“Weekend warriors” better off than couch potatoes

Cramming in the recommended weekly amount of exercise into the weekend appears to offer some health benefits for otherwise healthy men, new research reports.

Experts urge people to get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week, or a smaller amount of high-intensity exercise at least three times per week, to burn a total of 1,000 or more extra calories per week.

However, time constraints can make it difficult for many Americans to put aside part of most days to work out.

Now, researchers report that healthy men who burned off at least 1,000 calories during one or two weekly bursts of activity were 60 percent less likely to die over a 10-year period than sedentary men, who expended less than 500 extra calories per week.

“Physical activity is good for health—anything is better than none,” study author Dr. I-Min Lee of Harvard University in Boston, told Reuters Health. “If healthy, and all you can do is one to two bouts a week of activity, go for it.”

However, men who had at least one significant health concern at the outset of the study - such as smokers, overweight men, and those with High Blood Pressure - were no less likely to die than sedentary men, suggesting their weekend bursts of activity did not protect their health.

Lee suggested that people with health problems that can significantly raise the risk of death may benefit less from weekend exercise because the benefits of physical activity last only a few days.

“So exercising just one to two times per week may not be sufficient to keep these risk factors in check,” Lee noted.

The researcher added that people probably benefit more from spreading their exercise out over the course of the week because that pattern may protect them from injury, and instill a mindset of being active on a regular basis.

To investigate whether so-called “weekend warriors,” who typically consolidate a week’s worth of activity into 1 to 2 days, receive health benefits from this schedule, Lee and colleagues followed 8,421 men for 10 years, noting their pattern of physical activity. Participants were an average of 66 years old.

Approximately 7 percent were classified as “weekend warriors,” meaning they burned more than 1,000 calories per week during only 1 or 2 workouts. According to the American Journal of Epidemiology report, the most common activities included tennis, golf and gardening.

During the study, 1,234 men died. Weekend warriors appeared to be protected by their activities only if they did not have any significant health risks.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, October 1, 2004.

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