For quite some time, the health industry has been debating the best time to exercise. A study published last year found that women who exercise in the morning lose more belly fat and have lower blood pressure.
However, a new study has found that working out during the lunch hour can protect you from dying prematurely more than working out in the morning or evening.
The study, titled Associations of the timing of physical activity with all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a prospective cohort study, was published in the journal Nature Communications and examined health and demographic data from 92,000 people from a UK biomedical database that houses health information for approximately 5,00,000 UK residents.
Participants in the study were given accelerometers that tracked when and how hard they worked out over a seven-day period. After several years, the scientists examined mortality records and discovered that approximately 3,000 participants had died, with approximately 1,000 dying from heart disease and 1,800 dying from cancer.
The team of researchers discovered a surprising correlation: men and women who engaged in moderate or vigorous physical activity (such as brisk walking) lived longer than people who rarely worked out, regardless of what time of day they got up and moved. The team discovered links between midday exercise and even better chances of living a longer life.
The researchers noted that the afternoon appears to be the time of day when people are statistically least likely to have a heart attack.
They stated that, despite the fact that these associations were made among the elderly, men, and less physically active participants, they believed moderate-to-vigorous physical activity had the “potential to improve public health.”
Source:IT