Exercising in the morning reduces abdominal fat and blood pressure in women; exercising in the evening increases muscle performance in women and lowers blood pressure in men
The ideal time to exercise remains under-researched in terms of gender-specific effects on health and performance. In the study “Morning Exercise Reduces Abdominal Fat and Blood Pressure in Women; Evening Exercise Increases Muscular Performance in Women and Lowers Blood Pressure in Men”, the authors therefore analyzed the differences in separate groups of women and men who exercised at different times. They investigated the extent to which the time of day at which multimodal training is performed has a profound effect on the cardiometabolic results, body fat composition and physical performance of men and women.
The aim was to obtain more precise guidelines so that healthcare professionals and fitness trainers/practitioners seeking a specific outcome can take into account the time of day when making physical activity recommendations to individual patients or clients. Such findings could become increasingly important in the future, not only in the healthcare sector with regard to cardiometabolic effects and weight regulation through exercise, but also in popular and elite sport, where even the smallest differences can determine performance.
For this purpose, a systematic and holistic approach to fitness training was used, the so-called RISE training – a multimodal concept consisting of functional resistance training (“R”), interval sprint training (“I”), stretching exercises (yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi; “S”) and endurance training (“E”). This training program is an optimal way to meet the current recommendations on exercise standards and is also characterized by time savings and practical feasibility. 30 middle-aged women and 26 men with a moderate to slightly elevated BMI trained for 12 weeks in the morning or evening according to this training approach and were analyzed as separate groups at the beginning and end with regard to muscle strength, endurance, and strength, bench press, fat mass, systolic/diastolic blood pressure, respiratory exchange ratio, mood profile and food intake.
Conclusion: Morning exercise reduced abdominal fat and blood pressure, evening exercise improved muscle performance in the women’s group. In the men, evening exercise increased fat oxidation and reduced systolic blood pressure and fatigue. Thus, the ideal training time may be important for optimizing individual exercise-induced health and performance outcomes in physically active individuals and may be independent of macronutrient intake. These findings highlight the interaction between the time of day of training and circadian regulation and the impact this has on cardiometabolic, physical and performance outcomes in healthy, exercise-trained women and men after 12 weeks of multimodal training. The duration of training can also influence the training effects in a gender-specific manner.
