Good News: Even Just Being a ‘Weekend Warrior’ Can Help You Live Longer
Too busy to ride or even exercise as much as you’d like during the week? No worries. As long as you get out during the weekend, you’re good, according to a new study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
The latest findings reinforce previous research showing that weekend warriors can reap the same life-extending benefits as their peers who get the same amount of exercise, but spread it out throughout the week.
In the study, researchers examined the activity levels (as monitored by accelerometers) and death rates of 3,438 people with an average age of 57 over a period of nearly seven years. After crunching the data, they found that those who crammed all their activity into just one or two days a week-hello, Saturday morning shop ride!-enjoyed the same reductions in death rate during that time as those who got their activity in smaller doses throughout the week.
As you might imagine, those with the highest amount of activity reaped the greatest rewards (a great excuse to get the group to go a little longer), with about a 65 percent reduction in risk of dying from any cause.
But even a little exercise provided significant protection. Those who got as little as 37.5 minutes of activity-or 25 percent of the recommended amount-still enjoyed significant reductions in risk.
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To be clear, daily activity is important, and you should get off your seat and on your feet as much as possible during the day. But as long as you meet the recommended exercise guidelines for 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity, it seems like you can get to that total in whatever way that you like. So don’t beat yourself up over a busy schedule that has you working for the weekends-getting out at all is still bringing some serious life-lengthening benefits.
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