Here’s an interesting fact! According to the U.S. National Health Interview Survey, the beneficial effects of exercise are the same whether you spread your sessions out over the entire week or cram it all into a weekend. The effect on “mortality rates” is the same whether you’re a “weekend warrior” or a daily exercise “fanatic.”
A study of nearly 351,000 adults who were physically active and “engaged in 150 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week,” showed the distribution of exercise sessions made no difference in deaths from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and truly from all causes. As long as you spend 150 minutes in moderate physical activity, or 75 minutes in vigorous physical activity, your “mortality outcomes” are the same. These observations were made over a period of 10 years and should encourage us to spend more of our waking hours in activities that accelerate our heart rates, make us sweat and breathe hard, and allow our muscle tone to improve.
The article did not state whether those who exercise regularly live longer and have better quality of life, but we can assume that they do from the myriad of studies attesting to the long-term benefits of regular exercise. That is a given. The message here is just get 150 minutes of exercise whether it’s over an entire week or just two days. The benefit from it will be the same.
References: News From The JAMA Network. “Weekend Warriors Reap Same Benefits as the Regularly Active.” JAMA 2022 September 6;328(9):817-818.
https://JAMA network.com/journals/JAMA/article-abstract/2795904
