Universal health guidelines say that adults should aim for 150 minutes of “moderate-intensity aerobic activity” (like walking on an incline) or 75 minutes of “vigorous aerobic activity” (running, swimming laps, or high-intensity workouts) per week, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). But for many busy bees, squeezing in three to five 30-minute workouts in seven days feels daunting. Luckily, fresh data from a new study proves that “concentrated physical activity” is just as beneficial for cognitive health as a split workout schedule.
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Split training is when you divide a workout schedule over multiple days (think: upper body Monday and Wednesday and lower body Tuesday and Thursday), whereas concentrated physical activity is meeting a week’s worth of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in one or two days. Previously, studies and fitness experts have argued that spacing out workouts is best, but researchers now claim that one method may not be superior to the other.
According to a new study published in the journal Nature Aging, the workout schedule of an accelerometer-derived "weekend warrior" can help prevent certain brain and memory loss conditions, including dementia. A weekend warrior is someone who achieves more than 50 percent of their MVPA within one or two days and dedicates the other five days to recovery.
For the study, researchers analyzed eight years’ worth of data from 75,629 fitness trackers. The participants, who were sourced from a U.K. biobank, were separated into three groups based on their workout schedules: inactive people (those who didn’t meet the 150-minute MVPA recommendation), regularly active people (those who practice split training), and weekend warriors (those who meet their MVPA within two days).
Researchers tracked the prevalence of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and other psychological disorders over nearly a decade, giving a wide-ranging picture of just how much (or little) our workout routines can affect the brain. The study found that weekend warriors are more cognitively healthy than their inactive and active counterparts.
“We find that the weekend warrior pattern is associated with similarly lower risks of dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, depressive disorders and anxiety compared to a regularly active pattern. Our findings highlight the weekend warrior pattern as a potential alternative in preventive intervention strategies, particularly for those unable to maintain daily activity routines,” the authors wrote in the study.
A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association came to a similar conclusion. As Best Life previously reported, "Their findings indicated that this 'weekend warrior' pattern of physical activity did provide similar cardiovascular benefits to those from more evenly distributed physical activity. This included similarly lower risks of incident atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and stroke."
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However, that doesn’t mean weekend warriors should stay stagnant on their off days, argued Paul Arciero, MS, a health science professor at Skidmore College.
“The weekend warrior approach may be ideal for people unable to fit MVPA into their routine, [but] they should still aim to simply be generally active five days a week and then push a little harder on the weekend,” he told MedicalNewsToday.
Arciero said taking the stairs, walking, and other lightweight movements outside of scheduled workouts will help with recovery and keep the body warm and loose for those more intense forms of exercise.
“An ideal scenario would be walking 4–10,000 steps a day during the week, and then longer more intense fitness activities during the weekend. [For example,] a longer hike, bike, swim, tennis, pickleball, yoga, [or] resistance training," he added.
