WEEKEND WARRIOR : IS IT WORTH THE BOTHER ?
REVIEW :
How much good are those couple of weekend sessions really doing your members and clients ?
WORDS : ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MIKE CLIMSTEIN & JOE WALSH
Title : Association of “ Weekend Warrior ” and Other Leisure Time Physical Activity Patterns With Risks for All-Cause , Cardiovascular Disease , and Cancer Mortality . Authors : Dr ’ s O ’ Donovan and colleagues . ( School of Sport , Exercise and Health Sciences , Loughborough , UK ) Source : Journal of the American Medical Association ( 2017 )
Introduction : For many years now we have lectured to students about the importance of prescribing established guidelines to the patients / clients with regard to the ‘ dose ’ of physical activity / exercise . One of the most common guidelines is from the American College of Sports Medicine ( ACSM )/ American Heart Association recommending 30 minutes of moderately intense aerobic exercise five days per week ( i . e . at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio exercise each week ) or 20 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise for three days a week .
These guidelines also recommend 8 to 10 strength training exercises of 8 to 12 reps for each exercise twice per week . This ‘ dose ’ of physical activity is associated with a number of health benefits , such as delayed all-cause mortality , decreased risk of developing heart disease , cerebrovascular disease , type 2 diabetes mellitus and a number of cancers … to name just a few .
Another common guideline that the students learn about is the American Diabetes Association ’ s guidelines for physical activity and type 2 diabetes , which recommends ( similar to the ACSM ) 150 minutes of physical activity each week , however not allowing more than two consecutive days to elapse between exercise sessions . It is important to note that these two guidelines are recommending three or more days per week of exercise , depending upon intensity .
These guidelines are pretty straightforward and easy for students to learn : their application in clinical practice , however , can be quite challenging . When teaching , we utilise problem-based learning ( PBL ) which is a student-centred style in which students are self-directed , independent and interdependent to solve a problem . We utilise case studies in PBL as they are especially effective for teaching clinical exercise physiology and one popular / relative to this Research Review is the patient / client who is ( for example ) a cab driver who is married with two young children , working full time plus ( i . e . six days each week ) from 5:30am to 7pm most days . The students are asked how they would apply the ACSM guidelines with this particular case , especially with regards to exercising ‘ most days of the week ’.
In clinical practice , we see quite a number of patients / clients who are working long days with perhaps only the weekend free and available for physical activity / exercise . We continually try to find time management strategies for these individuals so they can attain the recommended dose of exercise , but in reality they are only exercising on weekends at best , making them the sometimes maligned ‘ Weekend Warriors ’.
Methods : Dr O ’ Donovan and his colleagues were interested in investigating the health benefits , if any , in Weekend Warriors ( i . e . reporting < 150 min / week in moderate-intensity or < 75 min / week
The 30-second article
• Applying physical activity recommendations to time-poor people can be challenging , as most guidelines stipulate the need to exercise on three or more days per week
• A study of 63,000 people compared the risks for all-cause , cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality in a range of groups with varying degrees of physical activity
• Weekend Warriors ( who undertake at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes per week in vigorous-intensity activities from 1 or 2 sessions ) were found to have reduced all-cause mortality and risk for heart disease and cancer
• Even those deemed Insufficiently Active were found to enjoy better health outcomes than the 63 per cent of the study subjects that were deemed Inactive .
in vigorous-intensity activities from 1 or 2 sessions ) compared to Inactive individuals ( i . e . no moderate or vigorous physical activity / exercise ), Insufficiently Active individuals ( i . e . < 150 min / week in moderate-intensity and < 75 min / week in vigorous-intensity ) and those who are Regularly Active ( i . e . reporting > 150min / week in moderate-intensity or > 75 min / week in vigorous-intensity activities from > 3 sessions ). The investigators utilised
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