Exercise is good for your general health, especially your heart.The guidelines recommend that 150 minutes Moderate to vigorous activity during the week. But does it matter when you do this exercise? Is it better to spread it out over the week, or does it lose some of its effectiveness if you cram it into the weekend?
a new research We have attempted to answer this very question by analyzing data from the UK Biobank. About 90,000 healthy middle-aged people wore wristbands (accelerometers) that tracked their activity. Weekly activity levels were recorded, with a particular focus on moderate-to-vigorous activity (more on that below).
Six years after accelerometer assessment, the researchers found that people who engaged in regular moderate-to-vigorous activity were more likely to have a stroke, heart attack, heart failure, or atrial fibrillation (irregular heart failure) than sedentary people. heart rhythm) was found to be low.
A new finding of this study is that there was no difference in results between those who did more than half of their activity on weekends and those who spread it out over the week. It didn’t matter when you did it, moderate-intensity physical activity was associated with improved heart health.
In this study, the authors called “weekend warriors” people who did most of the 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity over one to two days per week. This gives the impression of a cyclist climbing a mountain in Lycra or a middle-aged man playing 90 grueling minutes of football in the mud.
If the more than 37,000 people who took part in the study fit the definition of a “weekend warrior,” why aren’t the streets riddled with bikes and the parks filled with soccer players? It certainly seems at odds with the obesity and sedentary lifestyle epidemics we hear so often.
Weekend warrior? TRUE?
As semantic as it may seem, the definition of “weekend warrior” is important. In this study, the threshold used for moderate to vigorous exercise he was three “METs” (metabolic equivalent task). The METs scale is used to measure physical activity. For example, washing dishes is 2.5 METs, vacuuming is 3.3 METs, and walking at 3 miles per hour is 3.5 METs. To put this in context, riding a bike at 15 mph on flat ground makes him 10 METs.
A threshold of 3 METs is rather ambitious and seems like something that many people can achieve in their daily lives without even committing themselves to exercise. So perhaps when thinking of the people who participated in this study, they should have been called “Saturday strollers” or “Sunday stretchers” rather than “weekend warriors.”
Another point of this study is that these people were not athletes or athletes, but normal middle-aged people doing their usual activities, some of which included exercise, some of which It was normal activity as measured by an accelerometer.
This context is important when considering how these results can be used to inform patients. I don’t want anyone to think that two-and-a-half hours of vacuuming or taking a walk on the weekend is enough to prevent heart disease. A minimal level of exercise. You’ll have to sweat a lot to realize the real benefits.
For maximum effect, you need to sweat.
Image credit: Diego Cervo/Shutterstock
The relationship between exercise and heart health is simple: the more you exercise, the better your health. This study showed that some form of physical activity is better for the heart than sitting. This is an important message for many who cannot manage 150 minutes of moderate activity per week.
While acknowledging these limitations of this study, we should avoid the interpretation that we can atone for our sins by living a sedentary life from Monday to Friday and taking an hour’s walk on Saturday and Sunday.
The results of this study do not support this interpretation. It doesn’t matter when he does it, as long as he can last 150 minutes without breaking a sweat. But if you can do something harder, you should really try to make it happen.
The findings don’t apply to more strenuous exercise, so if you have the opportunity to bike to work on Tuesday or go swimming on Thursday, take advantage of it. your heart will thank you
Peter SvobodaCardiology, Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds
This article is reprinted from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.
