Fitness and health, exercise is also the right time?

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Exercise is known to be good for your health—exercise activates the immune system, aids circulation, increases elasticity, and aids relaxation. By physically stimulating different parts of the body, exercise causes the body to redesign fixed patterns of nutrient distribution, thereby re-establishing a new balance.

But as for when to exercise, it has always been controversial. After all, different times of exercise affect the effect of exercise, and everyone wants to achieve the best results. Undoubtedly, exercise also has its own knowledge. When to exercise and how long it is effective, science is needed to support its conclusions - and with the deepening of research, how to understand exercise, and on the basis of "exercise is good for health", exercise more with less effort, the answer Already ready to come out.

Is there a correct time for exercise?

The impact of exercise on energy metabolism has now been proven, and in fact, any slight activity in the body can increase the metabolic rate.

When people exercise, the energy consumed by muscle activity needs to be supplemented by the oxidation of nutrients, which can cause a significant increase in oxygen consumption. The increase in the body's oxygen consumption is proportional to the intensity of muscle activity. During continuous exercise, the oxygen consumption can reach 10 to 20 times that at rest, and the body's heat production also increases. This is why the energy metabolic rate can be used as an indicator for evaluating the intensity of muscle activity.

However, it has long been unknown how exercise timing interferes with metabolic state, and people still don’t know the similarities and differences of exercise in different time periods - almost all cells regulate their biological processes within 24 hours, also known as day and night Rhythm, the biological clock. This means that the sensitivity of different tissues to the effects of exercise varies according to the time of day.

Based on this, an article published in Cell Metabolism attempts to answer this question. Using mouse models, the researchers found that exercise does have different effects on local and systemic metabolism at different times of the day. The researchers divided the mice into two experimental groups and let them exercise on a treadmill for 1 hour in the morning or in the evening, and a control group that did not exercise.

After exercise, tissues from various parts of the mice were collected, such as serum, skeletal muscle, liver, epididymal white adipose tissue (eWAT), inguinal subcutaneous white adipose tissue (iWAT), and interscapular brown adipose tissue (BAT). Metabolites and gene expression status were analyzed by omics.

It found that evening exercise changed 197 muscle metabolites, while early morning exercise affected 52 metabolites . This included 31 metabolites common to both time points, as well as 166 (evening) and 21 (early morning) metabolites unique to each.

In terms of glucose metabolism, early morning exercise reduced liver glycogen content. At the same time, genes involved in glycolysis also increased in muscles after evening exercise. The researchers say that the energy generated by glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis in the liver is sufficient for exercise in the early morning, but in the evening, the production of glucose in the liver may be inhibited, resulting in the body becoming more dependent on muscle glycogen.

In terms of amino acid metabolism, amino acids were highly enriched in the serum of mice that exercised in the evening, that is, protein degradation and amino acid utilization increased after evening exercise . In contrast, muscle levels of glycine, serine, threonine, lysine, and tyrosine increased after evening exercise. Although levels of glycine, serine, threonine, and phenylalanine metabolism in the liver also increased after evening exercise, the liver also showed enrichment of amino acid metabolic pathways after early morning exercise. The researchers believe that this shows that the liver can dynamically regulate and utilize amino acid metabolism according to the time of exercise.

In terms of lipid metabolism, early morning exercise can significantly increase some fatty acids in liver, while evening exercise can increase fatty acids in serum, eWAT and iWAT . Glycerol in liver increased significantly after morning exercise, and glycerol in iWAT increased after evening exercise. This means that early morning exercise stimulates lipolysis in the liver, but evening exercise stimulates lipolysis in iWAT.

Overall, morning and evening exercise had different effects on metabolism . Early morning exercise mainly supplies energy through glucose metabolism. The liver glycogen reserve is relatively rich, and it is not prone to large fluctuations in blood sugar. It may be more suitable for people with glucose metabolism disorders, such as diabetes and hypoglycemia. The evening exercise mobilizes more fat decomposition, which may be more suitable for people who lose fat.

Is there a difference in exercise time for men and women?

If the time-specific effects of exercise on whole-body metabolism add to new perspectives on how to exercise, a study of exercise time in men and women from Skidmore College and California State University in the United States further deepens people's understanding of how to exercise. An understanding of the pleiotropic effects of exercise and uncovering the mechanisms underlying the greatest health benefits of exercise.

A total of 30 women and 26 men, aged 25-55, were included in the study, and all participants underwent a 12-week intervention training. The difference is that female and male participants were previously randomly assigned to two groups, one group exercising between 6:30-8:30 in the morning and the other group exercising between 18:00-20:00 in the evening. and follow a special diet.

At the beginning and end of the trial, participants were assessed comprehensively on aerobic capacity, muscular endurance, flexibility, balance, upper and lower body strength and power, and jumping ability. Other measures of health, such as blood pressure, arterial stiffness, respiratory exchange rate, body fat distribution and percentage, and blood biomarkers, as well as mood and food satiety, were compared before and after the trial.

