‘Weekend warrior’ workouts are just as beneficial as daily exercise to a person’s overall health, a new study says.

People who get all their weekly recommended exercise into one or two days are about as healthy as those who spread their workouts more evenly throughout the week, researchers reported in Circulation.

Both groups had a similarly lower risk of developing more than 200 possible diseases across 16 categories, ranging from heart and digestive conditions to mental health and brain illnesses, researchers found.

“Because there appears to be similar benefits for weekend warrior versus regular activity, it may be the total volume of activity, rather than the pattern, that matters most,” said co-senior researcher Dr Shaan Khurshid, a cardiologist with the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Cardiac Arrhythmias.