Sometimes the busyness of daily living gets in the way of a person’s good intentions to exercise, but it shouldn’t stop them from at least doing something because every minute counts. New research from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) shows that those who confine their exercise to one or two days a week have similar heart-health benefits as those who exercise more often, as long as they reach the target of threshold of 150 minutes.

That is good news for “weekend warriors,” who confine their activity to the weekend because they don’t have time during the week.

Commonly accepted fitness guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week for overall health. But there was some question as to whether that time needed to be evenly distributed throughout the week or if it could be concentrated to one or two days.

Researchers from MGH wanted to know if the weekend warrior experienced a similar reduction in heart disease and stroke risk as those with more evenly distributed exertion. They published their findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"Our analysis represents the largest study to address this question," says lead author Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, a faculty member in the Demoulas Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias at MGH.

MGH scientists analyzed data from 90,000 individuals in the UK Biobank study who used wrist-worn accelerometers to track physical activity. They segmented the group between those who did not meet the 150-minute threshold and those who did. And those who did exercise 150 minutes or more per week were divided between those who did it in two days or less and those who exercised three days or more.

The breakdown of the group showed 33.7 percent were classified as inactive since they did not meet the recommended mark. The weekend warriors made up 42.2 percent and the regularly active cohort was 24 percent.

Researchers found both activity groups had relatively similar reductions in the risk for various health conditions compared to those who did not exercise.

The risk for heart attack was 27 percent lower in the weekend warrior group and 35 percent lower in the regular exercise group. The risk of heart failure was 38 percent less for weekend exercisers and 36 percent less for daily exercisers, while the risk of atrial fibrillation was 22 percent and 19 percent lower and the stroke risk was 21 percent and 17 percent lower, respectively.

MGH researchers now want to take what they learned and see if the weekend warrior lifestyle could also show similar benefits to a broader spectrum of diseases and disorders.

Click here to read more in the Journal of the American Medical Association.