Although regular exercise is something that has been highly recommended for a long time, not everybody can muster the motivation or the energy to hit the gym during the workweek. In many cases, work is just too busy and stressful, resulting in many people wanting to do nothing but relax afterwards. However, those who workout only on the weekends can still reap a number of health benefits.

Working Out on the Weekends

Researchers recently performed a nine-year study focusing on weekend warriors – those who do all of their exercise over the course of the weekend. They found that if these weekend warriors met certain physical activity guidelines (2.5 hours of moderate intensity physical activity or an hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity) over a two-day period, they were less likely to die during the study period than those that did not exercise at all.

In fact, subjects that only worked out during the weekends but did not meet those physical activity guidelines were still more likely to die an early death than those that didn’t exercise at all. The researchers published their results in the AMA Internal Medicine journal, concluding that even less frequent amounts of physical activity could still have a big impact on one’s health. Even one or two workout sessions a week could lower mortality risks.

The subjects used in the study included more than 63,000 people that were 40 and older. They all lived in England and Scotland. Of the subjects, 2,300 were weekend warriors, 14,200 exercised a little on the weekends, and 40,000 didn’t exercise at all. Around 7,000 exercised at least three times a week.

Over the course of the study, 8,800 subjects died, the largest percentage of which died from cardiovascular disease. Weekend warriors were 30 percent less likely to die during the study, and 40 percent less likely to die from cardiovascular disease.

Exercising can have a beneficial effect on one’s health even if it’s only done a few times a week. Stay current with The Benefits Store for more news concerning the health and medical industry.