Amidst the busy routines, some individuals manage to concentrate their moderate-to-vigorous exercise into one or two days each week, typically over the weekend. A recent study conducted by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, a principal component of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, has revealed a fascinating correlation. This pattern of ‘weekend warrior’ exercise is associated with a decreased risk of developing 264 different diseases, making it equally effective as more regularly distributed exercise routines in reducing these risks. These groundbreaking findings were published in the prestigious journal Circulation.
Co-senior author Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, affiliated with the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital, highlighted the extensive benefits of physical activity. “Physical activity has been recognised to influence the risk of numerous diseases,” stated Dr. Khurshid. “This research illustrates the potential benefits of engaging in weekend warrior activities not only for cardiovascular diseases, which we have identified in previous studies but also for a broad spectrum of future health conditions ranging from chronic kidney disease to mood disorders and more.”
Current health guidelines advocate for a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity weekly to maintain overall health. This study raises a critical question: is there a significant difference in health benefits between those who spread out their exercise throughout the week, engaging in 20–30 minutes most days, and those who compress their exercise into longer sessions with 5 or 6 days of rest in between?
To explore this, Dr. Khurshid, a co-senior author of the study and a prominent figure at the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital, together with co-senior author Patrick Ellinor, MD, PhD, the interim chief of Cardiology and co-director of the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, and their team analysed data from 89,573 participants in the prospective UK Biobank study. These participants wore wrist accelerometers for a week, which recorded their overall physical activity and the time they spent at varying exercise intensities. Their physical activity patterns were classified as either weekend warrior, regular, or inactive based on whether they met the guideline-based threshold of 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.
The researchers then examined the correlation between these physical activity patterns and the incidence of 678 conditions across 16 disease categories, which included mental health, digestive, neurological, and others.
The study findings revealed that weekend warrior and regular exercise patterns significantly reduced the risk of developing more than 200 diseases compared to inactivity. The associations were powerful for cardiometabolic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, where the risks were lowered by 23% and 28% for weekend warriors and 43% and 46% for regular exercisers, respectively, over an average of six years. Moreover, these benefits were consistent across various definitions of weekend warrior activity and other thresholds used to categorise activity levels.
Dr. Khurshid emphasised the general health benefits of physical activity, noting, “The results suggest that physical activity significantly lowers the risk of future diseases, especially cardiometabolic conditions. It appears that the total volume of activity might be more crucial than the frequency or pattern of exercise.” He further suggested that future public health interventions should test the efficacy of concentrated exercise schedules. He encouraged patients to adhere to physical activity guidelines in whichever pattern best suits their lifestyle.
More information: Shinwan Kany et al, Associations of “Weekend Warrior” Physical Activity With Incident Disease and Cardiometabolic Health, Circulation. DOI: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.124.068669
Journal information: Circulation Provided by Massachusetts General Hospital
