Women over 60 years of age need to exercise just one day a week to improve their overall health and well being, according to a new study.

The study was conducted by researchers at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) who found that older women exercising just once a week had significant improvements in their health.

Researchers monitored health of 63 women in the study who were given different exercise schedules - one group did both aerobic and resistance training once a week for 16 weeks; the second group exercised for 2 days per week and third group exercised for 3 days a week. All participants followed the same kind of exercises- aerobic exercise training (AET) and resistance exercise training (RET).

The results showed that all women in the group benefitted from the exercises- their health and muscle strength improved. However, there was a significant difference in the health of a woman who exercised one day a week and a woman who exercised three days a week.

"Telling people that they need to do at least three to five days of exercise to improve their overall health can be a major obstacle. Lack of time is the most often-cited barrier to exercise adherence. This study demonstrates that doing as little as one AET and one RET workout each week can provide a lot of benefit for older women's overall quality of life and health," said Gordon Fisher, Ph.D., lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Department of Human Studies in the School of Education, according to a news release.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that people should get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity every week.

A great deal of scientific literature says that exercise is good; it reduces anxiety and increases life satisfaction. Physical activity has also been linked to reduced brain damage in older adults. However, not many studies focus on how much exercise older people require. According to researchers, older people may benefit more by taking up regular, but less time-consuming exercises.

The study is published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.