5 Ways to Get Started with Weekend Warrior Workouts

• Weekend warriors get their exercise in over a couple of days (like the weekend) rather than throughout the week.
• Studies have shown this exercise pattern results in significant health benefits, similar to a more traditional exercise schedule.
• An exercise routine that works is one that works for you and your schedule. Being a weekend warrior can provide flexibility in how and when you get your exercise.

Don’t have time to get enough exercise during the week? Becoming a weekend warrior could help jumpstart your exercise routine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity weekly. For many people, it makes sense to tackle that throughout the workweek: 30 minutes daily, Monday through Friday, for example.

For others who may be stretched thin juggling work, family, commuting, school, and countless other obligations, exercising five days per week might not be feasible. Thus, the rise of the weekend warrior: individuals who cram all their physical activity into just a couple of days.

Whether you like to hike, play in amateur sports leagues, or go for an extended gym session, the weekend can be the perfect time to have fun and still get your recommended dose of exercise.

Studies have shown that weekend warriors reap many of the same health benefits as people who exercise regularly throughout the week.

“Getting at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week is broadly associated with improved health and lower risk of disease. So the key question is: Do concentrated activity patterns result in similar benefits as that activity spread out more regularly?” said Shaan Khurshid, MD, MPH, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who has published research on weekend warriors.

“We found that consistent with older studies, both weekend warrior activity and regular activity were associated with substantial reductions in risk of cardiovascular disease. Most recently, we found that both weekend warrior and regular activity were associated with lower risk of over 200 diseases and very similar benefits for all of those diseases across the spectrum,” he told Healthline.

The benefits of being a weekend warrior aren’t limited to cardiovascular disease alone. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in October 2024 found that weekend warriors also experienced benefits to brain health.

In that study, which included more than 75,000 participants, weekend warriors had a significantly lower risk for dementia, Parkinson’s disease, depression, and anxiety compared to those who exercised less than 150 minutes per week.

The bottom line: get your physical activity in however and whenever you can.

“The data suggests that it’s the overall volume of physical activity rather than the pattern that matters,” said Khurshid.

Being a weekend warrior isn’t about any particular kind of exercise or trend, but rather finding the time in your unique life and schedule to engage in physical activity.

No matter how you get your physical activity in, here are five tips to jumpstart your fitness goals.

Brad Donohue, PhD, a professor of psychology and Creator of The Optimum Performance Program in Sports (TOPPS) at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, told Healthline that being a weekend warrior is “about getting out and exercising to the best of your ability in a manner that is fun and exciting.”

Donohue, who works with UFC fighters, Cirque du Soleil acrobats, and athletes of all levels through his TOPPS program, emphasized that a routine that works is the one that works best for you.

This means if you don’t have time to exercise during the week but enjoy playing sports on the weekend, then lean into that. Don’t get hung up on what works for other people.

“Get out there and just do the best you can for your own situation,” Donohue said.

Being a weekend warrior doesn’t mean you have to be an elite athlete, but it does mean you are putting more strain on your body in a shorter period of time. So, that’s something worth considering based on your own fitness level and medical history.

Khurshid noted he didn’t find any association between weekend warriors and an increased risk of musculoskeletal injury in their research. Nonetheless, some caution is in order.

“It makes sense to listen to your body and follow common sense. I don’t recommend that you necessarily go out and try to exercise 150 minutes on Saturday all at once. I think it makes sense to ramp up your activity gradually and in a manner where you’re listening to your body,” he said.

Donohue encourages anyone undertaking a new routine to get friends and family involved as well.

“How do you motivate someone to get out there and do some physical exercise? The key is to bring in family and other people [who] love them to get them to do shared activities and make it fun. We found that the more family members we involved, the greater their engagement, and participation, and also the better the outcomes,” he said.

Bringing together friends or family for group workout classes or weekend sports leagues could be the perfect opportunity to bond, have fun, and, of course, get some exercise.

As you start your new routine, focusing on a specific outcome, like a goal weight, could feel natural. But, according to Donohue, that kind of thinking can lead to problematic thinking and, ultimately, burnout.

“With our athletes, anxiety was really associated with outcome thinking, such as focusing on winning, or losing a certain amount of pounds… And if you don’t meet those expectations, then people have a tendency to quit,” he said.

Instead, he suggests, focus on thinking about your physical activity in a positive way: have fun and celebrate your own accomplishments, even the small ones.

“If you can just get out there and walk as much as you can and be happy with that, it’s going to be a lot more fulfilling and sustainable in the long run,” Donohue told Healthline.

Even if you exercise regularly, you should still be mindful of how much time you spend doing sedentary activity.

Too much sitting — whether working at a computer, watching TV, or just relaxing — limits the calories you burn and is associated with many deleterious health outcomes, including early death.

In a November 2024 study that Khurshid co-authored, researchers found that sedentary behavior was still associated with elevated risk of certain cardiovascular diseases, even among those who were physically active.

“Minimizing sedentary time is still important for people, even if they get the recommended levels of physical activity,” he told said.