Weekly exercise has the same benefits as regular exercise, study finds

Your weekly exercise not only brings the same physical benefits as regular exercise, but it’s also good for your brain, a study suggests.

Research has previously revealed that physical activity is linked to brain health and a lower risk of dementia and old age.

Now a study of more than 10,000 people has found that both “weekend warriors” – people who exercise once or twice a week – and those who exercised regularly showed a reduced risk of mild dementia when compared to unemployed people.

“I think our study is good news for busy people around the world,” said Dr Gary O’Donovan. “This is our latest study of weekend warriors, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the benefits of exercising once or twice a week are very similar to regular exercise.”

The “weekend warrior” style of exercise has become a popular research topic. Among other works, a study led by Dr Shaan Khurshid of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that people who regularly exercise once or twice a week have a lower risk of stroke. are more than 200 diseases compared to people who do not work, and they exercise regularly the same benefits.

Research shows that short-term exercise can also bring benefits to the brain.

O’Donovan said: “This is the first long-term study to show that a fighter’s weekly exercise routine is good for mental health.”

Writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, O’Donovan and colleagues report how they analyzed data from the Mexico City Prospective Study, a research effort in which people aged 35 and over were examined for the first time. first between 1998 and 2004, and for the second time between 2015 and 2019.

The results of the first survey revealed that of the 10,033 participants, 79.2% reported that they did not play or exercise, 7.2% were “weekend warriors” who reported exercising once or twice a week, and 13.6% exercise regularly.

In the second study, participants were assessed for cognitive impairment and dementia. The results revealed 26% of those who reported no sport or exercise in the first survey met the criteria for mild dementia when traditional thresholds were used, compared to 14% of local veterans. -week with 18.5% of the group working regularly.

Another analysis, taking into account factors such as age, sex, education, income, smoking, and body mass index, found that the group of weekend warriors had a 25 percent lower risk % of having mild dementia compared to the inactive group, while the frequently active group. had a low risk of 11%.

The team estimated that 13% of dementia cases would be eliminated if all middle-aged people participated in sports or exercise at least once or twice a week.

While O’Donovan said it was unclear why the weekly group of fighters had a lower risk of mild dementia than those who exercised regularly, he said it could be down to the type of device. of the test, stressed that it was not a medical test. . The team observed that the two active groups showed a reduction of the same magnitude of risk relative to the inactive group when a different threshold of the diagnostic tool was used.

Khurshid, who was not involved in the study, welcomed the research, noting that while it relied on subjective exercise that could be flawed, it supports the idea that people should exercise in a way that works for them.

“It adds to the growing body of evidence that vigorous exercise is associated with beneficial health outcomes, and in this case, it adds cognitive impairment to the list,” he said.

Indeed, Khurshid says previous work has emphasized that it’s the amount of exercise, not the pattern, that matters most for disease risk.

“So you need to train longer and fewer times a week if you’re going to be a weekend warrior, so you’re still getting the recommended workouts,” he said.