People who find it difficult to find time to exercise during a busy work week can focus their moderate to vigorous physical activity on one to two days a week or on weekends. This conclusion was made by researchers from the United States.
The work of scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital has been published in the scientific journal JAMA. The background to the question is as follows: doctors generally recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week. But how to distribute this load so that the heart remains healthy was not obvious: to do a little every day or a couple of times a day, but actively.
«Our analysis represents the largest study to address this question,» said study lead author Shaan Khurshid, MD.
Khurshid and colleagues studied data from 89,573 people in a prospective UK Biobank study who wore wrist accelerometers. These devices recorded total physical activity and time spent at varying intensities over a full week.
Among participants, 33.7% were inactive, 42.2% were physically active on the weekends, and 24.0% were regularly active. The study found that both activity patterns were associated with equally low risks of heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and stroke. The team also plans to evaluate whether weekend activity may be associated with a reduced risk of a wider range of diseases.