The findings found that choosing to exercise at different times did have a profound effect on cardiometabolic, body composition, and physical performance outcomes, and these effects were manifested differently in male and female participants. For men, exercising in the evening was more effective than exercising in the morning, while results for women varied, with different exercise times improving different health outcomes .

All of the women in the trial had lower abdominal, hip and body fat, and lower blood pressure, but these improvements were greater in women who exercised in the morning, and women who exercised in the morning lost belly fat compared to women who exercised in the evening. 7% higher and 7% lower blood pressure. Also, morning workouts made women's legs significantly stronger.

Women who choose to train at night greatly increase upper-body muscle strength, explosiveness, and endurance, as well as boost their overall mood. These women have higher upper body strength, in addition to their need for food, and greater emotional control. In contrast, women who exercised in the evening had stronger muscle strength, 29 percent higher than women who exercised in the morning, and 15 percent higher endurance.

In fact, for women, the benefits of morning exercise go far beyond that . A study published in the International Journal of Cancer found that exercising from 8 to 10 a.m. in the morning was associated with a 26% lower risk of breast cancer and a 27% lower risk of prostate cancer, compared with inactive individuals. However, exercise at other time periods did not have a significant protective effect on breast cancer. But for prostate cancer, exercising from 7 pm to 11 pm can also reduce the risk of prostate cancer. In other words, for women, the most effective exercise time for breast cancer prevention is from 8:00 to 10:00 in the morning.

In addition, only men who exercised at night saw improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure, respiratory exchange rate, and carbohydrate oxidation. That said, for men, exercising in the evening lowers blood pressure, heart disease risk, and fatigue, and stimulates fat oxidation, helping to burn more fat than exercising in the morning .

Certainly, exercise both in the morning and in the evening showed benefits in improving cardiometabolic and emotional health, as well as in women and men—over the course of the trial, overall health and performance improved for all participants, regardless of whether they were Assign morning or evening exercise.

How long does exercise take to be effective?

Throughout human history, for most of the period, human food resources were very scarce and had to search for food everywhere. Once full, people stop to rest and conserve energy because they don't know where their next meal will be. But there is too much sitting and resting in people's lifestyles these days. After all, with the help of technology, cars, and other labor-saving amenities, people no longer have to rely on walking for their day-to-day survival needs.

But obviously, lack of exercise can be bad for our health. A meta-analysis published in The Lancet found that people who were physically inactive had a 30-40%, 30% and 20-% increased risk of colon cancer, breast cancer and diabetes, respectively, compared to those who exercised regularly. 60%, while the risk of premature death increases by 30-50%.

At present, with the improvement of people's health awareness, people pay more and more attention to sports . People expect the best results from exercise, so much so that when it comes to fitness, many people think of sweating in the gym or exercising for at least 30 minutes a day. After all, even Public Health England recommends that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week. But this is extremely challenging for many.

In fact, to a certain extent, "moving" is already a victory. Studies have shown that if you want to get fit, "short, flat and fast" exercise not only benefits people, but may also be more effective . The reason is that for the human body, even in the recovery phase after stopping exercise, the metabolism still maintains the state of exercise and will not stop immediately. Exercising for several short periods of time throughout the day or week consumes more energy than exercising for a longer period of time at one time.

An analysis of the results of multiple separate studies found that breaking up moderate-intensity exercise into smaller chunks actually leads to better weight loss, fat loss, and lower bad cholesterol levels , which may be the reason behind this. It's just as good for cardiorespiratory fitness and blood pressure as a longer workout.

"Short, flat and fast" exercise is not only good for breaking down fat, lowering blood pressure and lowering low-density cholesterol, but also, the muscles will contract each time you exercise, and the glucose in the blood can be transferred to the muscles during the muscle contraction process . The study found that people with type 2 diabetes who did just one minute of vigorous exercise six times a day had better blood sugar control not only on the day but 24 hours later. Not only does this special mechanism help to better control blood sugar levels, it also helps reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the long run.

Perhaps, for sports, it means "every minute counts". In other words, every minute counts. Previously, a research team from the Massachusetts General Hospital affiliated to Harvard University conducted a more detailed study on exercise. They found that just 12 minutes of vigorous cardiopulmonary exercise can lead to huge changes in the levels of human metabolites - 588 kinds of 502 circulating levels of metabolites were altered.

These metabolites are closely related to human cardiometabolism, cardiovascular and long-term health. For example, glutamate, a key metabolite associated with heart disease, diabetes, and decreased life expectancy, dropped by 29 percent; arginine, a metabolite associated with increased risk of diabetes and liver disease, dropped by 18 percent; and lipolysis-related The metabolite 1-methylnicotinamide increased by 33%; fat browning increased by 26%, etc.

So, even if you only have one minute, you can still add up to your goal of 30 minutes a day. Having said that, if you can do a few short bouts of exercise each day, the 150-minute weekly goal of moderate exercise doesn't seem that far away.