Effects of Physical Exercise Timing On Strength and Cardiometabolic Health (EPOCH)

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Physical Inactivity
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Physical Exercise Intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 152
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Switzerland
  • Basel, Switzerland, 4052
    • University of Basel

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control; Single life-style coaching session
Experimental: Exercise Time 1; Physical exercise intervention taking place at one time of the day	Other: Physical Exercise Intervention; Two strength training session per week and one endurance training session per week
Experimental: Exercise Time 2; Physical exercise intervention taking place at another time of day	Other: Physical Exercise Intervention; Two strength training session per week and one endurance training session per week

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Maximum strength	Mean value of the maximum isometric strength assessed at four different times of the day with an isometric mid-thigh pull on a force plate.	Pre-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days before the first training session of the exercise intervention) and Post-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days after the last training session of the exercise intervention)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Body composition	total body fat mass assessed with DXA	Pre-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days before the first training session of the exercise intervention) and Post-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days after the last training session of the exercise intervention)
Cardiorespiratory fitness	VO2max assessed with cardiopulmonary exercise test	Pre-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days before the first training session of the exercise intervention) and Post-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days after the last training session of the exercise intervention)
Glucose control	2-h postprandial area under the curve for glucose after an oral glucose tolerance test	Pre-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days before the first training session of the exercise intervention) and Post-Intervention (i.e. 1 to 28 days after the last training session of the exercise intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Basel
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Raphael Knaier, PhD, University of Basel

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 21, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 24, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): June 24, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 18, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 25, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): October 2, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): June 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 24, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: EPOCH

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Anonymized data will be provided in a data repository in accordance to FAIR principles
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: After completion of study

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No