Can exercising 1-2 days a week reap sufficient benefits?

• According to a new study, evenly spreading out the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity throughout the week may not be necessary to reap its benefits for cognitive health.
• The authors of the study were particularly interested in the effect of concentrating physical activity during just a couple of days of the week on the risk of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke.
• The study finds that “weekend warriors” who get more than 50% of their weekly exercise on their days off seem to benefit just as much as those who distribute their activity across the week.
• When physical activity is concentrated in just a couple of days, the remaining five days of comparatively less activity become a time for the body to recover, heal, and gain strength.

A new study suggests that weekend warriors who complete most of their exercise over one to two days within a week may reap similar cognitive benefits — such as lower risk of dementia and Parkinson’s disease — as those who exercise more regularly.

Experts agree that participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) for at least 150 minutes a week is associated with profound health benefits. For many, however, finding time to exercise during a busy week is difficult.

Now, a large observational study published in Nature Aging finds that when the majority of physical activity occurs on just two days a week—the weekend, for example—the same health benefits apply, particularly in the area of brain health.

The purpose of the study is to investigate an area the authors feel has been under-researched: the timing and pacing of recommended levels of MVPA.

Depending on one’s schedule, those two days may or may not be the weekend. The point is that, according to the study, one can go a bit lighter on physical activity during busy days and make up for it in less tightly scheduled times.