Morning best time for exercise, study finds
A study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology has reported that the best time to get some exercise is in the morning.
For the study, researchers – led by Gali Albalak at the Leiden University Medical Center – monitored 86,657 participants aged 42-76 over a period of six years, using wearable trackers to chart heart-rate data.
They found during follow-up that 2,911 respondents developed coronary artery disease (CAD), and 796 participants developed a stroke.
Risk patterns for CAD, stroke and ischaemic stroke were identified by investigating their associations with when they had been exercising.
Researchers found a clear pattern that high physical activity during later hours, between 12pm and 6pm, was associated with higher risks.
Conversely, high relative physical activity during morning hours – between 8am and 11am – was associated with lower risks.
“The study adds to the previous evidence that timing of physical activity is an additional independent contributing factor to CVD [cardiovascular disease] risk, and therefore adds a novel dimension to CVD risk prevention,” the researchers wrote in their final report.
“Most notably, we observed that participants with the highest daily physical activity performed during the late morning, had a 16% decreased risk of CAD and a 17% decreased risk of stroke compared with participants who best represented the average (midday) pattern of acceleration of the UK-Biobank population.”
