Emily Chan
Every Monday through Friday, most of us are juggling work, appointments, family duties, and other responsibilities.
Between all these obligations, you simply don’t have time to squeeze in a workout during the week. That leaves the weekend—a mere two days of the week—for exercising. You may be wondering, is that really enough to stay healthy?
According to a new paper, people who get most of their exercise on the weekend share similar health benefits as those who exercise regularly during the week. Health benefits of exercise include reduced risk of heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, and dementia.
A research team from China examined data from the U.K. Biobank, a large biomedical database that tracks the health of residents in the United Kingdom.
They looked at more than 75,000 people who wore activity trackers to capture their movement over the course of a week. In this study, the average age of participants was 62.
The participants were divided into three groups: inactive, regularly active, and “weekend warriors.” Inactive people were described as those who did not satisfy the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week.
Regularly active individuals met the guidelines, while weekend warriors referred to those who met the guidelines by engaging in more than half of their physical activity across one or two days.
The researchers continued observing the participants for a median period of 8.4 years. They used doctor records, hospitalization data, and death records to monitor the onset of neurological diseases (stroke, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease) and psychological disorders (anxiety and depression).
They also considered a number of lifestyle factors that could affect outcomes, such as age, gender, diet, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and medical history.
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