'Weekend warrior' workouts may provide same health boost as more regular exercise

If exercise takes a back seat in the working week, take heart. Cramming the recommended amount of weekly activity into weekends has significant health benefits, research suggests.

- Ian Sample

A study of nearly 90,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank project found that "weekend warriors" who fitted a week's worth of exercise into one or two days had a lower risk of developing more than 200 diseases than inactive people.

Scientists followed people's health for years after monitoring their exercise patterns, and saw reduced risks across the spectrum of disease, from hypertension and diabetes to mood disorders. The more concentrated bouts of activity seemed as effective at reducing the risk of disease as sessions spread through the week, leading researchers to suspect the total amount of exercise was more important than how frequently people trained.

"This is empowering," said Dr Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist at Massachusetts general hospital in Boston, who led the study. "It shows that, in terms of health benefits, it's the volume of activity rather than the pattern that matters.