from disease. “This confirms the assumption that adhering to the guideline of 150 minutes of physical activity per week is the key to long life, regardless of the activity pattern,” said Li. “Any activity—whether structured exercise like jogging or daily tasks like gardening—can be included if the intensity is moderate to vigorous.”

Benefits of Exercising on the Weekend

American Heart Association volunteer expert Dr. Keith Diaz said the findings emphasized that total volume of physical activity is the determining factor for health benefits, rather than how it is distributed over a week. Many people find it difficult to get in physical exercise every day during the work week. However, this study shows that even if you can only be active on the weekend, you can still reap significant health benefits, according to Diaz.

“An important caveat to keep in mind is that trying to pack 150 minutes of exercise into just one or two days can put a lot of stress on the body,” he added. Some research suggests that weekend warriors may have a slightly higher risk of musculoskeletal injuries than those who exercise more regularly. However, the benefits of weekend exercise far outweigh the potential risks. If you are a weekend exerciser, make sure you warm up properly and build up to higher volumes of activity over time. This will help to reduce your risk of injury.

The study had several limitations, including the fact that physical activity was only measured at baseline; the participants lived in the United Kingdom and most were white, so the results may not apply to other populations. The researchers said that future studies should be conducted to confirm these results in more diverse populations around the world, taking into account conflicting factors such as genetic predisposition or environmental influences that can affect physical activity and outcomes.