We all like the ability of accomplishing a task in a short amount of time. In the fitness world, most people that accomplish their exercises for the week in a short time span usually do it over the weekend; hence “the week end warrior”. Now, I have no problem with weekend warriors. I see it as doing a lot of physical activity at one time is absolutely better than doing none!

One of my biggest questions before becoming educated was, “is physical activity really going to be beneficial if you only do it on the weekends?” For the longest time, I thought that if you aren’t exercising multiple times during the week you are just wasting your time.

There is actually a study I found on “The Science Daily” using over 2000 adults to test if physical activity frequency changes the risk factor for heart disease and diabetes. The final results displayed that whether you worked out the required 150 physical activity minutes in 2 days or in 5 days, your benefits stayed the same.

So in the case of only exercising to keep yourself health, then becoming a weekend warrior would work to your advantage. Now, this study said nothing about the frequency of physical activity you need to see health benefits while also acquiring those six pack abs.

With my knowledge and understanding of exercise, becoming an exclusive weekend warrior will make it difficult to get that nice lean beach body look everyone wants. One of the biggest problems that come with minimal frequency is the time given for muscle atrophy. “Use it or lose it” is the best statement to use when describing large gaps in the frequency of physical activity.

Each day you are not challenging your muscle is another day your body is saying “hey, what’s all of this excess muscle for?” Increasing your frequency will get you closer to the results you want.

The second biggest problem with having a low frequency physical activity regimen is having the ability to skip a workout. If you are only working out on the weekend and something comes up, it’s going to be a mighty long time till your next workout.

This minimal room for missing workouts will make it that much easier to quit your physical activity routine. Hey, I am not trying to bash weekend warriors; I’m just suggesting you take the frequency up a notch to receive both health results and the look you want!

-Phil