Fitness: Are you a weekend warrior? You're in for a status upgrade

Often maligned for cramming all their exercise into one or two days instead of spreading it out over the course of the week, there are more weekend warriors than you think.

Who’s to know whether the Saturday-morning cyclist or runner, the tennis or pickleball player who meets up with their regular crew every Sunday or the old-timer hockey player who’s at the rink a couple of evenings a week waits six or seven days before their next bout of exercise.

According to a study of 3,438 Americans whose activity was monitored by accelerometers over the course of seven days, 32.3 per cent were weekend warriors, which the researchers defined as performing more than 50 per cent of their weekly physical activity in one or two days (31.1 per cent spread their activity more evenly over the course of the week and 36.6 per cent were inactive). That means about one-third of the population doesn’t “exercise most, if not all, days of the week,” as recommended by most health experts.

The World Health Organization recommends individuals accumulate 150 minutes of moderate-intensity (75 minutes of vigorous intensity) exercise a week, preferably spread out over the course of five to seven days or 20-30 minutes of exercise daily — a prescription proved to provide significant health benefits. But there’s little guidance for those who find it easier to do all their exercise minutes in one or two days. Are the health benefits the same as those who follow a more traditional workout schedule?  Or, could it be that the benefits accrued from 150 minutes of exercise a week are the same whether you do them all at once or spread them out over the course of the week? 

It’s a question several researchers have studied, with most results suggesting that while the workout schedule followed by weekend warriors may vary from traditional exercise guidelines, there’s no doubt that one to two workouts a week pays off in health benefits, especially when compared with no exercise at all. A study of more than 60,000 people reported that weekend warriors had a 30-per-cent lower risk of all-cause mortality, a 41-per-cent lower risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality and a 13-per-cent lower risk of cancer mortality as compared with those who were sedentary.  

As to whether weekend warriors can count on the same impressive scale of health benefits as those who accumulate exercise minutes over several days, most of the research suggests that the mortality rates of both groups of exercisers are similar. A followed up on the health and mortality of 350,978 adults who documented their exercise habits over the course of 20 years. Using data provided by the study subjects, the research team divided the cohort into two groups — those who accumulated 150 or more minutes of physical activity a week and those who performed less than 150 minutes of exercise a week.

They further delineated the active group into those who worked out one or two times a week and those who exercised more than twice a week. Also taken into consideration was the length of their workouts (20 minutes or less, 20-30 minutes, 30-60 minutes or more than 60 minutes) and their exercise intensity (light, moderate, vigorous).

Turns out the weekend warriors had mortality rates better than non-exercisers and similar to those who worked out more regularly.  

“These findings suggest that whether the recommended amount of moderate to vigorous physical activity is spread out during the week or concentrated into fewer days, there may be no significant difference in health benefits,” the researchers said.  

That’s great news for anyone whose lifestyle is such that fewer workouts are easier to schedule and accomplish. But there’s a caveat. All the results equating the health benefits accrued by weekend warriors and more regular exercisers noted that the exercise volume remained that same between the two groups, even if they differed in how often they exercised.

Putting in those exercise minutes is what counts, not how you spread them out over the course of the week.

A large portion of weekend warriors work in professions that keep them behind a desk. Add those working conditions to family responsibilities and we’re talking about a large swath of the population that might find it easier to schedule fewer exercise sessions, even if they need to be closer to 75 minutes vs. the more frequently recommended 30 minutes of exercise a day.

“For people with fewer opportunities for daily or regular physical activity during the workweek, these findings are important,” said the researchers in the JAMA article.

It’s time for exercise guidelines to be amended to include more specifics regarding exercise frequency, a detail that gives weekend warriors a much-needed status upgrade.

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