How The Time Of Day Affect Your Workout?

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My name is Teresa Cedeno, I'm a personal trainer and I'm going to help you manifest a healthier life!

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Today's article is going to be a battle between the early birds and the night owls, I'll be addressing the benefits and setbacks of working out in the morning versus in the afternoon or evening. This week, I'm also going to be introducing the manifest challenge where I'll be giving you a goal to focus on that will help you manifest a healthier life.

All right. Let's get into it. I found that there are three factors that can help you decide when your workouts are most effective. Those are performance energy, both mental and physical, and your body's natural sleep cycle.

Let's first think about how the time of workout can affect your performance. Morning workouts to jumpstart your metabolism. But if you're working out in the mornings, you will need a longer warm up. Keep in mind, your body has been lying still for eight hours. It's difficult for it to exert maximal effort before it's had time to warm up.

The second aspect to consider during your morning workouts is the temperature. Morning workouts are typically colder than the rest of the day, and this affects how fast your body gets ready to become physically active. Muscles performed best once the body has reached a core temperature of ninety nine point five degrees Fahrenheit or thirty seven point five degrees Celsius. So, again, you're going to need that longer stretching period in order to have an effective workout.

Afternoon and evening workouts for go these issues, the temperature during the day is higher and you've been moving around running errands or doing chores so your muscles are looser. Afternoon and evening workouts have also been linked to faster reaction times, greater endurance and higher anaerobic performance.

If your goal is to lose weight, you should care about performance because performance will influence how many calories you burn. So work out when your performance will be better if you're willing to take the time to warm up in the mornings. Perfect. If you're pressed for time though, switch to the evenings where your warm ups can be shorter. The battle between morning and evening workouts continues, though.

What about your body's energy ?

If you're working out in the morning, your body's energy level depends on your dinner from last night. If you skip dinner, you will get hungry. Mid workout, and that's not good for your performance or concentration. Therefore, it can be argued that afternoon or evening workouts are better because you will have fueled your body at least once or twice already. So your glucose stores will be full and ready to power your workouts.

But afternoon and evening workouts come with their fair share of risk. Do you may encounter the scenario where after your lunch or dinner, you're feeling too full and lethargic to work out ? To avoid this, just make sure you schedule like meals 30 minutes before your workout or heavy meals two to three hours before your workout. Properly fueling your body can be done for either evening or morning workouts. It just depends on your eating schedule.

Now, we've covered how to take into consideration your body's energy, but what about your mental energy in the morning, your mental focus is on your workout. It's wide and not much is competing for your attention. It's not until you get to work that your to do list starts to consume all of your mental energy. When you wait later in the day to work out, your brain may struggle to switch from work mode into workout mode, especially if you're working out at home like many of us are. It's more likely that you will convince yourself to complete one more task before working out. You don't see the harm in doing one more thing, but then other events get in your way like your kids want dinner, the doorbell rings and then surprise, you get a visit from your in-laws before you know it. It's bedtime and you still haven't worked out. So afternoon and evening workouts are often competing with other priorities, while morning workouts can be a good reflective time for yourself.

Your Circadian Rhythm

Lastly, let's talk about how your natural circadian rhythm comes into play. Today's culture celebrates the early riser. You've probably heard productivity hacks that advise you to wake up at five thirty in the morning so you can seize the day. But everyone is different. While you can force yourself to wake up early, it may not be optimal for you if you choose nighttime workouts, be mindful of your caffeine intake, and if you're someone who takes pre workout, be cautious that it doesn't impede your sleep. Keep in mind that caffeine stays in your system for five to six hours. So if you take pre workout and 8pm and hope to be asleep by 11, good luck. You're going to need another supplement to knock you out. I'm talking about taking melatonin, Zequinha or Lunesta, and this switched back between stimulant and sleep aid is not healthy, so make sure to plan your workouts accordingly. If night workouts work for you, then stick to them. But maybe stay away from the caffeine.

Manifest Challenge

Before I conclude this episode, I want to share this week's manifest challenge for the next two weeks, I challenge you to find different warmup routines and try one. The warm up is crucial for preventing injuries and increasing performance. And you can keep me updated on how you're doing on the challenge by using the hashtag manifest challenge. All right. Let's wrap this episode up.

Conclusion

You probably saw this coming, but ultimately the best work out time is going to be the one that keeps you consistent when deciding what is best for you. Remember to consider your performance, mental and physical energy and your natural sleep cycle. You can even write a pros and cons list to help you. And if you need help in other areas, ask all of your burning questions through any of my social media links and I'll answer them. Just like this article, it was suggested by one of you.

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