Weekend Exercise Might Be All You Need

If your workweek is too full for exercise, fear not, regular daily physical activities plus exercising on weekends, still provides significant benefits.

PeopleImages.com - Yuri A/Shutterstock

Bike trips, hikes, or marathon yard work sessions crammed in over your weekend may be sufficient exercise to lower your risk of disease—even if you don’t work out the rest of the week. According to a recent study, getting the recommended amount of physical activity offers significant health benefits regardless of when you do it.

The prospective study, published last month in Circulation, tracked participants over time and showed that people who engaged in most of their activity over the weekend—or “weekend warriors”—lowered their risk for cardiometabolic conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity almost as much as people who exercised for shorter periods across several days during the week.

Patterns of the ‘Weekend Warrior’

“We have observed, and studies have shown, that concentrated activity is becoming more common,” Shaan Khurshid, co-senior author of the study and a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Telemachus and Irene Demoulas Family Foundation Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital,  told The Epoch Times. He attributes the growing phenomenon to busy schedules that make it difficult to adhere to a more regular exercise routine.