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You Don’t Have to do it Every Day

Excerpt from TIME Magazine 2019 - The New Mindfulness

Even if you are convinced of the many health benefits of exercise, it can still be tough to squeeze into a busy schedule. National guidelines recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. Luckily, science has vindicated people who cram that amount into one or two days on the weekend instead of spreading it out. These so-called weekend warriors get about the same benefits as those who exercise more often, finds research recently published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

In a survey of more than 63,000 people in Europe, those who said they did 150 minutes weekly of moderately intense exercise in one or two days lowered their risk of dying early from any cause by 30% to 34%, compared with people who were inactive. Here’s the remarkable part: people who exercise on most days of the week cut their risk by 35%, which is not very much different from the risk reduction of those who exercise less frequently.

The finding suggest that you don’t have to work out every day to reduce the risk of diseases that can shorten your life. - Alice Park