When should you work out
Morning or evening?
When I talk about training recovery quite often people ask me “Is it better to work out in the morning or evening? What are the benefits of each approach?” The answer is different for each individual. The most important thing is that you shouldn’t change your training habits too often. If you like to work out in the morning, stick to it and you will get far better results than by changing your workout habits very often. Human body is very adaptive, but it may take more than a month to completely reset your inner clock.
Here are the benefits from each training approach.
Morning:
Researches show that those who like to work out in the morning tend to be more consistent. That’s because in the morning there are less things than can distract your attention. If you exercise in the evening, problems at work, family and other things can take your time or attention.
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Morning exercises will speed up your metabolism and you will burn more calories than by exercising in the evening.
Exercising in the morning will help to wake up. You will feel more energized and mentally sharper after the workout.
Evening:
Strength and anaerobic performance is around 5% greater in the evening than in the morning.
You are less likely to injure yourself, because the body temperature is higher in the evening which means muscles will be warmer and more relaxed.
For long time it was believed that exercising in the evening can badly influence sleep quality. Latest studies show that it’s completely false. Actually it’s the other way around. Moderate physical activities before going to bed can help fall asleep faster.
Exercising in the evening is a great way to release stress after a long workday.
What do I do?
In the morning it’s very hard for me to get up and it takes some time till I’m ready for the day. I know that there are so called “morning people” who have no problem hitting the gym at 8am. I’m not a doctor, but I still believe that performing very intense exercises in the morning isn’t good. Your body is stiff and the muscles are cold. Very intense exercises can shock your body, especially the cardiovascular system. However, light jogging, stretching or a couple of push-ups is just enough to wake me up. Mostly I tend to work out in the evening. It just works for me and I don’t want to change my schedule.
Conclusion
Everyone is different, so the first thing you need to do is to listen to your body. Do only things that feel right for you. There isn’t a huge difference between exercising in the morning or in the evening.
For the majority of people I would suggest to go like this – in the morning do low intensity activities just to wake up and get the blood flowing. Keep the high intensity work out for the evening when your body is already warmed up and you are less likely to injure yourself.
