The Science

Know your clock

What is your circadian rhythm?

Your circadian rhythm is your biological clock dictates when you are full of energy and when you should sleep.

Your body will function and perform differently at one time of day to another, based on a combination of your genetics and your environment, which is unique to you. 

Crucially, it means there is an optimum time for you to train, when your body is at its metabolic peak®. 

The idea of matching your training schedule with your internal body clock is not new.

Aligning your training pattern with your biological clock enhances performance gains and reduces performance deficits [1] for both power and endurance athletes [2,3,4,5] in sports including:

  • Rugby

  • Football

  • Cricket

  • Hockey

  • Triathlon

  • Swimming

  • Rowing

  • Athletics

Recent technological advances have made measuring your body’s natural, molecular rhythm incredibly sophisticated and precise.

Targeted molecular analysis

Your body clock is controlled by rhythmical changes in certain ‘clock’ biomolecules [6]. These have been extensively studied to understand how they function in maintaining your circadian rhythm and how they affect aspects of your physiology. Certain clock proteins correlate with athletic performance [7].

What makes a candidate molecular target?

Our expertise and experience in the field determine the biomolecules to analyse from studies into their function in circadian rhythms.

Key considerations for a candidate biomolecule are:

  1. The strength of supportive scientific evidence

  2. The strength of its correlation

Once a biomolecule has been identified, we develop an assay to measure it. Only those giving a reliable, validated signal are chosen as part of your sample analysis.

As science and technology evolve and new findings emerge, our analysis will continually be updated to remain cutting edge.