Regular exercise has long been hailed as a great way to keep your heart healthy, but could a morning workout do more than hitting the gym in the afternoon?

dig albalak and colleagues studied 86,657 adults aged 42-78 years from the UK Biobank. The participants’ average age was 62 years and 58% of them were women. None of the participants had heart disease at the start of the study.

Tomorrow or afternoon?

Participants wore fitness trackers for seven days straight, and researchers tracked hospitalizations or deaths related to stroke or coronary artery disease (CAD).

During six to eight years of follow-up, 2,911 participants developed coronary artery disease and 796 had strokes. For CAD, stroke, and ischemic stroke risk, a clear pattern was observed in which physical activity was relatively high during evening hours (12:00 to 06:00 m.) was associated with a higher risk, and relatively high physical activity during the morning hours (8:00am to 11:00am) is associated with a lower risk.

Those who were active in the morning and evening had an 11% and 16% lower risk compared to the control group. In addition, those who were active in the morning had a 17% lower stroke risk than the control group.

In addition, scientists found that women who are more active earlier in the morning or evening had a 22% and 24% lower risk of heart disease, respectively.

“Our results are further evidence of the health benefits of physical activity and suggest that morning activity, especially when done early in the day, is most beneficial,” said Albalak.