Most people know that regular exercise, even a low-impact activity like walking, is good for your overall health. But people are busy during the workweek and sometimes, even for those with the best of intentions, exercise can be overlooked. Enter the “weekend warriors.” Some folks try to cram a week’s worth of workouts into a day or two. Can that strategy pay off? A new study says yes.

Researchers at Loughborough University in England wanted to see just how much benefit there is for those who exercise less frequently, so they analyzed data from more than 63,000 people who responded to health surveys in England and Scotland. The respondents were almost evenly split between men and women and the average age was 58.

Results published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that people who logged one or two sessions of moderate- or vigorous-intensity physical activity cut their risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality, in some cases by 30 percent, compared with those who were inactive. Among those who met the recommended 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity once or twice a week, how often they exercised did not matter.

The study suggests that less-frequent bouts of exercise, which might fit better into a busy lifestyle, offer considerable health benefits, even for those who are obese or who have major risk factors. The researchers suggest that inactive adults start slowly and increase the time and frequency of their activities to hit the recommended doses of activity while reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injury.

Even if your schedule only allows you to break a sweat on your days off, become a weekend warrior and conquer your health goals.