New Research Links ‘Weekend Warrior’-Style Exercise to a Lower Risk of More Than 200 Health Conditions

Raise your hand if you have a tough time fitting workouts into your already-too-busy weeks. Yep, we totally get it. Between work, family obligations, catching up with friends, and everything in between, it’s easy to put exercise on the back burner until the weekend comes around and you have a little more free time.

If that’s you, you’re in luck: New research published in Circulation suggests that people who squeeze their sweat sessions into one or two days of the week or weekend—often referred to as “weekend warriors”—might still reap the same health benefits as those who spread their exercise throughout the entire week.

A closer look at the study

The research included 89,573 people from the UK. Participants wore wrist accelerometers that recorded their total amount of physical activity and time spent at different exercise intensities over one week. Then, researchers split the participants’ exercise patterns into three categories, “weekend warrior,” “regular,” and “inactive,” based on their self-reported adherence to the guidelines of getting 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous movement per week.

FYI: Moderate exercise is anything that gets you to 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate; vigorous exercise is anything that’s 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). A quick and easy formula to find a rough estimate of your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age, per the AHA. Examples of moderate-intensity exercise include taking a brisk walk, gardening, dancing, or water aerobics. Examples of vigorous-intensity exercise include sprinting, jumping rope, playing tennis, or swimming laps.

After participants exercised for a week, the researchers looked for associations between the participants’ exercise patterns and occurrence of 678 conditions across 16 types of diseases, including mental health, digestive, neurological, and more.

The results? Getting 150 minutes of moderate-to-intense physical activity during the week—whether spread out over five or six days or packed into one or two days, “weekend warrior”-style—is associated with lower risks of more than 200 health conditions (like high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and mood disorders) compared to being inactive and/or getting less than 150 minutes of exercise throughout the week.

However, there are a few caveats to keep in mind. First, this is an observational study, which means it’s showing correlation—not causation. In other words, it found a connection between working out for 150 minutes over one or two days and a lower disease risk, but a link doesn’t mean this exercise pattern will 100 percent prevent you from developing a health condition in the future.

Additionally, this study draws from UK Biobank data. The UK Biobank is a database and research resource that stores the medical and genetic info of 500,000 UK participants in an effort to further scientific discoveries. However, according to a 2017 American Journal of Epidemiology article, there’s evidence the sampling population in the UK Biobank isn’t an accurate representation of the majority of people and that the volunteers have no previous medical issues. Plus, a lot of UK Biobank data is self-reported, so there’s no telling if it’s completely accurate.

The bottom line

All that being said, this study is just more evidence that 150 minutes of exercise a week is a really good number to shoot for, which falls in line with the worldwide recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO).

You can fit your 150 minutes of exercise into your week in whichever ways work best for you, whether that’s packing it all into a day or two or spreading it out more. If your schedule is jam-packed and you don’t have time for longer, more “traditional” workouts, Well+Good previously published a few tips that can help bump you up to 150 minutes of activity a week before you know it.

• Walk more during the day (parking farther away than you have to, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, etc.).
• Do a quick 5- to 10-minute workout before you start your day.
• Take short exercise breaks throughout your day—bust out a few squats while you’re waiting for your coffee to brew, for instance.
• When planning family time or get-togethers with friends, plan hikes or walks, museum visits, mini golf games, or anything else that gets you moving.