Don’t Fret If You Miss The Gym On Monday Because New Research Suggests People Who Workout On The Weekend Reap Similar Health Benefits As Those Who Exercise Regularly Throughout The Week
Every Monday through Friday, most of us are juggling work, appointments, family duties, and other responsibilities.
Between all these obligations, you simply don’t have time to squeeze in a workout during the week. That leaves the weekend—a mere two days of the week—for exercising. You may be wondering, is that really enough to stay healthy?
According to a new paper, people who get most of their exercise on the weekend share similar health benefits as those who exercise regularly during the week. Health benefits of exercise include reduced risk of heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, and dementia.
A research team from China examined data from the U.K. Biobank, a large biomedical database that tracks the health of residents in the United Kingdom.
They looked at more than 75,000 people who wore activity trackers to capture their movement over the course of a week. In this study, the average age of participants was 62.
The participants were divided into three groups: inactive, regularly active, and “weekend warriors.” Inactive people were described as those who did not satisfy the recommended 150 minutes of physical activity per week.
Regularly active individuals met the guidelines, while weekend warriors referred to those who met the guidelines by engaging in more than half of their physical activity across one or two days.
The researchers continued observing the participants for a median period of 8.4 years. They used doctor records, hospitalization data, and death records to monitor the onset of neurological diseases (stroke, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease) and psychological disorders (anxiety and depression).
They also considered a number of lifestyle factors that could affect outcomes, such as age, gender, diet, smoking status, alcohol consumption, and medical history.
djoronimo – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
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Of the roughly 75,000 participants, about 24,300 were considered inactive, 21,200 were regularly active, and 30,000 were weekend warriors.
The results showed that weekend warriors had a 26 percent lower risk of developing dementia, a 21 percent lower risk of stroke, and a 45 percent lower risk of Parkinson’s disease compared to the inactive group.
Furthermore, weekend warriors had a 40 percent and 37 percent reduced rate of depression and anxiety than the inactive group. Overall, the pattern between weekend warriors and the regularly active group was comparable.
Across age groups, both under and over 65 years old, the protective measures of both types of exercise against anxiety and depression were consistent.
However, the decreased risks for stroke, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease were especially noticeable in people over 65, suggesting that physical activity is crucial for older adults, who have a higher chance of developing such conditions.
The research team concluded that as long as individuals partook in moderate to vigorous physical activity on one or two days of the week, even if they were not consecutive days, they could achieve similar health benefits to those who exercise throughout the week.
The study was published in the journal Nature Aging.
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