For the person who’s never hit the gym but has suddenly caught the fitness bug, it can be hard to know the best time to work out. For one thing, the vast majority of us have daily commitments squeezing our options. If you’re a 9-5 worker, you’re probably limited to early morning vs. evening.
Does timing really matter? Why not just see how you feel on a given day? It’s certainly fine to be loosey-goosey about your workout routine, but most people with a fitness goal like weight loss or muscle building find that consistent exercise at consistent times is vital for getting results and sticking to a program.
Timing really does make a difference, not only for physical performance but also for consistency and lifestyle integration. When choosing between morning and evening workouts, there are some things that are backed up by science and other things where you’ll just have to listen to your own body.
Understanding Why Workout Timing Matters
When you’re working out, you’re putting your body through quite an ordeal. This can impact not only the other things you’ve got going on in your day, but also your sleep and perhaps even your next day’s activities.
Here are a few things that affect the best time to exercise:
Metabolism
Workout timing can impact how your body processes energy and burns calories. Morning workouts can kickstart your metabolism for the day, whereas evening workouts can increase fat-burning while you snooze.
Mood
Anyone here a fan of endorphins? Exercising in the morning can release your brain’s natural mood-boosters throughout the day, while hitting the gym as the day winds down can help relieve stress.
Energy levels
As long as you don’t overdo it to the point where you keel over, a break-of-day gym session can actually improve your energy throughout the workday. Evening workouts can also boost energy, but their impact on stress release is usually more obvious.
Sleep
Here’s where you want to be a bit cautious about working out in the evening. If you push your body to the max too close to bedtime, you might actually have trouble sleeping (and building those muscles up again!). Be sure to give yourself a decent amount of time to wind down your post-exercise cortisol levels.
As you can see, there are lots of exercise benefits no matter what time you choose, and if you’ve only got one option, then that’s always better than not workout out at all. Two things are very important to keep in mind: the greatest performance improvements come from consistent exercise, and listening to your body is vital.
If you’re consistently losing sleep and disrupting your circadian rhythm after tough workouts at 9pm, maybe you should save the dumbbell HIIT for morning or midday workouts that you can do on your days off.
The Benefits and Challenges of Morning Workouts
If you struggle with daily sluggishness, morning workouts may be a counter-intuitive solution, but there’s logic behind this. They’ll boost metabolism and energy for the whole day and give you a sun-shiny mood with an early endorphin dosage.
You’ll also enjoy a much less crowded gym environment and get your cardio and lifting done before daily distractions set in.
Of course, there are caveats, starting with the fact that it’s tough to get going so early (which is why the gym environment is less crowded). You’ll have to overcome your early-morning grogginess and muscle stiffness with a longer warm-up and find a way to get some pre-workout nutrition that won’t bog you down. (Reach for a banana, slice of toast, and pre-workout supplements.)
Keep in mind that your body will get used to the new routine after a few weeks. Soon, you’ll look forward to that morning wake-up that sets a positive tone for the rest of the day.
Midday Workouts: Finding Balance in a Busy Day
It seems like every office has someone who leaves at lunchtime and returns in an hour with a post-workout glow. How do they do it? How do they resist the siren song of the burger joint?
Clearly, this person has great discipline, and has also learned to love the feeling of cortisol regulation and increased muscle performance that comes from a midday exercise routine. Who wouldn’t love to break up the workday with a refreshing energy boost?
As with mornings, gyms are often quieter in the middle of the day, but that’s not always the case. A crowd meter can show you how busy your closest gym is during lunch hour.
Evening Workouts: De-Stress and Unwind
Science tells us that we reach our peak physical performance later in the day. This is due to the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which causes muscle function, strength, and endurance to improve as the day progresses. By afternoon or evening, body temperature and hormone levels (like testosterone) are optimized, enhancing performance and reducing the risk of injury.
From a more personal perspective, evening workouts act as a stress reliever, helping to “purge” the day’s tension. You’ll also enjoy social opportunities and a more relaxed atmosphere in some gyms.
Two caveats here: Gyms tend to be more crowded, and intense workouts too close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep. You can improve your sleep quality by keeping a decent time buffer between beast mode and ZZZs mode.
The Best Time Is the Time You Make It Work
There’s never going to be a “perfect” time to hit the gym (until you start to really LOVE working out, and then every time is awesome). Whether you’re worried about morning muscle stiffness or evening fatigue, the best way to get good value from your gym membership is to simply go when you can, and keep your workouts light until your body adapts to exercise.
While science offers guidelines regarding cortisol levels, muscle performance, and circadian rhythms, personal consistency and preference are paramount. As you get used to being in the gym, you might want to take one to two weeks at a time to do exclusively morning workouts, then midday workouts, then evening workouts — and see which feels best overall.
As you experiment with different workout times, don’t forget to share your experiences! We love to hear what’s working best for you.