weekend warrior health benefits - people running race

Are you a weekend warrior? GOOD!

A recent study showed that performing physical activity in your leisure time is enough to reduce all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer mortality.


Starting a new exercise program can be daunting. Most people fail. Why? We often set our goals too high. Life happens and it’s difficult to always meet our own high expectations. What if we try setting more attainable goals? After all, who doesn’t want more for less?


A study published in January in the Journal of the American Medical Association compared over 63,000 adults who were reported to be inactive, insufficiently active, “weekend warrior”, and regularly active. Being a weekend warrior was defined as people who performed 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity weekly during one or two sessions. Regularly active people did the same in 3 or more sessions, while insufficiently active people performed less than 1-2 sessions per week.


The study, based in England and Scotland, followed the patients for 9 years. The overall results showed that the reduction in deaths in the weekend warrior group was only slightly less than those who exercised regularly. This gives us evidence that even some exercise can provide true health benefits and lower our risk of death and disease. While exercising 5-6 times a week is ideal, it’s ok to start small. Set an attainable goal and get moving!