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Weekend Exercise Alone Provides 'Significant Health Benefits'

12/01/2017

Weekend Exercise Alone Provides 'Significant Health Benefits'People who cram all their recommended weekly exercise into one or two sessions at the weekend can realise important health benefits, a study suggests.

Furthermore, just being active, without undertaking the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity every week, is still enough to reduce the risk of premature death by a third.

Researchers from Loughborough University and the University of Sydney analysed the survey responses of around 64,000 adults aged over 40 in England and Scotland focusing on the amount of time they spent doing exercise and their general health over an 18-year period.

They found that no matter how many times people exercised in a week, as long as they met the recommended guidelines the health benefits were the same.

The findings of the study are particularly good news for people with busy lives who simply do not have enough time during the week to exercise. These particular individuals often squeeze all of their physical activity into the weekends, leading to them becoming known as "weekend warriors".

In fact, these so-called "weekend warriors" were found to lower their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 41% and cancer by 18%, compared with people who were inactive.

Commenting on the findings of the study, Justin Varney, national lead for adult health and wellbeing at Public Health England (PHE), said: "The maximum health benefits are achieved from 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.

"However, every little counts and just 10 minutes of physical activity will provide health benefits."
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