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BOSTON — For those who struggle to find time for daily workouts, a new study brings welcome news: cramming your exercise into weekends may be just as beneficial as spreading it throughout the week. Researchers have found that “weekend warriors” enjoy similar health benefits to regular exercisers, challenging long-held beliefs about optimal exercise patterns.
The research, conducted by a team of scientists from prestigious institutions, including Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, analyzed data from nearly 90,000 participants in the UK Biobank study. Using wrist-worn accelerometers to measure physical activity, the researchers found that both weekend warriors and regular exercisers had a lower risk of developing over 200 different diseases compared to inactive individuals.
What sets this study apart is its comprehensive approach. While previous research has focused on specific health outcomes like cardiovascular disease or mortality, this investigation cast a wider net, examining associations between physical activity patterns and 678 different medical conditions.
The results, published in the journal Circulation, offer more good news for weekend warriors. Those who met the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week, even if concentrated in just one or two days, showed a reduced risk for a wide range of ailments. These included not only cardiovascular diseases but also metabolic disorders, digestive issues, and even some musculoskeletal and dermatological conditions.
Perhaps most notably, the study found particularly strong associations between physical activity and lower risk of cardiometabolic conditions. Both weekend warriors and regular exercisers showed approximately 50% lower risk of developing conditions like hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and sleep apnea compared to their inactive counterparts.
“Physical activity is known to affect risk of many diseases,” says co-senior author Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a faculty member in the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital, 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.”
This is welcome news for many adults who struggle to find time for daily exercise due to work, family, or other commitments. The study suggests that cramming in a long hike on Saturday and a vigorous bike ride on Sunday could potentially offer similar health benefits as spreading out shorter workouts across the week.
However, the researchers caution that their findings don’t mean people should abandon regular exercise if that’s already part of their routine. Regular activity was associated with a slightly higher total weekly MVPA compared to the weekend warrior pattern, which could confer additional benefits not captured in this study.
The investigation’s scope was impressive, leveraging data from 89,573 UK Biobank participants with an average age of 62. These individuals wore accelerometers – similar to fitness trackers – for one week between 2013 and 2015, providing objective measurements of their physical activity levels. The researchers then followed up on these participants for an average of 6.3 years, analyzing which diseases they developed during that time.
Using sophisticated statistical techniques, the team compared the health outcomes of weekend warriors and regular exercisers to those who didn’t meet the 150-minute weekly MVPA threshold. They adjusted for various factors that could influence results, such as age, sex, smoking status, alcohol intake, diet quality, and socioeconomic indicators.
The study’s findings held true even when the researchers applied different definitions of “weekend warrior” activity, such as concentrating 75% of weekly exercise into one or two days or focusing on true weekend days. This robustness lends credibility to the overall conclusions.
While the results are encouraging, it’s important to note that this was an observational study, meaning it can’t prove that physical activity directly caused the lower disease risks observed. Additionally, the UK Biobank participants were predominantly white and may not be fully representative of other populations.
Nevertheless, this research provides compelling evidence that getting your heart rate up and breaking a sweat – whether spread throughout the week or concentrated on weekends – can have far-reaching health benefits.
“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 concludes. “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.”
Paper Summary
Methodology
The researchers used data from the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical database. Participants wore wrist-based accelerometers for one week, which measured their physical activity levels. The researchers then categorized participants into three groups: inactive (less than 150 minutes of MVPA per week), weekend warriors (at least 150 minutes of MVPA per week with 50% or more concentrated in 1-2 days), and regular exercisers (at least 150 minutes of MVPA per week spread more evenly).
They then followed these participants for about 6 years, tracking which diseases they developed. Using statistical models, they compared the risk of developing various diseases between the three groups, while accounting for other factors that could influence health outcomes.
Key Results
The study found that both weekend warriors and regular exercisers had a lower risk of developing over 200 different diseases compared to inactive individuals. The risk reduction was particularly strong for cardiometabolic conditions like hypertension, obesity, diabetes, and sleep apnea, with both active groups showing about a 50% lower risk compared to inactive individuals. Importantly, there were no significant differences in disease risk between weekend warriors and regular exercisers for any of the conditions studied.
Study Limitations
This study was observational, meaning it can’t prove cause-and-effect relationships between exercise patterns and disease risk. The participants were mostly white and from the UK, so the results may not apply equally to all populations. Physical activity was only measured for one week, which may not represent long-term exercise habits. Additionally, some diseases may have been underreported, particularly those typically managed in primary care settings.
Discussion & Takeaways
The key takeaway is that achieving the recommended amount of physical activity appears to be more important for health than how that activity is distributed throughout the week. This is good news for people who find it difficult to exercise regularly during the workweek.
However, the researchers note that regular exercisers tended to achieve higher total MVPA, which could have additional benefits not captured in this study. The strong associations with lower risk of cardiometabolic conditions suggest that physical activity could be a powerful tool for preventing these common and costly diseases.
Funding & Disclosures
The study was supported by various grants from institutions including the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Some of the authors reported receiving research support or consulting for pharmaceutical companies, but these relationships were not directly related to the current study.
