Exercising on the weekend may be enough to keep fit

Playing sports regularly provides numerous health benefits beyond age, sex, or physical ability.

regular physical activity raises cholesterol with lipoprotein high-density cholesterol (HDL) known as “good” cholesterol and lowers triglycerides unhealthy, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Also improve muscle strength and increase resistance, helps prevent weight gain and stimulates certain brain chemicals that can make you feel happier. These are just some of the benefits that sport brings to our lives.

Convinced of the need for regular physical activity, the question is how many weekly sessions are needed. Now, a study carried out by American researchers over 10 years ensures that exercise over the weekend it may be enough to keep fit.

The study, which analyzed 350,000 people and has been published in the magazine JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that the type and total amount of exercise count more than the number of sessions. Thus, the study recommends at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise such as going for a brisk walk, riding a bike, or playing tennis in a doubles match. Or, you could substitute for 75 minutes of vigorous activitysuch as running, swimming, or playing a game of soccer.

Many of the participants in the US study recorded this amount within a week. But some concentrated it in one or two sessions instead of spacing them out.

Those who reached the recommended level of activity, either during the week or on the weekend, had a lower risk of death than those who did less than the recommended amount. The study does not differentiate whether the physical activity was done throughout the week or concentrated on the weekend.

The best preventive medicine

For the Professor of Medicine and Physiotherapy at CEU Cardenal Herrera University, Juan Francisco Lisón, “healthy aerobic physical activity is the best preventive medicine against the main causes of death in Western countries.” To do this, he recommends 5 times a week 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exerciselike brisk walking, or 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise, just 3 times a week. That would be enough to benefit from all the preventive effects of exercise against many of the diseases derived from sedentary life.

Juan Francisco Lisón recommends 30 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise five times a week

“No known treatment has the preventive capacity against so many different diseases as healthy physical exercise”, highlighted Professor Lisón in reference to its proven effects against a long list of diseases: cardiovascular –hypercholesterolemia, hypertension and also diabetes and obesity–, some of the most prevalent cancers –breast cancer in postmenopausal women and colon and prostate cancer–, cognitive impairment, including anxiety and depression.