Heart Health: Intense 2-Day workout as beneficial as regular exercise, study finds

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

physical activity for 1-2 days reduce their risk of heart attack and stroke as much as those who do moderate physical activity for several days, a study suggests. Current guidelines from the World Health Organization and American Heart Association recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per week for overall health benefits. However, the impact of concentrated versus evenly distributed activity has remained unclear. The study, published in the journal JAMA, investigate the associations of cardiovascular event risk between a «weekend warrior» pattern of physical activity, where the majority of MVPA is achieved over 1-2 days, and a pattern of more evenly distributed MVPA across multiple days. The researchers analysed data from the UK Biobank cohort study, focusing on participants who provided a full week of accelerometer-based physical activity data between June 8, 2013, and December 30, 2015. With this data, the researchers compared 3 MVPA patterns. In the active weekend warrior group, participants achieved at least 150 minutes of MVPA with 50 per cent of the total activity completed in 1-2 days.

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Participants in the active regular group achieved at least 150 minutes of MVPA but did not meet active WW criteria. In the inactive group, participants completed less than 150 minutes of MVPA. They also assessed the same patterns using a median threshold of 230.4 minutes or more of MVPA per week. Associations between these activity patterns and incident atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and stroke were analysed. The analysis included 89,573 individuals with a mean age of 62 years, of whom 56 per