The rise of the ‘weekend warrior’

It is recommended that individuals aged 18 to 64 years perform at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, at least 75 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, or equivalent combinations.29 The ‘weekend warrior’ performs the recommended amount of aerobic activity using one or two sessions per week. The health benefits of the weekend warrior physical activity pattern were first described in 2004: Lee and colleagues14 reported that all-cause mortality risk was 15% lower in weekend warriors than in inactive men in their study of 8,421 men in the Harvard Alumni Health Study (hazard ratio: 0.85; 95% confidence interval: 0.65-1.11). O’Donovan and colleagues18 confirmed these benefits in one of the most talked about studies of 2017:2 they reported that all-cause mortality risk was 30% lower in weekend warriors than in inactive adults in their study of 63,591 men and women in the Health Survey for England and the Scottish Health Survey (hazard ratio: 0.70; 95% confidence interval: 0.60-0.82). In this Viewpoint, we celebrate sport, exercise and the weekend warrior. We show that the weekend warrior is thriving in the United Kingdom, in the United States, and in Latin America. We argue that vigorous activity and the pursuit of cardiorespiratory fitness are important to the health of the weekend warrior. Finally, we suggest that the weekend warrior physical activity pattern should be accommodated in future physical activity guidelines and interventions