Weekend exclusive exercise beneficial for health, study suggests

A study carried out by Loughborough University, Harvard University and the University of Sydney has suggested that using the weekends to fit in all your exercise for the week could be enough to produce significant health benefits.

The research, published in Jamma Internal Medicine, is based on a survey of 64,000 adults over the age of 40 in England and Scotland and included data on the time people spent undertaking exercise over 18 years.

It found those people who became ‘weekend warriors’ to fulfil their exercise activity rota had a much lower risk of an early death compared to those who exercised irregularly or not at all.

Specifically, those who did all their exercise on one or two days of the week, were found to lower their risk of dying from cardio vascular disease by 41 per cent and cancer by 18 per cent, compared with those who were inactive.

Those who exercised regularly on three or more days per week reduced their risks by 41 per cent and 21 per cent respectively.

Dr Gary O’Donovan of Loughborough University’s School of Sport Exercise and Health Sciences, explained: “The weekend warrior and other physical activity patterns characterised by one or two sessions per week of moderate or vigorous-intensity physical activity may be sufficient to reduce risks for all-cause, CVD and cancer mortality regardless of adherence to prevailing physical activity guidelines.”

Currently Public Health England (PHE) recommends people to partake in at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week.