{"id":915203,"date":"2026-11-12T21:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T21:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/915203\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T21:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T21:22:11","slug":"can-one-intense-workout-per-week-keep-you-healthy-heres-the-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/915203\/","title":{"rendered":"Can one intense workout per week keep you healthy? Here’s the science."},"content":{"rendered":"

The so-called \u201cweekend warrior\u201d exercise approach<\/a> offers an enticing trade: skip the workouts all week, and cram them into one or two days instead. It sounded great to me, until I realized it could turn my hard-earned \u201cThank God it\u2019s Friday\u201d into \u201cOh God, it\u2019s Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, for people who genuinely lack the time to exercise<\/a> during the workweek, this approach could offer real convenience\u2014and real health benefits.<\/p>\n

A recent study in Hong Kong has supported that idea, finding that people who packed all their weekly exercise into one high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session lost about as much body fat<\/a> as those who spread the same workout across three sessions.<\/p>\n

So, is doing all your exercise in one session really just as good as spreading it out? The answer depends on your goals and overall health. But according to Dr. Keith Diaz<\/a>, an exercise physiologist at Columbia University, even infrequent exercise has real value.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a daily gym goer to reap the benefits,\u201d he says. \u201cSome exercise, even if it\u2019s just one time a week, provides health benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weighing the evidence<\/p>\n

The study, published in Nature Communications, spent 16 weeks following 315 adults who were overweight or had central obesity. The researchers split the participants into three groups, with one doing a single 75-minute HIIT session per week, and another spreading this exercise across three weekly sessions.<\/p>\n

\"FitnessPeople who exercised three times a week saw a greater improvement in their cardiorespiratory fitness than the weekend warriors. Image: Maja Hitij \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cThey had participants do three 25-minute HIIT sessions of 4 minutes hard and 3 minutes easy,\u201d Diaz says. \u201cThere was 15 to 30 minutes between HIIT sessions, plus a 5-minute warm-up and 5-minute cool-down.\u201d The once-weekly group did all three of those 25-minute blocks in a single visit; the second group spread them into three visits across the week, one block per visit. A third group, the controls, did not exercise, and instead attended health education classes. <\/p>\n

By the end of the 16 weeks, both HIIT groups had lost more body fat than the control group. Specifically, the once-weekly group lost about 1.75 pounds more than the control group, and the group that exercised three times a week lost 2.2 pounds more. Waist circumference, which is a measure of central obesity, also improved significantly in both exercise groups compared to control. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese were relatively modest reductions in fat,\u201d Diaz says. Neither group reported any exercise-related injuries.<\/p>\n

The fitness factor<\/p>\n

The researchers measured much more than fat loss. They also tracked cardiorespiratory fitness, which is a measure of how efficiently the body uses oxygen during exercise, and a strong predictor of long-term health.<\/p>\n

By this measure, the two workout groups did not perform equally. The group that exercised three times a week achieved roughly an 11 percent improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness, compared with an approximate\u00a06 percent improvement in the once-weekly group. Diaz has a theory for why this might be the case.<\/p>\n

\"StudentsThe \u201cweekend warrior\u201d approach is recommended if you\u2019re generally healthy and pressed for time, but trying to be physically active every day is preferable. Image: Michael S. Williamson \/ The Washington Post \/ Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cPhysiologically, the more frequently you stress your body with exercise, the more it will adapt and yield changes to your heart, blood vessels, and muscles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

So, if fat loss is your main priority, a \u201cweekend warrior\u201d workout might be enough. However, Diaz believes the study actually makes a case for spreading exercise across the week \u201cif your focus is on being fitter and generally being more healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ideal weekend warrior<\/p>\n

So who does stand to benefit from squeezing a week\u2019s worth of exercise into one session? According to Diaz, the ideal \u201cweekend warrior\u201d is a healthy person who, because of the demands of their daily lives, might not get around to exercising otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis approach is best suited for generally healthy individuals who are short on time during the week and struggle to exercise because of their busy weekday schedule,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

However, some people with preexisting health conditions might not see the most benefit from this highly consolidated regimen. In particular, Diaz says people with diabetes or hypertension should try to be physically active every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cExercise lowers blood sugar and blood pressure for 12 to 24 hours afterward,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, the weekend warrior approach would not be ideally suitable for individuals with diabetes or hypertension, who need these regular reductions in blood sugar or blood pressure.\u201d Diaz adds that people with heart conditions should discuss once-weekly HIIT with their doctors before starting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tRelated ‘Ask Us Anything’ Stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n

The bottom line<\/p>\n

Although the once-weekly approach has undeniable appeal and might truly benefit some busy folks, Diaz notes that it\u2019s not exactly the magical quick fix some headlines would suggest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the headlines around one day of exercise a week melting belly fat are misleading,\u201d he says. \u201cYes, it\u2019s one day of exercise, but it\u2019s a lot in one day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the exercise itself takes 75 minutes in total, adding time to warm up and rest between the sessions means that the single weekly workout\u00a0takes almost three hours to complete. And it\u2019s not melting the fat away.<\/p>\n

Despite that deflating reality check, Diaz sees real potential in this approach when healthy people use it appropriately.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study adds further support that some exercise, even if just on the weekend, is better than none,\u201d he says. \u201cSo if the weekend is the only time you have to exercise, this could be an option for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Ask Us Anything<\/a>, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you\u2019ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you\u2019ve always wanted to know? Ask us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"2026\t\t\t<\/p>\n

2026 Popular Science Home of the Future Awards<\/p>\n

39 products that will improve your everyday life.<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jennifer Byrne is a New Jersey-based freelance writer and journalist who has been published in\u00a0The Cut, The New York Times, Atlas Obscura, The Guardian, The Boston Globe\u00a0and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The so-called \u201cweekend warrior\u201d exercise approach offers an enticing trade: skip the workouts all week, and cram them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[1757,3378,337,42425,97,3],"class_list":["post-915203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-evergreen","tag-features","tag-fitness","tag-fitness-exercise","tag-health","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}