How much you exercise is more important than how often you exercise, reveals a study conducted by Queen's University researchers.
Researchers from Queen's University conducted a study and found people who work out for 150 minutes sessions a few times a week are as fit, if not more, than people who exercise for shorter durations every day.
The study was conducted to determine if the frequency of daily physical activities like exercising could in any way be linked to health problems like diabetes, heart disease and stroke and so study author Ian Janssen and his graduate student Janine Clarke analyzed 2,324 adults from across Canada.
"The findings indicate that it does not matter how adults choose to accumulate their 150 weekly minutes of physical activity," says Dr. Janssen in a press release. "For instance, someone who did not perform any physical activity on Monday to Friday but was active for 150 minutes over the weekend would obtain the same health benefits from their activity as someone who accumulated 150 minutes of activity over the week by doing 20-25 minutes of activity on a daily basis."
Participants were asked to wear accelerometers on their waists so that researchers could measure their physical activities. All participants had to meet certain physical activities guidelines, which stated indulging in 150 minutes of aerobic activities weekly. Based on this, the participants were divided into two groups. The first one consisted of people who indulged in regular physical activities (worked out at least 5 days of the week) and the other group was not as physically active (worked out for only one to four days in a week).
"The important message is that adults should aim to accumulate at least 150 minutes of weekly physical activity in whatever pattern that works for their schedule."
The paper was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism.
