what is the best time to exercise in 2024 - Blogs Future

 What's the best time of the day to exercise?

Getty Images

You might find your performance during resistance exercise such as weight lifting will be better in the evening than the morning (Credit: Getty Images) When is the best time to exercise?

There is growing evidence that the time of day we exercise makes a difference to our performance and health, but can we train our bodies to peak at different times of the day?

In a few months, the best athletes in the world will gather in Paris to compete for the biggest prize in sports - gold at the Olympic Games. For those hoping to enter the history books in a record-breaking fashion, they may want to check the clock before they settle on the starting blocks.

At least swimmers can, according to some scientific research. In four Olympic Games in Athens (2004), Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio (2016), the swim times of 144 medal-winning swimmers were found to be fastest when they competed in the evening. Specifically, around 5:12pm. It's part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that physical activity is affected by the time of day.

This phenomenon is not limited to decorated Olympians - recreational cyclists complete fast time trials in the evenings. Resistance exercise is particularly vulnerable to time of day effects, with performance almost always peaking between 4pm and 8pm. The time of day appears to affect men and women differently when they exercise.

But what if your schedule means you only have time to exercise at 7am? There are certain indicators that you may need to adjust your maximum activity time in sports.

One may fine-tune the metabolic effects of exercise based on when you exercise - Juleen Zierath

The root of the difference in how our bodies work and respond to exercise is our circadian rhythms - the body's molecular clock that is responsible for regulating behaviors such as sleep and energy over a 24-hour period.

The central clock located in the hypothalamus of the brain responds to light exposure via signals from the optic nerve. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, as the circadian pacemaker in the hypothalamus is known, sends signals to nearby clocks in other organs, muscle tissue and fat tissue, which keeps the whole body in sync. These close clocks, however, can be adjusted in other directions such as when we eat or do certain activities. The "skeletal clock" responds to this type of exercise, so it can be activated by exercising regularly at different times.

But while this may affect performance, it may also alter the effect exercise has on our health, too.

Juleen Zierath, an exercise scientist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, has been researching the connection between exercise and the circadian system. He and his colleagues found that rats that exercised in the morning burned more fat. Zierath says the findings suggest that exercising at the right time of day can increase the health benefits of exercise for people with metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and obesity.

"Everyone agrees that exercise is good, regardless of the time of day, but a person may fine-tune the results of exercise based on when they exercise," Zierath said.

Their findings reflect a recent study in humans that showed doing an exercise regime of resistance training, interval sprints, stretching and endurance for one hour a day a week in the morning can reduce belly fat and blood pressure in women. Interestingly, when women performed the same exercises in the evening, their muscle performance improved.

For men, exercising in the evening helps lower blood pressure and promotes the breakdown of body fat.

But research in this area is still developing and some recent analyzes of previous research suggest that the evidence does not include a beneficial effect of time of day on exercise performance or health benefits.

Another reason for this is probably the differences between individuals. For example, the peak running time differs between people with early chronotypes and people with late chronotypes, also known as morning larks and night owls.

"There are differences in the timing of our clocks," said Karyn Esser, a physiologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville in the US. "Those of us larks have a clock that probably runs less than 24 hours, and we owls probably have a clock that runs more than 24 hours."

But if you find your circadian rhythms aren't allowing you to give your best performance in the moments you have, exercise can help "reset" your muscle clock.

You might also like:

1. The benefits of walking backwards
2. Are protein powders bad for you?\
3.  Why your gut bacteria likes an workout

A group of researchers led by Esser, found that consistent endurance running training among mice in the morning can cause the rodent's bodies to adapt to the new exercise regime. The exercise appears to shift the molecular clocks in their skeletal muscle and lung tissues to an earlier time-of-day.

Getty Images

Swimming in the morning might be refreshing, but you are less likely to break any records (Credit: Getty Images)

The team's latest study, which has yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, found that the extent of adaptation to performance was greater in rats trained in the morning, compared to those trained in the afternoon. After six weeks of training, morning and afternoon rats experienced similar robust performance.

The researchers suggest that if the same effect is found in humans, it is possible that athletes reset their internal "muscle clocks" through proper training. There is some preliminary evidence that exercise can change people's circadian rhythms, making it useful for those adjusting to a job change or jet lag. 

• "The simple idea here is that the clocks in our muscles pay attention when we train," said Esser.

Cycle seems to be the key - our body adapts better to training when it is done at the same time of day.

"If you're in the crowd, or if you're an elite athlete, and you're planning to compete, you should try race-specific training," Zierath said. "Time your training to match the time you will have to perform or compete at the top."

However, many researchers are eager to show that exercising at any time is beneficial. But, if you find an active time and stick to it, your body may adapt to give you more edge.

If you enjoyed this issue, subscribe to The Essential List newsletter – curated features, videos and must-see stories delivered to your inbox every Friday.

Join a million future fans by liking us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter or Instagram.