Huge Study Finds Getting All Your Exercise on The Weekend Is Probably Fine

Scientists collect and analyze vast amounts of data to understand how exercise is good for your health.

We know the best time to exercise, how often you should exercise, and what intensity you should aim for.

Many of these are just recommendations, but they are based on aggregated data from thousands of participants, showing what appears to work best for most people.

They can tell us interesting and useful facts, such as how much exercise is needed to offset sitting down all day, or how best to keep weight off.

We can learn from these studies and apply them to our own lives. One of the biggest problems with exercising is finding time to do it during the week.

Scientists have some information. Good news.

Researchers analyzed public health data for over 350,000 people in the US collected through the National Health Interview Survey.

The team had a single question they wanted to explore after combing through the data.

If you're doing enough exercise to meet the recommended levels of physical activity each week, does it matter if you do the exercise in just one or two sessions or three or more regular sessions?

The WHO 2020 guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior state that adults should do 150–300 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week or 75– 150 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.

It's not clear how doing only one or two sessions of exercise a week compares to doing more frequent sessions of physical activity, specifically in terms of reducing risk of mortality.

We now have a clear answer thanks to dosSantos and co.

After comparing people in the cohort who undertook the recommended level of moderate to vigorous physical activity each week, the researchers found very little difference between weekend warriors and the people who exercised more regularly.

When performing the same amount of physical activity, spreading it over more days or concentrating it into fewer days may not affect outcomes.

If you want to see the benefits of exercise, you need to hit the recommended levels of activity each week.

Almost 22,000 people who were involved in the NHIS died over the course of 10 years. If participants did the recommended levels of physical activity, the chance of dying from various causes was lower.

The findings of the large prospective cohort study suggest that individuals who engage in active patterns of physical activity, whether weekend warrior or regularly active, experience lower all-cause and cause specific mortality rates than inactive individuals.

The hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were similar for weekend warriors and regular participants.

The primary survey data came from self- reported questionnaires, which are prone to including a certain level of error compared to more objective measurement.

The findings involve a large cohort that can give us a lot of confidence in the statistics reported.

The results show that exercise is good for you and can help you live a longer life.

It's true if you can fit in a good workout on the weekends.

The findings are important for people with fewer opportunities for physical activity.

The results are reported in the journal.