To Your Health
October, 2024 (Vol. 18, Issue 10) |
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Hail the Weekend Warrior
By Editorial Staff
Many people are so busy during the week that the weekend becomes their only real time to exercise. Confining your physical activity primarily to the weekend still helps reduce disease risk, according to research, which means when it comes to health, it's time to hail the weekend warrior!
The study, findings from which appear in the research journal Circulation, a publication of the American Heart Association, tracked nearly 90,000 individuals with wrist accelerometers to gauge total physical activity performed, as well as time spent engaging in specific types of physical activity. After one week, researchers utilized the data to categorize participants as weekend warrior, regular exerciser or non-exerciser (inactive).
Next, the researchers compared physical activity patterns, as categorized above, and the presence of nearly 700 conditions spanning 16 types of diseases (mental health, digestive health, neurological health, and more), tracked for years after the one-week data-collection period. They discovered that both weekend warriors and regular exercisers had substantially lower risks of more than 200 diseases compared with non-exercisers. Among the strongest risk reductions: cardiometabolic conditions (example: high blood pressure) and diabetes.
The most important finding: differences were not significant when comparing weekend warriors with regular exercisers, meaning you reduce your disease risk approximately the same whether you concentrate your physical activity on the weekends or spread it throughout the week. So whenever you find the time, get out there and exercise!
