Don’t have time to go to the gym every day? A new study published in ScienceDaily.com says you don’t have to. As long as you put in at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week, you can still reap the many benefits of frequent exercise.

Researcher Ian Janssen and graduate student Janine Clarke worked with 2,324 adults to see how exercise frequency affects several health risk factors.

The participants were divided into two groups--those who were frequently active and exercised five to seven days in a week, and those who were infrequently active and exercised one to four days in a week. Their movements per minute were monitored by accelerometers.

Results revealed that how often you exercise isn’t really a key factor when it comes to lowering diabetes, heart disease, and stroke risk. “For instance, someone who did not perform any physical activity on Monday to Friday but was active for 150 minutes over the weekend would obtain the same health benefits from their activity as someone who accumulated 150 minutes of activity over the week by doing 20-25 minutes of activity on a daily basis," explains Dr. Janssen.

(Photo by Jeanette Goodrich via Flickr Creative Commons)