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 Researchers randomly assigned 50 men with hypertension, or high
blood pressure, to one of three exercise regimens: cycling three
times weekly for 45 minutes between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., or doing the
same between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., or stretching three times weekly in
the morning or evening for 30 minutes. After 10 weeks, researchers
found that only evening workouts were associated with meaningful
reductions in blood pressure.
While exercise wouldn't necessarily replace medication to manage
high blood pressure, these results suggest that men who do work out
should try to do it at night, said senior study author Claudia
Forjaz of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
"They should choose to do aerobic training in the evening to have
greater and faster results," Forjaz said by email.
Morning workouts are still better than none at all, Forjaz added.
"If they only have the morning for exercising, they will also have
the benefits, but it may take longer," Forjaz said.
Hypertension affects roughly one billion people worldwide and is
responsible for 8 million deaths a year, mostly from cardiovascular
causes like heart attacks and strokes, the researchers note in
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
In adults, 120/80 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) is the upper limit
of what's considered a healthy blood pressure. The "top number"
represents systolic blood pressure, or the pressure blood exerts
against artery walls when the heart beats; the "bottom number"
represents diastolic blood pressure, or the pressure exerted when
the heart is at rest.
Men in the study were typically in their early 50s and overweight.
Many were taking one or more medications to manage their
hypertension.
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At the start, their resting systolic blood pressure ranged from 133
to 135 mmHg and their resting diastolic blood pressure ranged from
88 to 92 mmHg.
With evening workouts, the average decrease in systolic blood
pressure was 8 mmHg and the average decrease in diastolic pressure
was 3 mmHG.
It's not clear if the results from this study of men would also hold
true for women, the study authors note. Because the only exercise
tested was cycling, it's also possible that results might be
different for other types of aerobic exercise.
"While the results of this study suggest that the time of day of
performing exercise may play a role in determining long-term
outcomes, at present the best advice for people with hypertension is
that their focus should be on doing exercise regularly rather than
on when they do it," David Hill, a researcher at the University of
North Texas in Denton who wasn't involved in the study, said by
email.
Still, the results offer fresh evidence of the benefits of evening
workouts, said Gladys Pearson, a researcher at Manchester
Metropolitan University in the UK who wasn't involved in the study.
"When exercising in the evening, there is a greater decrease in
blood pressure . . . compared to the blood pressure decrease that is
experienced (for the same exercise intensity) in the morning,"
Pearson said by email.
SOURCE: https://bit.ly/2GvqSXi Medicine & Science in Sports &
Exercise, online November 26, 2018.
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