Morning Exercise and Reduced Risks

If heart disease risks are a concern, you may want to choose morning exercise. Leiden University Medical Centre researchers in the Netherlands analyzed data from the UK Biobank that includes information from more than 86,000 men and women ages 42–78 who were followed up over 6 to 8 years.

Researchers found that participants who were most active in the early or late morning had 11% and 16% lower risks, respectively, of coronary artery disease. Late-morning exercisers had a 17% lower risk of stroke when compared with midday exercisers. When participants were divided by gender, women had more significant findings with late-morning exercisers experiencing a 35% lower risk of stroke and 24% lower risk of coronary artery disease.

“This was an observational study and therefore we cannot explain why the associations were more marked in women,” said lead study author Gail Albalak, PhD candidate, Leiden University. “Our findings add to the evidence on the health benefits of being physically active by suggesting that morning activity, and especially late morning, may be the most advantageous. It is too early for formal advice to prioritize morning research as this is quite a new field of research. But we hope that one day we can refine current recommendations simply by adding one line: ‘When exercising, it’s advised to do so in the morning.’”

The study on morning exercise is available in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2022; doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwac239).

See also: Morning Exercise and Cognitive Fitness