Good news for everyone who is too busy to exercise during the week. Exercising only on weekends is good enough. It does not have to be half an hour a day five times a week. British researchers write that in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. That’s nice news for everyone who is too busy to exercise during the week.

There is also good news for those who do not get that recommended time. The standing recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) is 150 minutes of moderately intensive exercise or 75 minutes of intense exercise. The WHO also recommends a spread over the week. The new study now says that those who only get a little bit of leisure time once or twice a week, together, for example, a rough hour of walking, for example, reduce the chance of a premature death almost as well. However, those who divide that hour into three or more sessions have almost nothing to do with their health.

The British research provides an answer to a fiercely debated question: is that WHO opinion correct? Does it have to be five days a week? Or is it enough to only exercise once or twice during the weekend? British research followed 63,000 English and Scottish over-40s and gave more accurate results.

From that research, it now appears that those who move sufficiently only during the weekend, reduce the risk of precipitate death by 30 percent. Who spreads the recommended exercise time over the week, 35 percent less likely to die within a few years.

Two-thirds do nothing
A weekend athlete who runs an average of over 25 km / h for 1.5 hours on the racing bike, or runs 15 kilometers, which is intensive exercise, can get some health during the rest of the week, but it does not add much anymore.

Researchers registered with their 63,000 people aged 40 and over what they do in their free time in physical exercise and sports, which diseases they might suffer, what work they do and whether they smoke. And they watched for an average of ten years whether, and if so, how those people died.

Almost two-thirds of those English and Scottish participants did nothing to exercise in their free time. That is not only true in England and Scotland: everywhere in Western countries only a small part of the population meets the standard for healthy exercise. In this study, only 15 percent of the participants succeeded.