Workout on the Weekend: How to Still Get Great Results

Weekend warriors, take it easy.

Recent research suggests that hitting the gym once or twice a week may suffice to achieve fitness goals.

A study in the Obesity journal revealed that individuals with busy schedules, who pack their exercise into weekends, can lose weight just as effectively as those who work out consistently.

The key is they still need to hit their recommended exercise goal, researchers found.

The World Health Organization suggests 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity a week, but many find the hustle of modern life makes it tough to factor in time to work out daily.

Lihua Zhang, a health-care scientist at Peking Union Medical College and one of the study’s authors, said the findings are good news for office workers and those who sit for prolonged periods all day.

“Those people are struggling to catch up in their exercise plan in daily life to offset the hazard of a sedentary lifestyle but have less free time to get to the gym,” Zhang said.

“Our study could offer them an alternative choice to keep fit.”

The authors noted the novel study is the first to analyze how physical activity patterns affect “objectively measured” fat tissue mass and found that workout frequency really doesn’t matter.

“The weekend warrior pattern is worth promoting in individuals who cannot meet the recommended frequency in current guidelines,” Zhang added.

Good activities for weekend warriors, according to Zhang, are climbing, hiking, cycling or running.

Researchers used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data detailing the exercise habits of more than 9,600 participants, ranging in age from 20 to 59 years old, from 2011 to 2018.

Both those who exercised regularly and people who limited activity to weekends were shown to have less abdominal and whole-body fat, a slimmer waist circumference and a healthier body mass index.

Dr. Beverly Tchang, an obesity specialist and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, who was not involved in the study, noted that the data revealed weekend warriors often engaged in more intense and longer workouts, resulting in reduced abdominal fat.

But the research should inspire busy people to get moving, no matter the cadence, she said.

This study reaffirms the old adage about physical activity and health: Any activity is better than no activity, Tchang said.

The main takeaway, though, is that people should be active in any manner that suits their lifestyle.

Source: nypost