Exercising at weekend as good for the heart as more regular workouts – study
Squeezing in moderate-to-vigorous exercise at the weekend has similar benefits for the heart as more regular exercise, new research has suggested.
Some people may condense their physical activity into one to two days of the week or weekend because they find it difficult to find time in a busy work week.
A new study has found, though, that this weekend exercise pattern is associated with similarly lower risks of heart disease and stroke compared with more evenly-distributed exercise.
Our findings suggest that interventions to increase physical activity, even when concentrated within a day or two each week, may improve cardiovascular outcomes
The NHS recommends that adults should aim to do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity.
However, it has been unclear if concentrated exercise can provide the same benefits as more evenly distributed activity.
Senior author Patrick Ellinor, acting chief of cardiology and the co-director of the Corrigan Minehan Heart Centre at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the US, said: “Our findings suggest that interventions to increase physical activity, even when concentrated within a day or two each week, may improve cardiovascular outcomes.”
Lead author Shaan Khurshid, a faculty member in the Demoulas Centre for Cardiac Arrhythmias at MGH, and colleagues looked at data from 89,573 individuals in the prospective UK Biobank study.
They all wore wrist accelerometers – a device similar to a pedometer that also records speed and distance – that recorded their total physical activity and time spent at different intensities for a full week.
The study found 33.7% of people in the study were inactive (less than 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week) while 42.2% were active weekend warriors (at least 150 minutes with at least half achieved in one to two days).
Some 24% were active-regular (at least 150 minutes with most exercise spread out over several days).
According to the findings, both activity patterns were associated with similarly lower risks of heart attack (27% and 35% lower risks for active weekend warriors and active-regular, respectively, compared with inactive), heart failure (38% and 36% lower risks), atrial fibrillation (22% and 19% lower risks), and stroke (21% and 17% lower risks).
The findings are published in the JAMA journal.
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