Weekend warriors FTW

For most of the 20 years before we left Missouri, I engaged in endurance training exercise. But the vast majority of that exercise was on weekends and occasional holidays, since it was bike riding and (a) I wanted to avoid weekday traffic and (b) I was employed full-time. All of which made me a “weekend warrior” as far as intensive exercise is concerned. At the time, I was aware of claims that being a weekend warrior didn’t provide the same benefits as exercise spread evenly over the week. Turns out, the data say they’re equivalent:

“During an 8.1‐year median follow‐up, 3965 adults died from all causes, including 667 from cardiovascular disease and 1780 from cancer. Both the active weekend warrior group (all‐cause death: hazard ratio [HR], 0.68 [95% CI, 0.64–0.74]; cardiovascular disease death: HR, 0.69 [95% CI, 0.58–0.83]; cancer death: HR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.71–0.89]) and the active regular group (all‐cause death: HR, 0.74 [95% CI, 0.68–0.81]; cardiovascular disease death: HR, 0.76 [95% CI, 0.61–0.94]; cancer death: HR, 0.87 [95% CI, 0.76–0.99]) demonstrated a lower mortality risk compared with the inactive group after following the recommended 150 minutes of MVPA per week. Furthermore, there was no discernible difference in the mortality risk between the active regular group and the active weekend warrior group.

 

Engaging in PA concentrated within 1 to 2 days was related with a similar reduction in mortality risk as more evenly spread activity. Our findings are particularly significant for individuals who find it challenging to engage in regular PA due to time constraints.”

 

https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.039225