Weekend warriors, take a victory lap. People who pack their workouts into one or two sessions a week lower their risk of dying over roughly the next decade nearly as much as people who exercise more often, new research suggests. 
 
 Even people who get less exercise than recommended have less risk than folks who don’t break a sweat at all. 
 
 “If someone is completely inactive, the best thing they can do is even getting out and taking a walk,” said Hannah Arem, a health researcher at George Washington University. For people who think they don’t have enough time for small amounts of exercise to matter, the results are “encouraging or perhaps motivating,” she said. 
 
 She had no role in the study, but wrote a commentary published with the results Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. 
 
 U.S. and global guidelines call for 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, ideally spread out so you get some on most days. 
 
 That’s based on many previous studies suggesting a host of benefits beyond the risk of premature death that the new study measured. 
 
 Researchers at Loughborough University in England used surveys by trained interviewers on nearly 64,000 adults in England and Scotland from 1994 to 2008. By last year, 8,802 had died. 
 
 Participants were grouped according to how much exercise they said they got the preceding month: 
 
 Inactive (no leisure time exercise), 63 percent. 
 
 
 
 Regular exercisers (meet the guidelines), 11 percent. 
 
 
 
 Weekend warriors (get the recommended weekly amount but in one or two sessions), 4 percent. 
 
 
 
 Insufficiently active (get less than the recommended weekly amount), 22 percent. 
 
 
 
 The results showed that the risk of dying was about 30 percent lower in weekend warriors and insufficient exercisers versus those who were inactive. Regular exercisers lowered their risk a little more, by 35 percent. 
 
 Any amount of activity helped cut the risk of dying of heart disease by about 40 percent, compared to being a couch potato. 
 
 Georgia Kopani, an elementary school teacher, is a so-called weekend warrior - cramming all her exercise into one or two monster workouts. She spends two hours a week at her local gym, working up a sweat. But the rest of the time, not so much, reports CBS News’ chief medical correspondent Dr. Jonathan LaPook. 
 
 “It’s not easy, it’s difficult,” Kopani said, because the only thing you want after a long day is “to go and just sit down and rest.” 
 
 She hired New York Sports Club trainer Stephen Ferguson to get her off the couch. 
 
 “I’m not getting sick so often. I feel better with my body. My confidence is better,” Kopani said. “I feel healthier.” 
 
 CBS Evening News 
 
 The new research doesn’t mean that existing guidelines are bunk, independent experts say. Exercise has many other benefits such as helping to prevent dementia, depression, high blood pressure, unhealthy sleep patterns and diabetes. Some of these effects are short-lived, so exercising more often gives more of them, Arem said. 
 
 “I don’t know that we’re ready to say, based on this study, that people shouldn’t try to exercise more than that if they can,” said Dr. Daniel Rader, preventive cardiology chief at the University of Pennsylvania. “People who exercise more regularly report that they feel like they have a better quality of life,” among other benefits, he said. 
 
 Still, the results are “quite fascinating and a bit surprising” on the “dose” of exercise needed for benefit, Rader said. “Even if you only have time to do something once a week, this study would suggest it’s still worth doing.” 
 
 However, the study comes with some caveats. More than 90 percent of the participants were white, so results may differ in other racial or ethnic groups. Exercise was only assessed at the start of the study and could have changed over time. 
 
 The biggest limitation is that observational studies like this can only suggest exercise and health risks may be related; they cannot prove the point. 
 
 Finally, Dr. Matthew Hepinstall, an orthopedic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, said that while the study “provides reassuring evidence that there is cardiovascular benefit to be gained by exercising vigorous only once or twice per week,” he encourages people to proceed with some caution. 
 
 “From an orthopaedic perspective, it should be noted that ‘weekend warriors’ who participate in high impact sport may be vulnerable to injuries if they participate in activities for which they are not adequately conditioned,” he told CBS News. “A balanced approach to exercise and fitness is always wise.” ||||| (Reuters Health) - When it comes to workouts, exercising only on the weekends is still better than doing nothing at all, a study suggests. 
 
