Effects of Physical Exercise Timing On Strength and Cardiometabolic Health

NCT ID: NCT06063135

Last Updated: 2025-06-25

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 152 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2023-11-21
• Study Completion Date: 2025-06-24

Brief Summary

Physical exercise is well known to improve human health. Current guidelines provide recommendations on the frequency, intensity, type and duration of exercise. However, they do not provide recommendations for the time of day, exercise should be performed. This is surprising considering that the influence of timing of behaviors such as sleep or nutrition as well as the impact of the circadian timing system on health are well documented. Further, there is evidence for diurnal variation in maximum performance which enables individuals to exercise with different intensities at different times of day, which in the long term might affect physical adaptations to exercise. Thus, this research study investigates if exercise timing impacts human health.

Conditions

Physical Inactivity

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: DOUBLE

Study Groups

Control

Single life-style coaching session

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Exercise Time 1

Physical exercise intervention taking place at one time of the day

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Physical Exercise Intervention

Intervention Type: OTHER

Two strength training session per week and one endurance training session per week

Exercise Time 2

Physical exercise intervention taking place at another time of day

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Physical Exercise Intervention

Intervention Type: OTHER

Two strength training session per week and one endurance training session per week

Interventions

Physical Exercise Intervention

Two strength training session per week and one endurance training session per week

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• BMI 18.5 - 30 kg/m2

Exclusion Criteria

• Structured resistance training within the last six months
• Ongoing shift work
• Irregular bedtime (> 2 hours variation in habitual bed time)
• Smoking
• Travels across more than two time zones within the last four weeks
• Inability to follow the study procedures (e.g. due to language barriers, psychological disorders, dementia, etc.)
• Known pregnancy or lactating women
• Participation in any other clinical trial within the last four weeks
• Medical condition that is a contra indicator for resistance training, endurance training, or exercising until maximum exhaustion including insufficiently controlled blood pressure (systolic > 170 mmHg, diastolic > 100 mmHg), ongoing cancer treatment, unstable angina pectoris, uncontrolled bradyarrhythmia or tachyarrhythmia, severe uncorrected valvular heart disease, clinically relevant acute infection, any form of musculoskeletal injury, orthopedic problems or decompensated cardiovascular disease
• Insulin dependent diabetes
• Participants using metformin

• Minimum Eligible Age: 60 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 80 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Basel

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Raphael Knaier

Researcher Group leader: Circadian Exercise

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Raphael Knaier, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Basel

Locations

University of Basel

Basel, , Switzerland

Countries

Switzerland

Other Identifiers

EPOCH

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id