Group Fitness – Personal Training – Massage
This is such a popular question, and has so many facets for an answer that we thought we would give you our opinion (and a few facts) on the matter.
We have so many different requests for workout times that it just is not possible to cover them all off sometimes. So why are there so many different opinions and preferences on this? Lets look at some science.
Let’s face it. Some of us LOVE early morning workouts and some hate it with a vengeance. Why is that? Lets start there.
This information has been taken from ‘Psychology today’ and is based on scientific research.
Aside from the personality differences associated with early birds and night owls, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages for morning, lunchtime and evening workouts.
A morning workout is the perfect way to start the day.
If workout in the morning, you can give your body a healthy dose of oxygen. Your metabolism will be pushed to burn more calories. This obviously means for fat burning, this is the optimal time of day.
The higher oxygen content in the morning air makes it easier to breathe, especially in the summertime. It’s also easier to run when it’s still cool compared to the midday heat.
A morning workout can feel harder than other times of the day.
Right after you get up, your joints might be stiff, your muscles tense and inflexible. This means that you may not have the necessary muscle control and coordination when you are working out. That’s why you should do a special, dynamic warm-up program in the mornings before your workout. You also run the risk of being under fuelled at this time of day too: always have a small high GI carb based snack and then breakfast within an hour of your workout.
Midday has the best conditions for a high-intensity workout.
Your performance potential around lunchtime is 100%, and your body is not too tired from your daily activities. Your energy stores are well-filled – compared to the morning – and physical exertion feels less intense. These are the best conditions for a short intense workout. The body handles high intensity training especially well in the middle of the day.
A workout after lunch can be very strenuous.
Your body needs more time to digest depending on how heavy and rich your lunch was. In order to avoid having to deal with digestive problems (e.g. stomach cramps) during an intense exercise, follow these guidelines:
A workout in the evening is a good way to unwind and blow off steam.
Are you stressed out at the end of a hectic workday and have trouble unwinding? An endurance workout can help you blow off some steam. Since your body is still in performance mode, you don’t need to warm up as much as in the morning. Plus, an evening workout boosts your night-time fat burning. (Because, lets face it, we ALWAYS eat too much dinner too late at night….)
An evening workout can make it hard to fall asleep.
Perhaps you want to really let off some steam in the evening with a high-intensity workout. But be careful, you might struggle to fall asleep: your body is re-energized by the workout too late at night and too close to bedtime.