Fitness
No Time to Exercise Daily? Being a Weekend Warrior Still Pays Off
We all know that person who doesn’t look like much Monday through Friday (maybe they’re hunched over a desk, juggling meetings and ready-to-eat meals) but come Saturday morning, they’re sprinting, crushing workouts, or clocking 10,000 steps before lunch. We call them “weekend warriors.” And according to a new study, they might be doing just enough to outlive the rest of us.
Research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association says that people who exercise just one or two days a week can achieve nearly the same life-extending benefits as those who spread their workouts evenly across the week, as long as they rack up 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity.
Weekend Warriors Are Winning
“You don’t need to exercise every day to stay healthy,” said study corresponding author Zhi-Hao Li, Ph.D., an epidemiologist in the School of Public Health at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China. “As long as you get 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week (whether packed into one to two days or spread out), you can significantly reduce your risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, cancer or other causes.”
The weekend warrior model (intense but infrequent exercise) has always had an air of guilt around it. It’s the opposite of what we’re taught about consistency. But this research reframes the narrative: it’s not about the calendar, it’s about the cumulative effort.
Go on that weekend hike you’ve been planning (Getty Images)
To reach this conclusion, researchers analyzed data from over 93,000 participants in the U.K. They used wrist accelerometers to track real activity, not just what people said they did, but how they actually moved. Participants were then grouped into three categories:
- Weekend Warriors – those who hit their 150-minute target in one or two days
- Active Regulars – those who spread activity throughout the week
- Inactive Individuals – those who didn’t meet the 150-minute benchmark at all
The results were striking:
Weekend warriors had a 32% lower risk of death from all causes, a 31% lower risk from cardiovascular disease, and a 21% lower risk from cancer.
Hit the 150-minute target of exercise for the week (Getty Images)
Active regulars had a 26% lower risk of death from all causes, 24% lower from cardiovascular disease, and 13% lower from cancer. There was no significant difference in mortality risk between weekend warriors and active regulars. In other words, weekend warriors aren’t playing catch-up, they’re right on pace.
Psychology Behind the Weekend Burst
This study validates how real people live and move. The typical weekday is full of time sinks: work, commutes, caregiving. But on weekends, there’s room to stretch… literally and figuratively. And weekend warriors take advantage of that, funneling energy into exercise with surprising efficiency.
Sweating it out on weekends still counts (Getty Images)
“This message is encouraging news for busy people who struggle to fit in daily workouts but can manage a concentrated burst of activity on weekends or over a couple of days,” Li said. “The research provides reassuring evidence that even sporadic physical activity can have lasting health benefits, making it easier for people to prioritize their well-being amid busy schedules.”
For decades, we’ve been told that health equals habit. Wake early, jog daily, repeat. But this research suggests that intensity and total time might matter more than rigid routine. The World Health Organization and American Heart Association both recommend 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity) weekly. Think of it like a budget. Some people save a little each day. Others make a big deposit once a week. Either way, the account grows. Rather than viewing weekend exercise as compensatory, we can now recognize it as intentional and effective. So if your weekdays are a blur of back-to-back obligations and your gym bag gathers dust Monday through Friday, take heart. Your Saturday sweat session still counts!
Source:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.039225
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Finding time to work out as a mom with young kids can be a challenge in itself, especially when you’re new to an area and don’t know where to start. However, a new fitness option strolled into Sioux Falls today. iStroll offers moms the chance to work out and meet other moms all while their kids can play or even join alongside them.
iStroll is a national organization that has more than 35 locations in the country but this is the first time one opened in South Dakota. It’s a full body workout that incorporates dumbbells, body weight, and jogging strollers when the weather’s nice.
“I found iStroll in Oklahoma and fell in love,” said Kelsi Supek who started the affiliate in Sioux Falls. “We made friends. It became our entire social network. The kids loved it and then we moved to Arizona during COVID. And all the moms were stuck at home. They were inside with our kids and lonely, honestly. And we were like, why can’t we start an iStroll and be out at the parks with the kids every day? And it took off.”
When Supek moved to Sioux Falls, she was encouraged by her family to start an affiliate and own it herself.
“Gym daycares did not work out for my children,” said Supek. “I would get 10 minutes into a class and then I’d have that person trying to knock outside the yoga studio going, Can I have Kelsey and her kids screaming in daycare? And it just didn’t work for us. So at iStroll they could be with me or I could be breastfeeding the baby as I was teaching in class.”
Classes are planned to continue each Wednesday and Friday at We Rock the Spectrum and First Presbyterian Church. For a full schedule for January and February, you can look at their Facebook. The first class is also free and memberships are for the whole family.
“Letting the kids see you work out is, it’s similar to homeschooling where like, you know, how are they going to love working out if they don’t see you working out,” said Kelly Jardeleza, a stay-at-home mom of three kids. “Whereas at other gyms they put them in a room and they don’t get to watch you. And how are you going to inspire them if they’re not watching you do it?”
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
There’s no bad time to take a more active interest in your health, but the new year, for lots of us, feels like a fresh start. Maybe you’re planning to sign up for a 10k or finally have a go at bouldering, eat a bit better or learn to swing a kettlebell. Maybe you want to keep up with your grandkids — or just be a little bit more physically prepared for whatever life throws at you.
To help things along, Guardian Live invites you to a special event with public health expert Devi Sridhar, journalist and author Mariella Frostrup, and health and fitness columnist Joel Snape. They’ll be joining the Guardian’s Today in Focus presenter Annie Kelly to discuss simple, actionable ways to stay fit and healthy as you move through the second half of life: whether that means staying strong and mobile or stressing less and sleeping better.
To make the whole event as helpful as possible, we’d love to hear from you about what you find most challenging — or confusing — when it comes to health and exercise. What should you actually be eating, and how are you going to find the time to make it? What sort of exercise is best, and how often should you be doing it? Is Pilates worth the effort — and should we really all be drinking mugfuls of piping hot creatine?
Whether your question is about exercise, eating, or general wellness, post it below and we’ll put a selection to our panel on the night.
Share your experience
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Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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