Exercise is vital to your health, but between work, home and a thousand responsibilities, you barely have time to breathe. You must be asking: “How am I supposed to exercise regularly when I don’t even have time to cook?” Don’t worry, we have good news. This is revealed by a recent study published in Nature Aging you don’t have to exercise every day to take care of your mental and brain health. If you’re one of those people who only manage to move on the weekend, you can still get great benefits.
The researchers who conducted this study relied on data from more than 75,000 people in the United Kingdom. They used wearable devices like watches that count your steps to see how these people moved throughout the week. Most of the participants were around 62 years old, so we are not talking about young performance athletes, but people with normal physical condition.
They divided people into three groups: inactive (those who did not achieve even 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week), regular property (who met these recommendations by spreading the exercises over the whole week), and weekend warriors (people who, despite not moving much during the week, accumulated more than half of their physical activity in one or two days).
And what did they find?
As it turns out, these weekend warriors have a much lower risk of developing serious mental and neurological health problems, such as dementia, stroke and Parkinson’s disease, compared to inactives. For example, the risk of dementia is reduced 26%leak va 21% and Parkinson va 45%. And that’s not all: they also have a 40% lower risk of depression aa 37% lower risk of anxiety. Not bad for someone who can only get around on the weekend!
Best of all it is These benefits are very similar to those obtained by people who exercise throughout the week.. So if you can get around just a few days, whether it’s Saturday and Sunday or any other few days, you’re on the right track.
Now you may wonder: “What if I’m busy on weekends too?” The good news is that the study shows that it doesn’t matter when you do it, the important thing is that you accumulate this physical activity on any day of the week. It is not necessary that these are consecutive days; It is important to move enough.
And if you don’t like the gym, Don’t worry! This study looked at all types of physical activity, not just typical gym activity. So if your exercise includes climbing stairs, walking to the park, or even doing housework, it counts and helps you reap those health benefits.
Of course, there are a few things to consider. Although the researchers took into account several factors such as age, gender and diet, there may always be other elements that influence the results. Additionally, this study was unable to evaluate how changing your activity level over time might affect your brain health. But it is clear that any exercise, no matter how little it is, it’s better than nothing.
So what’s the lesson? That you don’t need to be a super athlete or live in a gym to protect your mind and brain. Whether you’re a weekend mover or a week-long mover, it’s important to keep moving. Every minute of activity counts and in the long run Your mental and brain health will thank you.
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