Cramming exercise into one session is ‘AS healthy as going to the gym 5 times a week’

PLAYING football with your mates at the weekend may lower your risk of dying young as much as hitting the gym five times a week, a study found.

World Health Organisation guidelines suggest doing 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week.

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It was previously believed this needed to be spread across several sessions to get the benefits.

But researchers have now found “weekend warriors” – who only exercise on Saturday or Sunday –also live longer.

And even those warriors who fall slightly short of the 75/150 minute targets get some benefit, the study of 63,691 Brits found.

Those who exercise throughout the week reduced their risk of dying early from any illness by 35 per cent, compared with couch potatoes who did nothing.

Weekend warriors have a 30 per cent lower risk than those who were inactive, the study found.

The risk of premature death from heart disease was 41 per cent lower for both those who are regularly active and weekend warriors.

And for cancer deaths, the risk reductions were 21 per cent and 18 per cent, the journal JAMA Internal Medicine reports.

Risk reduction was very similar in all instances for weekend warriors and those who fell slightly short of the target.

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The researchers say more studies are needed to identify the optimal amount of weekly exercise and how it is divided throughout the week.

But they say there are likely to be additional benefits to exercising throughout the week than just reducing the risk of fatal illness.

Study leader Emmanuel Stamatakis, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, said: “It is very encouraging news that being physically active on just one or two occasions per week is associated with a lower risk of death, even among people who do some activity but don't quite meet recommended exercise levels.

“However, for optimal health benefits from physical activity it is always advisable to meet and exceed the physical activity recommendations.”

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