Now, a new study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise reports that people who work out at the same time every day may improve their cardiovascular and lung health as they age.
How exercise impacts cardiorespiratory fitness later in life
For this study, researchers recruited about 800 older adults with an average age of 76 years. Study participants were asked to wear wrist-worn accelerometers for seven days to measure their daily activity, and also underwent cardiopulmonary exercise testing to assess their heart and lung health.
“Cardiorespiratory fitness is a measure of how well your heart, lungs, and muscles work together in response to exercise,” Karyn Esser, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Physiology and Aging in the College of Medicine at the University of Florida, senior author of this study, told Medical News Today.
“Higher values are strongly associated with longer lifespan and lower mortality risks,” Esser explained.
The study also evaluated the walking efficiencyTrusted Source of participants, which is considered another indicator of healthy aging.
“Walking efficiency provides an assessment of how efficiently the body uses energy to walk forward,” Esser noted. “The more efficient you are, the farther you can walk. It’s another measure of fitness.”
Earlier, more consistent daily activity linked to better heart and lung health
At the study’s conclusion, Esser and her team found that participants who had the most activity during the active part of their day relative to their daily resting time, and whose maximum daily activity happened earlier in the day, were correlated to better cardiorespiratory fitness and walking efficiency.
“We found that earlier peak activity was associated with better outcomes even when you [take] into account the amount of activity,” the researcher detailed. “This suggests that getting moving earlier in the day could provide a health benefit. In addition, we found that the amplitude of the activity, or amount of activity during the day was healthy, this is maybe not such a surprise.”
Additionally, scientists observed that better health outcomes were correlated to having a greater consistency in daily activity patterns, with the highest activity time happening at the same time every day.
“This was an interesting finding as, again, we took into account the amount of activity so this is saying that being consistent with your activity pattern is an additional parameter of your activity that likely contributes to healthy outcomes,” Esser said.
