One of the most difficult variables that anyone who enjoys practising sports has to deal with is that of time. For the vast majority of the population who have a 9 to 5 job the question boils down to one simple question.
Should I work in the morning or sweat it off in the evening?
People who enjoy working out in the morning argue that it’s better training in the morning because they are coming fresh from a night’s sleep, it will help kick-start their metabolism and provide them with an added alertness throughout the day. An important factor to keep in mind is that morning workouts must be supplemented well nutritionally otherwise one risks crashing out earlier during the day because of that morning workout.
- Doing your workout in the morning will avoid the risk of having other priorities or unexpected events getting in the way of the planned evening workout session. Studies have shown that people who work out in the morning tend to keep to training schedules better than their evening counterparts resulting in a higher possibility of reaching their personal fitness goals
- Linked to the previous point studies have shown that people who would have worked out in the morning tend to be more productive during the day thanks to the alertness that training provides adding also the feel good factor that one has already accomplished an important part of one’s daily routine therefore setting up the building blocks for a fruitful day
- Known to help maintain better sleeping patterns, hormonal balance, and lower blood pressure. Late workouts will increase the body’s core temperature causing the need for a later sleep-in time to give the body time to normalize itself after the workout.
- People who have worked out early in the morning tend opt for healthier food choices, to continue building up on the healthy start to the day and the knowledge that if not fuelled properly all that early training would be useless towards their fitness goals
- Morning training session are the ideal tool for people looking to maintain or lose weight since the physical and mental boost that a morning session provides helps them keep to certain regimens that are needed towards weight loss programs
On the other hand working out in the evening does have its own advantages
- Mornings will be more relaxed. Apart from being able to schedule your day, there are studies showing that physically, morning might not be the best time for heavy lifting. The main reasons are that after a whole night’s sleep the joints and more importantly your spine would be stiffer because they would have filled up with body fluids from the non-gravitational pressure release that sleeping provides. This means that your body would not be very well prepared for the added pressure and twisting that a training session might require. Giving time for the body to drain the joints and vertebrae from those fluids will put them in a better position to withstand that added exertion.
- Even if the body would be rested sometimes one would not have fuelled enough to provide the body with the proper energy to perform optimally. Training in the latter part of the day gives time to fuel the body fully and prepare it for the physical exertion that the training would require.
- A good excuse to blow off steam. If maybe you’ve had a tough day at work and your boss has been panting over your shoulder all day exercising in the evening might be a good way to letting of that extra steam on those weights. They don’t mind being manhandled and beaten up!
- For those who aim to do strength training for muscle gain and power evening sessions might be more beneficial as it is shown through studies that the body is physiologically better prepared to reap benefits from that kind of training. Also, in the long run, it has been noted that muscle gain tends to be better when training in the evening rather than in the morning.
In the end the time one trains during the day might not always be under our control. Sometimes our lifestyles take over and priorities will affect the way and frequency we train. Two factors I find most important to help counter the external variables working against us are willpower and enjoyment. We have to have a goal towards which to aim and that will give us a reason fuelling our willpower to wake up early in the morning or head to the gym after work to workout, no matter what time it is. Coupled with that, we have to enjoy training. Nobody has ever completed anything when one is not enjoying what they are doing. So try and find the time of day where you feel like training and find the training method that best suits your goals and that gives you most enjoyment in performing. It will never be easy and it does take quite a bit of trial and error because nowadays the choice of training styles are endless but I am pretty sure that if you want something bad enough you will definitely find a way of working out a way to make it happen.
Till next time
Stay Strong, Stay Focused, STAY SAFE!
Neville