 Compared with inactive adults, people who get any amount of exercise may live longer, according to the study of middle-aged adults in the UK and Scotland. 
 
 With some activity, but less than the minimum weekly recommended 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of intense workouts, people were 34 percent less likely to die during the study period compared to people who didn’t exercise at all. 
 
 Weekend warriors who crammed the minimum amount of weekly exercise into one or two workouts were 30 percent less likely to die during the study. 
 
 “The weekend warriors in our study undertook a large proportion of vigorous-intensity exercise, and quality may be more important than quantity,” said lead study author Gary O’Donovan of Loughborough University in the UK. 
 
 “Vigorous-intensity exercise improves aerobic fitness more than the same amount of moderate-intensity exercise,” O’Donovan added by email. “And, two bouts of vigorous-intensity exercise per week are sufficient to maintain aerobic fitness.” 
 
 Plenty of research has shown the benefits of physical activity, and the potential health hazards of an extremely sedentary lifestyle. O’Donovan and colleagues designed the current study to see how waiting for the weekends to exercise might influence longevity. 
 
 For the current study, researchers analyzed survey data collected on 63,591 people from 1994 to 2012 to see how different exercise patterns influence the risk of death from all causes, heart disease and cancer. 
 
 Participants were 59 years old on average, and they were typically followed for almost nine years. 
 
 During the study period, there were 8,802 deaths from all causes, 2,780 deaths from cardiovascular disease and 2,526 from cancer. 
 
 Regular exercisers who got several workouts a week and got the minimum recommended amount of activity, were 35 percent less likely to die during the study period than people who got no exercise at all, researches report n JAMA Internal Medicine. 
 
 Compared with inactive people, participants who got a little exercise were 37 percent less likely to die of cardiovascular causes during the study, weekend warriors were 40 percent less likely to die, and routine exercisers were 41 percent less likely to die. 
 
 For cancer, the odds of dying were 14 percent lower among slightly active people, 18 percent lower for weekend warriors, and 21 percent lower for routine exercisers. 
 
 The study is observational and doesn’t prove exercise reduces the odds of death or that a weekend workout routine can cause fewer deaths than other patterns of exercise, the authors note. Exercise habits were also self-reported, and most participants were white, which may limit how much the results would apply to the general population. 
 
 Current exercise recommendations suggest spreading activity throughout the week because this can help with health outcomes like blood pressure, mood, and the ability to process sugars, noted Hannah Arem, a public health researcher at George Washington University and author of an accompanying editorial. 
 
 “The ideal exercise routine will depend on the individual’s health status and goals,” Arem said by email. 
 
 Meeting the minimum recommended amount of weekly exercise might mean walking a 20-minute mile each day, taking a leisurely 45-minute bike ride twice a week, swimming at a moderate pace for 35 minutes twice a week, or running a 10-minute mile for 45 minutes over the course of a week, Arem added. 
 
 “These guidelines focus on total amount of activity after accounting for intensity, rather than specifying prescriptions for when exercise should be performed,” Arem said. “For people who have to condense exercise into 1-2 sessions per week but meet the guideline minimum, they will still reap a big health benefit – a 30 percent lower risk of death compared to those who do not exercise.” 
 
 SOURCE: bit.ly/2iWHf1C JAMA Internal Medicine, online January 9, 2017. ||||| How one-minute bursts of exercise can boost health for over-60s in just six weeks 
 
 Easier to do tasks such as getting out of chair or carrying shopping 
 
 
 
 Study by Abertay University in Dundee into high intensity exercise 
 
 
 
 It could help ease the 'astronomical' cost of ill-health in the elderly 
 
 Short, sharp bursts of exercise could transform the lives of the over-60s, research suggests. 
 
 Just two one-minute sessions a week for six weeks dramatically improved the health and physical fitness of men and women in this age group. 
 
