SOURCE— 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."
Source Study:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.068669
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."
Source Study:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.068669