Being a weekend exercise warrior 'protects against 200 health conditions'

Total amount of exercise is more important than following a daily pattern of physical activity, study finds

Dr Haider Ali, a British GP working in the UAE, is a 'weekend warrior'. His exercise pattern protects against 200 health conditions, say researchers. Chris Whiteoak / The National

People who squeeze their weekly steps, reps, miles and sweat into just one or two sessions do enough exercise to lower the risk of developing more than 200 health conditions, scientists say.

A study of nearly 90,000 adults in the UK found the total amount of exercise is more important than following a daily pattern of physical activity.

The team said its findings, published in the journal Circulation, show that being a “weekend warrior” lowers the risk of developing conditions such as heart disease, mood disorders, kidney issues and obesity.

Those who exercised regularly during the week had a 28 per cent lower risk of developing high blood pressure, while those who were active only at the weekends had a 23 per cent lower risk, according to the analysis.

For diabetes, the risk was 43 per cent lower for weekend warriors and 46 per cent lower for those who exercised during the week, the researchers said.

“Physical activity is known to affect risk of many diseases,” said Dr Shaan Khurshid, a faculty member in the Demoulas Centre for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital in the US.

“Here, we show the potential benefits of weekend warrior activity for risk not only of cardiovascular diseases, as we've shown in the past, but also future diseases spanning the whole spectrum, ranging from conditions like chronic kidney disease to mood disorders and beyond.”

NHS guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate exercise, such as brisk walking or riding a bike, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, such as running or hill cycling, per week.

Being inactive is associated with one in six deaths in the UK and is estimated to cost the UK £7.4 billion annually, according to government figures. But busy weekdays mean some people are only able to exercise one or two days a week.

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To find out if weekend workouts are as beneficial as regular exercise during the week, the researchers looked at data from 89,573 people from the UK Biobank, a database which holds the medical and lifestyle records of more than half a million Britons. Those taking part wore activity trackers and were classed as weekend warrior, regular or inactive, based on their weekly movement.

The team said that compared to taking no exercise, cramming workouts into one to two days or being active throughout the week were both associated with “substantially lower risks of over 200 diseases”.

“Our findings were consistent across many different definitions of weekend warrior activity, as well as other thresholds used to categorise people as active,” said Dr Khurshid. “Because there appears to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most.”

Further research is needed to understand more about the effectiveness of being weekend warriors, he said.