Temporal Specificity of Training: An Update

Temporal Specificity of Training: An Update

Although the diurnal variation of physical and mental performances is widely investigated, to date, few studies have investigated the effect of training at a specific time-of-day on sport performances and/ or competitive outcomes. This intra-daily variation of performances suggest that athletes could be better during competitions at a specific time-of-day than at others moments. Generally, physical performances are better in the afternoon/evening (i.e. ~16:00 to 20:00 h) than in the morning suggesting that athletes are advised to train and to compete later in the day. However, due to some factors, e.g., media program, competitions are scheduled at different timeof- day. Therefore, to achieve the optimal performance during competitions, it is interesting to adjust the time-of-day of training according to the competitions scheduling. In this context, previous studies showed that: (i) regular trainings in the morning hours may  reduce the morning-afternoon differences of sport performances and (ii) regular training in the afternoon hours may increase the morning-afternoon differences of sport performances. For practical recommendations, when the time of competition is not known or when competitions are scheduled at different time-of-day (e.g., judo: eliminations combats are scheduled in the morning and finals combats are scheduled in the afternoon), athletes should be advised to train in the morning. However, when the time of the competition is known, athletes should be advised to coincide the training hours with the time-of-day of competitions.