Intense weekend exercise may have similar benefits to regular workouts

People who engage in more intense exercise on weekends may achieve similar health benefits to those who follow a more regular, evenly distributed exercise routine throughout the week, according to a recent study.

The study, led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, investigated whether concentrating moderate to vigorous exercise into one or two days per week, also referred to as the “weekend warrior” approach, provides the same health benefits as spreading out exercise.

Published in the journal Circulation, it revealed that both exercise patterns were associated with a lower risk of developing more than 200 different diseases.

“Physical activity is known to affect risk of many diseases,” Dr Shaan Khurshid, the study’s co-senior author and a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement.

“Here, we show the potential benefits of weekend warrior activity for risk not only of cardiovascular diseases, as we’ve shown in the past, but also future diseases spanning the whole spectrum, ranging from conditions like chronic kidney disease to mood disorders and beyond”.

How did the study work?

The researchers analysed data from nearly 90,000 individuals in the UK Biobank study and looked into the link between physical activity patterns and the risk of 678 conditions across 16 types of diseases.

The participants wore wrist accelerometers to track their total physical activity and exercise intensity over one week.

They were divided into three categories based on whether they met the recommended weekly exercise benchmark of 150 minutes.

The first group, called “weekend warriors,” concentrated most or all of their exercise into one or two days, such as over the weekend, while still meeting the 150-minute goal.

The second group, “regular exercisers,” spread their physical activity more evenly throughout the week, but also achieved the target activity level, while the third group, labelled as “inactive,” consisted of individuals who did not meet the recommended level of exercise.

What were the results?

The study found that both patterns of exercise, “weekend warriors” and regular exercisers, were associated with a reduced risk of more than 200 diseases, with the most significant impact observed on cardiometabolic conditions like hypertension and diabetes.

Specifically, those following the “weekend warrior” exercise pattern experienced a 23 per cent lower risk of hypertension, compared to a 28 per cent reduction among regular exercisers.

The risk of diabetes was reduced by 43 per cent for weekend warriors and 46 per cent for those who exercised regularly.

However, the benefits of both exercise patterns were also observed across all disease categories tested, including conditions like chronic kidney disease and mood disorders.

These findings come as a follow-up to a previous study also conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital last year, which found that both exercise patterns were associated with similar cardiovascular benefits.

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These include a lower risk of heart attacks, heart failure, irregular heartbeats, and stroke.

“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,” Khurshid said.

“Future interventions testing the effectiveness of concentrated activity to improve public health are warranted, and patients should be encouraged to engage in guideline-adherent physical activity using any pattern that may work best for them,” he added.