Is There An Advantage to Every Day Workouts?

When it comes to workout frequency, there are often two sides: people who exercise throughout the week, and people who try to squeeze it on over the weekends.

Does it matter, one way or the other?

Well, there’s good news for the “Weekend Warriors” out there. According to a new study, they may gain the same health benefits as people who spread out their exercise every day.

What’s the Workout Recommendation?

The key is to get the recommended amount, which is 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. People are also urged to get in two sessions of strength training per week. [We’d replace ‘urged’ to something stronger, like ‘must’. 😉]

The findings were published in the American Heart Association journal, Circulation, and presented at the German Cardiac Society’s Heart Days conference in Hamburg.

“The bottom line is that it’s really the total volume of physical activity, rather than the pattern, that matters,” said Dr. Shaan Khurshid, the study’s co-senior author and a cardiac electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The important thing is that you get your recommended levels of physical activity. If one to two days a week works for you, you’re still going to get that benefit.”

The analysis came from analyzing physical activity levels and disease prevalence for 90,000 people in the United Kingdom with an average age of 62 years. Researchers tracked hundreds of diseases, including circulatory, digestive, skin, cancers, mental health disorders and more.

Study Workout Participants

The participants were broken up into three categories:

• Inactive: Participated in less than the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
• Regularly Active: Participated in 150 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week.
• Weekend Warriors: Participated in 150 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week, with more than half of their activity occurring within 1–2 days.

People who exercised throughout the week had a lower risk of 205 conditions. Weekend Warriors had a lower risk of 264.

“The strongest associations between physical activity and lower disease risk were found among cardiometabolic conditions, including a more than 20% lower risk for high blood pressure, more than 40% lower risk for diabetes and sleep apnea, and a roughly 50% lower risk for obesity,” the American Heart Association said. “There were no significant differences in disease risk reduction between weekend warriors and weeklong exercisers when they were compared directly.”

This is a great reminder that exercise has countless health benefits. It’s also crucial to keep in mind that the study was primarily focused on cardiovascular training and health outcomes. It is still recommended to get mobility, and strength training in through the week as well.

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