‘Weekend warrior’ physical activity may protect against more than 200 diseases

Busy with work and other commitments, some people concentrate their moderate to vigorous exercise on one or two days of the week or on the weekend. A study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found that this “weekend warrior” pattern of exercise is associated with a lower risk of developing 264 future diseases, and is as effective at reducing risk as more evenly distributed exercise. Results are published in Circulation.

“Physical activity is known to affect the risk of many diseases,” said co-senior author Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, a faculty member in the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Here we show the potential benefits of weekend warrior activity for the risk of not only cardiovascular disease, as we have shown in the past, but also future diseases that span the spectrum from conditions like chronic kidney disease to mood disorders and more.”

Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week for overall health. However, among people who meet these recommendations, those who exercise for 20-30 minutes most days of the week experience benefits compared to those who go 5 or 6 days between longer exercise sessions?

Khurshid, along with co-senior author Patrick Ellinor, M.D., Ph.D., the acting chief of cardiology and co-director of the Corrigan Minehan Heart Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, and their colleagues analyzed information on 89,573 individuals in the prospective UK Biobank study who wore wrist accelerometers that recorded their total physical activity and time spent at various exercise intensities over the course of a week. Participants’ physical activity patterns were categorized as weekend warrior, regular, or inactive, using the guideline-based threshold of 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

The team then looked for associations between physical activity patterns and the incidence of 678 conditions across 16 disease types, including mental health, digestive, neurological and other categories.

The researchers’ analyses found that weekend warrior and regular physical activity patterns were each associated with substantially lower risks of more than 200 diseases compared with inactivity. The associations were strongest for cardiometabolic conditions such as hypertension (23% and 28% lower risks, respectively, over a median of 6 years with weekend warrior and regular exercise) and diabetes (43% and 46% lower risks, respectively). However, the associations also included all disease categories tested.

“Our findings were consistent with many different definitions of weekend warrior activities, as well as other thresholds used to categorize people as active,” Khurshid said.

The results suggest that physical activity is generally beneficial in reducing the risk of future diseases, particularly cardiometabolic diseases.

“Because there appear to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, may be most important,” Khurshid said. “Future interventions testing the effectiveness of concentrated activity to improve public health are warranted, and patients should be encouraged to engage in guideline-compliant physical activity using whatever pattern works best for them.”