You really meant to go for a morning run or two during the workweek, but just never got around to it. Or, let’s face it, maybe you didn’t plan out time to exercise during the busy week and, not surprisingly, that’s just how it worked out. You didn’t do cardio or strength training — morning, noon or night.
However, you do happen to have some available time most weekends, and you feel good after playing basketball with friends or getting in a few jaunts you couldn’t fit into the week. Still, you wonder, is being a weekend warrior only a moral victory, or will it really have a significant impact on your health?
That’s just the question a recent comprehensive study took up — at least as it relates to the effects of different physical activity patterns on mortality rates. Research published online in January in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzed surveys from 63,591 adult respondents in the UK and found that the risk of death from all causes was about 30 percent lower among active adults versus inactive adults. Weekend warriors who got in all their recommended exercise in one to two sessions saw a similar risk reduction compared with regular exercisers who met physical activity guidelines by exercising three or more times a week. “You benefit equivalently as someone who exercises more regularly,” says study co-author I-Min Lee, an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
[See: The 10 Best Exercises You Can Do for the Rest of Your Life.]
Are You a Weekend Warrior?
Based on national data, about 2 to 4 percent of Americans exercise in this weekend warrior pattern, Lee says — doing at least either 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity like brisk walking, or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise like running, in one to two sessions. By definition, you needn’t work out on the weekend, per se — just squeeze it all in during no more than a couple sessions anytime through the week — to be considered a weekend warrior.
“We found that first, clearly, if you meet recommendations for physical activity, you get a significantly reduced rate of dying prematurely — particularly from cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and also in the UK,” Lee says. And while those who met recommendations saw the greatest benefit, experts emphasize doing any exercise confers at least some benefit in reducing mortality risk. That’s important since survey data finds the majority of adults at home and abroad get no exercise at all. In the weekend warrior study, nearly 40,000 respondents were classified as inactive, while 14,224 were considered insufficiently active. Less than 10,000 met exercise recommendations, including 2,341 weekend warriors and 7,079 regularly active adults.
“Many people don’t do much during the week, but do have a little more free time on the weekends, and that’s when they get involved in activities,” says Jeanette Gustat, an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. “I think [the study] does show that you can get great benefits by just exercising on the weekends,” Gustat notes. However, “Those who are regularly active appear to have slightly more benefit in reduction of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and cancer deaths,” she adds.
There are other practical considerations as well when trying to jam all your activity into a day or two. In fact, as noted in the study, more than four times the number of respondents met exercise guidelines by being regularly active, versus trying to squeeze it all into one or two sessions. Simply put — while certainly not discouraging exercise at any time a person can do it — public health experts note that it can be more difficult to get recommended levels of exercise, in the quest to maximize cardiovascular health, in such a short span of time.
[See: Osteoarthritis and Activity: Walking It Out.]
Easing Into Your Condensed Exercise Schedule
There’s another consideration, too, when it comes to going hard on just one or two days: risk of injury. “Studies have shown that people who exercise vigorously — for example, running — are more likely to sustain musculoskeletal injuries compared to people who walk,” Lee says. “If you exercise during the weekend enough to meet recommendations, you’re probably more likely to do it in a vigorous fashion. So because of that you’re probably more likely to suffer musculoskeletal injuries.” Whereas, people who are fit and exercise regularly tend to be less likely to sustain fractures and strains and other such injuries when they do exercise.
Given that, experts say, it’s all the more important to warm-up, cool down and focus on post-workout recovery, and generally ease into more intense workouts, always keeping your limitations in mind. Additionally, doing some stretching throughout the week can help you prepare to be safely active on the weekend. Nordic hamstring exercises — which have been shown to help prevent hamstring sprains; single-leg balance exercises; and knee injury prevention programs can be done in about 10 minutes on a daily basis throughout the week, says Dr. Thomas Trojian, team physician and a professor of family medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia.
While it’s always prudent to speak with a doctor if you’re concerned about any health problems that may limit what you can do, experts emphasize it’s important to be active — whenever you can. “One of the biggest barriers to exercise is time,” says Melinda Irwin, a professor of epidemiology in the Yale School of Public Health, and an associate director of the Yale Cancer Center, a comprehensive cancer center. “Even if you only have one day per week to exercise, there’s still significant benefit, and everyone should be able to find one day in a week hopefully to exercise.” She acknowledges even exercising at that level can be a challenge for those with multiple jobs and other obligations, like being a caregiver, but experts say it’s worth it to find a way to be active.
[See: 8 Ways to Stay Healthy at Work.]
To maximize benefit with minimal time, some may find that high-intensity interval training — short bursts of particularly vigorous exercise, with brief rest in between — is a good fit. Trojian says trabata training, a popular type of high-intensity interval workout, may be helpful — with its very short intervals and workouts lasting just a few minutes at a time. “Obviously, with anything like that you need to make sure that you’re ready for it,” he says. Don’t try to make up for lazing on the couch by overdoing it. But if you’re facing another busy week, don’t use it as an excuse to sit on the sidelines all seven days — the most dangerous proposition of all for long-term health. “I think we want to encourage the weekend warrior,” Trojian says. “Because otherwise they’re doing nothing.”
More from U.S. News
7 Exercises You Can Do Now to Save Your Knees Later
7 Signs You Should Stop Exercising Immediately
12 Psychological Tricks to Get You Through a Workout or Race
The Pros and Cons of Being a Weekend Warrior originally appeared on usnews.com
