Exercise can have different effects morning and evening

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have learned that the effect of exercise can differ depending on the time of day. In mice, they demonstrate that morning exercise results in an increase in the skeletal muscle metabolic response, while exercise later in the day increases energy expenditure for a prolonged period.

We all probably know how important a healthy circadian rhythm is. Too little sleep can have serious health consequences. But researchers continue to make new discoveries confirming that the body's circadian clock affects our health.

At present, researchers from the University of Copenhagen – in collaboration with researchers from the University of California at Irvine – have learned that the effect of exercise may differ depending on the The time at which it is performed. Studies in the mouse revealed that the effect of exercise performed at the beginning of the dark / active phase, corresponding to the morning, differs from that of the exercise performed at the beginning of the clear phase / at rest, corresponding to the evening.

"There seem to be quite significant differences between the effect exercised by the morning and evening exercises, and these differences are probably controlled by the body's circadian clock." Morning exercise initiates programs In contrast, evening exercises increase the energy expenditure of the entire body for an extended period of time, "says one of the researchers at the origin of the study. Study, associate professor Jonas Thue Treebak of the Novo Nordisk Foundation for Basic Metabolic Research. .

The morning exercise is not necessarily better than the evening exercise

The researchers measured several effects on muscle cells, including the transcriptional response and effects on metabolites. The results show that the responses are much stronger in both areas after exercise in the morning and that this is probably controlled by a central mechanism involving the HIF1-alfa protein, which directly regulates the body's circadian clock .

Morning exercise appears to increase the ability of muscle cells to metabolize sugar and fat, and this type of effect is of interest to researchers with regard to people with severe overweight and type 2 diabetes.

On the other hand, the results also show that evening exercise increases energy expenditure in the hours following exercise. Therefore, researchers may not necessarily conclude that exercise in the morning is preferable to evening exercise, emphasizes Jonas Thue Treebak.

"On this basis, we can not say for sure what is best, exercise in the morning or in the evening, for the moment we can only conclude that the effects of the two seem to differ and we must certainly work harder to determine the Potential mechanisms of the beneficial effects of physical training performed at these two times.We look forward to extending these studies to humans to determine whether programmed exercise can be used as a treatment strategy for people with metabolic diseases, "he says.

The article behind the new research results will be published in the next issue of Cell metabolism.