Weekend Warriors

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Weekend Warriors

Is is a good idea to go full-out on weekends, exercising and working out to make up for your largely sedentary habits during the week?

By and large, exercising occasionally is better than never exercising at all. According to a telling 2004 study, men who worked out only on weekends — the stereotypical weekend warrior — were less likely to die prematurely than those who remained sedentary.

Weekend warriors also can attain a surprising degree of cardiovascular fitness. In a 2006 study of out-of-shape adults, those who began vigorous endurance training on weekends were as fit after 12 weeks as those who worked out more moderately five times a week.

But, of course, there are downsides to sporadic exercise. Weekend warriors tend to suffer acute tears and sprains more often than consistent exercisers (although they are less likely to develop overuse injuries). A more serious concern involves the heart. Like any muscle, it can be overtaxed by sudden, unusual demands, so people who exercise intermittently may put themselves at a relatively high risk for a heart attack compared to frequent exercisers or even to themselves when sedentary.

A major 2011 examination of activities that trigger heart attacks found that regular workouts reduce a person’s overall risk for cardiac arrest, but any single bout of exercise, especially by weekend warriors, increases the risk of a heart attack at that moment. As the review soberly concluded, “Acute cardiac events were significantly associated with episodic physical and sexual activity” (sex being, of course, a form of physical exertion); but “this association was attenuated among persons with high levels of habitual physical activity.”

So, for your heart’s sake, make physical and sexual activity a habit

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