Exercise helps reduce the risk of disease, and it doesn't matter when you work out

People who only squeeze in exercise on the weekends reap the same health benefits as those who spread their workouts more evenly through the week, new research suggests. 

So-called "weekend warriors," who complete the weekly recommended amount of physical activity in 1-2 days, may have a lower risk for more than 200 diseases in comparison to people who are inactive, a study published last week in the journal Circulation found. Exercise was most strongly tied to a reduced risk for cardiometabolic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, obesity and sleep apnea. These benefits "appear similar" to those gained by people who spread their exercise evenly throughout the week, the researchers said. 

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The World Health Organization recommends adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week. The study — which included data from nearly 90,000 people in the United Kingdom, with an average age of 62 — found that people who achieved that recommendation had lower risks for disease compared with people who got less than 150 minutes. 

But it found no significant differences in disease risk between weekend warriors and those who exercised throughout the week. 

"While regular and evenly spread physical activity is still beneficial, the study suggests that even if people find it challenging to exercise daily, they can still achieve health benefits by exercising just a couple of days per week," Dr. Rigved Tadwalkar, a cardiologist at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, told MedicalNewsToday. He was not involved in the study.

Being a weekend warrior does not necessarily mean working out only on Saturdays and Sundays, but simply that a person's workouts are concentrated across any 1-2 days of the week. Recent studies have found that weekend warriors gain the same brain health and cardiovascular and mortality benefits as those who work out regularly.