People who squeeze all their exercise into the weekend have similar rates of mortality to those who are more regularly active throughout the week, a large study shows. 

An international group of researchers tracked 351,000 people over a median 10 years to see if so-called weekend warriors fared better or worse than people who were inactive or those who spread their physical exercise over a week.

The weekend warrior group self-reported one or two exercise sessions a week — totalling 75 minutes or more of vigorous activity or 150 minutes of moderate activity — and were compared with people doing a similar amount of exercise but in more than three sessions a week.

The study found that deaths from any cause were lower among people who exercised compared with the group who reported low levels of physical activity.