Effect of Time-of-Day-Exercise in Group Settings on Level of Mood and Depression of Former Elite Male Athletes

Since the prevalence of depression is high among athletes at the end of their athletic career, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of time-of-day-exercise in group settings on the level of the mood and depression of former elite male athletes.Out of 187 volunteers referring to the sports counseling clinic, 71 retired male athletes who had a national championship record were randomly divided into two morning and evening exercise groups. The inclusion criteria were severe depression (high score in the Beck Depression Inventory-II), the age range of 50 to 60 years, the absence of metabolic syndrome, and the body mass index (BMI) between 28 and 35. All body composition variables were measured using body composition analysis (In Body 320; Korea). The second stage was the collection of data after three months (completion of the training protocol). After data collection, independent and dependent t-tests were used to analyze the data. The results indicated that both groups had a significant improvement in depression compared to the pre-test (p ≤ 0.05), while there was no significant difference between the two groups (p ≥ 0.05). The overall conclusion is that exercise at different times of the morning or evening can improve the psychological state and reduce depression.