Let's not fool ourselves, the fundamental objective of most of those who decide to start exercising every day is to lose weight. The science The benefits of physical exercise for our health have already been widely proven, but the balance continues to prevail over them all for the majority of mortals. However, we must not forget that it is very important to stay healthy and prolong our life. In fact, several studies have shown that exercising in healthy patients reduces mortality from cardiovascular disease by between 30 and 40%.. A sedentary lifestyle, marked by physical inactivity, is a fundamental risk factor in the onset of diseases.
When is better?
When we finally decide to do sports, we ask ourselves what exercise is best, how many hours we should dedicate per week or whether it is better to train every day or focus on the weekend, when our work routine allows us to have more free time. Well, science has just solved this unknown.
Accumulating weekly exercise hours over the weekend avoids the risk of mortality in the same way as distributing them throughout the week. This is the main conclusion of the investigation in which Juan Pablo Rey-López, professor at the International University of Valencia, participated, entitled “Association of the “weekend warrior” and other patterns of leisure-time physical activity with all-cause and all-cause mortality specific.”
The health benefits of sport are well known to everyone. In fact, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), physical inactivity is the fourth most important mortality risk factor, it is responsible for 5.5% of all deaths in the world and is responsible for 32 million deaths produced annually
The conclusions of this study indicate that people who have less availability to practice sports from Monday to Friday and prefer to concentrate for two days, So-called “weekend warriors” will reap the same benefits in terms of preventing mortality. “Our study shows that the weekly frequency of physical exercise may not have any impact on survival, once we do a sufficient volume (amount) of exercises per week”, explains the VIU specialist.
No need to exercise daily
Specifically, research indicates that It is not necessary to exercise every day of the week to improve our health. In other words, the amount of exercise our species needs for good health should not be exaggerated. “In fact, some anthropologists have pointed out that our hunter-gatherer ancestors exercised a lot for survival reasons (hunting, maintenance), but once they had enough energy resources, they rested and remained sedentary in a safe place for a few days,” he he said. explains Rey-Lopez.
“It is interesting to note that high-performance athletes who train excessively produce unhealthy inflammatory responses, and even in some people with overtraining, there is evidence that they can cause cardiovascular problems by doing too much physical exercise. Likewise, it is important that the population knows that there are and have been strong commercial interests to exaggerate the importance of physical exercise to the detriment of attention to other factors such as healthy eating”, he adds.
However, if you only have time to play sports on the weekend, research suggests that “Weekend warriors” may have a higher risk of musculoskeletal injuries compared to those who spread their physical activity over more days. Therefore, limited scientific evidence indicates the importance of exercising more frequently and less intensely in terms of duration to prevent injuries.
This study analyzed data from a cohort of North American adults (US National Health Interview Survey) who self-described their physical exercise habits and were followed for an average of 10 years to assess their survival.
