Health

Afternoon is the best time to exercise for a longer life, study suggests

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Source: India Today Feb-17-2023 3 min read

A recent study revealed that the best time to workout is the afternoon as it ensures a longer life. The researchers pointed out that this time coincides with the time of the day when people are least likely to experience a heart attack.

By Daphne Clarance: The debate around the best time to workout has always been circling the health industry for a while now. Last year, a study suggested that women who exercise in the morning lose more belly fat and have lower blood pressure.

However, a new study has now shown that exercising during the lunch hour can protect you from premature death more than morning or evening workouts.

The research, titled Associations of the timing of physical activity with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a prospective cohort study, has been published in the journal Nature Communications and evaluated health and demographic data from 92,000 people from a UK biomedical database, which maintains the health data for about 5,00,000 UK residents.

Participants as part of the study were given accelerometers that measure when and how intensely they work out over a period of seven days. The team of scientists looked at mortality records after several years and found that about 3,000 participants had died, with about 1,000 from heart disease and 1,800 from cancer.

A surprising correlation that the team of researchers found was that the men and women who most frequently engaged in moderate or vigorous physical activity (like brisk walking), lived longer than people who had rarely worked out, no matter what time of the day they got up and moved. Links between midday exercise and even better odds of longer life were also seen by the team.

The researchers pointed out that the afternoon apparently coincides with the time of the day when, statistically, people are least likely to experience a heart attack.

They mentioned that although these associated were made among the elderly, males and less physically active participants, they saw moderate-to-vigorous physical activity could have the "potential to improve public health."