There are 24 hours in a day, of which we usually sleep for 8 and work for another 8. We are left with only 8, which we must divide between cooking, eating, cleaning, housework, spending time with family and friends, and, if possible, exercising. It seems like we could use a shorter workday. But sometimes we have to sacrifice some of these tasks, which is why many people prefer just train on the weekendsThese are the ones who are popularly called weekend warriors.
We might think that’s not enough. Five days of sitting and only two days of exercise? That doesn’t sound like much. But the reality is that, according to a new study, at least as much brain healthTraining only on weekends can be very beneficial, providing benefits comparable to those of training on a much more regular basis.
This study confirms the findings of other previously published studies that discuss the benefits of cardiovascular health. Brain health, both in terms of depression and anxiety like dementia and neurodegenerative diseasescan be well protected by physical activity. So knowing that a weekend workout may be enough to protect you is great news.
Working out on the weekends is also useful
Data were used to conduct this study There are 75,000 people registered in the UK Biobank.. It’s a health database of half a million people, which includes information from monitoring over many years. They chose patients who had activity bracelets so they could compare their health status with the physical activity they usually do.
So they divided them into three groups. Those who belonged to the first group, considered sedentary, did not achieve 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week is recommended.. In the second group, they reached or even exceeded those 150 minutes distributed throughout the week. And finally, those in the third group did those 150 minutes of exercise on the weekend or a maximum of two days, even if they were not Saturday and Sunday.
After adjusting for variables that could affect brain health, such as smoking, age, gender, hypertension or alcohol consumption, we began to analyze the state of the brain after average follow-up. 8.4 years.
As expected, the worst effects on brain health were seen in people who led a sedentary lifestyle. But, interestingly, there was virtually no difference between those who exercised on weekends and those who spread it out over several days. The benefits were 26% lower risk of developing dementia, 21% lower risk of stroke and 45% lower risk of Parkinson’s disease.As far as mental health is concerned, it has been noted a 40% reduction in the risk of depression and a 37% reduction in anxiety.
age matters
What is curious is that in relation to risk of Parkinson’s disease and strokeThe benefits were even greater in older patients. So it is very important to exercise, no matter how old we are, and not to be upset if we cannot do it every day.
It’s better to exercise on the weekends than ever before
Any exercise is better than none. There are even studies that show that a few minutes of intense exercise a day can be beneficial. But if we can’t commit to it every day, one or two will do. It doesn’t even have to be on the weekend or back to back. Why not focus all your exercise on Monday and Wednesday?
There are many options, we just need to choose the one that best fits our schedule. No excuses.
Source: Hiper Textual