 Blood pressure dropped and everyday tasks such as getting out of a chair or carrying shopping became easier. 
 
 Scroll down for video 
 
 
 
 Improving health: Blood pressure dropped and everyday tasks such as getting out of a chair or carrying shopping became easier, after the participants had carried out two one-minute sessions a week for six weeks 
 
 The researchers from Abertay University in Dundee said short sessions of high intensity exercise could help ease the ‘astronomical’ cost of ill-health in the elderly. 
 
 High-intensity training, or HIT, purports to offer at least the same benefits as conventional activity but in the fraction of the time and is the subject of much research. The latest study is the first to focus on whether it may help older people. 
 
 Researcher John Babraj put six men and women aged over 60 through their paces in his lab twice a week for six weeks. 
 
 Each session began with them pedalling all-out on an exercise bike for six seconds before resting for at least a minute to allow their heart to recover and then giving it their all for another six seconds. 
 
 Experiment: Researchers from Abertay University in Dundee (pictured) said short sessions of high intensity exercise could help ease the 'astronomical' cost of ill-health in the elderly 
 
 Although they began by doing six six-second sprints, by end of the study, they were able to do ten per session – adding up to 60 seconds of activity. 
 
 After just six weeks, blood pressure fell by 9 per cent and day-to-day activities were easier, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society reports. 
 
 Dr Babraj said: ‘What we found with this study, which involves doing just one minute of exercise twice a week, is that it not only improved the participants’ physical health and ability to do these things, but also their perceptions of their own ability to engage in physical activity. 
 
 ‘They enjoyed it, were delighted with the effects it had on their health and, on top of that, felt they could fit it into their lives, which is something they aren’t able to do with current exercise recommendations. 
 
 ‘If people aren’t meeting the targets, we need to find ways to work with them when it comes to exercise, rather than just persisting with something that isn’t working. 
 
 ‘High-intensity training is an achievable alternative that could make a real difference to people’s health and quality of life.’ 
 
 Current guidelines say pensioners need to do at least two and a half hours of cycling or fast walking a week, plus two sessions of yoga, gardening or other activities that strengthen muscles. 
 
 Dr Babraj said that those who do not have an exercise bike can get the same benefit from six-second runs up a steep hill and added: ‘When it comes to the sprints, you don’t have to go at the speed of someone like Usain Bolt. 
 
 Tried it out: Andrew Marr has blamed the stroke he suffered on experimenting with high intensity exercise 
 
 ‘As long as you are putting in your maximal effort, whatever speed that happens to be, it will improve your health.’ 
 
 'High-intensity training is an achievable alternative that could make a real difference to people’s health and quality of life' John Babraj, researcher 
 
 He said it could be argued that short, sharp sessions put less strain on the heart than lengthier, less intensive ones. 
 
 BBC presenter Andrew Marr has blamed the stroke he suffered last year on experimenting with high intensity exercise. Dr Babraj cautioned that people should check with their doctor before embarking on a training programme.
– Hate having to drag yourself to the gym after work? A new JAMA study suggests people who exercise only on the weekend enjoy much of the same benefits as weekday gym-goers. Researchers at Loughborough University in the UK who reviewed data on more than 63,500 mostly white adults found those who completed the recommended weekly amount of exercise—150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of high-intensity workouts—over several days of the week had only a slightly lower risk of death from cancer and heart disease than "weekend warriors" who completed the same exercise in just one or two days, reports Quartz. Compared to participants who didn't work out at all, people who worked out multiple times a week were 35% less likely to die during the study period, while the percentage dipped to 30% for those who waited until the weekend, reports Reuters. "Quality may be more important than quantity," the study author says. A cardiology expert at the University of Pennsylvania who was not involved with the observational study tells CBS News that he finds the results "quite fascinating and a bit surprising." He says it reinforces the idea that those strapped for time should exercise when they can, even if it's just one day a week. (Music may help you get through an intense workout.)