FITNESS TREND: Weekend warriors, the new fitness trend to practice sports only on the weekend

Playing sports is key to our health, that is clear to us. But work, children, the house… they are all responsibilities that limit our effective time that we can dedicate to the

physical exercise. That is why activities such as HIIT or Tabata succeed, which ensure the same results as an extensive sports routine but in less time.

But then comes the

World Health Organization and it recommends us to do between 150 and 300 weekly minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week or between 75 and 150 minutes if you do it intensely. And there all our schedules are out of place.

That is why a new term has emerged to refer to those people who concentrate all those minutes of physical exercise that the WHO recommends on the weekend. Are the

weekend warrior, or weekend warriorswho do sports intensely only on Saturdays and Sundays, since it is impossible for them to spend a few minutes exercising during the week.

But it has

the same benefits to do sports regularly throughout the week? The short answer is yes, but as with everything, it has its nuances. Yes, it is more than documented that physical activity, when you do it, makes you have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, which reduces mortality, but being a weekend warrior has its drawbacks.

Benefits and drawbacks of being a weekend warrior

A new magazine issue

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology has compared this new trend with the way of doing physical exercise distributed throughout the week and has come to a conclusion: compressing physical activity into two weekend days has

important health benefits similar to distributing them throughout the week, but with some drawbacks.

In other words, it’s always better to exercise, even if it’s only on the weekend, than not to. The problem is that the weekend warriors or weekend warriors are not as trained as those who practice sports on a regular basis, which

could cause sports injuries.

For this reason, experts do not recommend compressing physical exercise into the two days of the

weekend if you suffer from any chronic illness or certain pathologies such as back pain, as it could be aggravated by intense sports sessions carried out in a short time.

Generally speaking, if you have time during the week, experts recommend

practice exercise every day, even in blocks of a few minutes. But if it is materially impossible for you, you can get the same health benefits if you just practice it.

weekend, but you must adjust the intensity to your physical condition so as not to suffer any

injury.