What Is the Best Time for a Great Workout

It’s great to work out any time of day, but it’s a little tricky if we’re at work or a meeting in a restaurant, because we don’t just have a power rack lying around everywhere. That’s why we need to consider when we’re going to do a workout.

Working out can be an individual or a group activity, but as we get older, we work out individually. It can largely depend on our daily schedule, but different times of day come with different workout benefits.

Workout According to Daily Schedule

Working remotely has become very popular with most companies and there’s a good reason for that, but it’s also something that allows us to work at home, have a more flexible schedule, and do other things around the house.

We should continue to maintain that work-life balance and dedicate a certain amount of time to work only. Pretending we’re at the office while working from home is one thing that helps us become more productive.

When exercising, do it according to your shift, or to your work schedule at home. We need to think about whether we feel better if we work out after work or before work.

Morning Workout

When you work out in the morning, there are several benefits. First, you need to wake up earlier if you’re working the morning shift, and you need to have enough time to complete your morning workout routine.

Once you dedicate enough time for your morning workouts, you get to reap the benefits after a few weeks only. The benefits of working out before work in the morning are:

Weaker appetite: Sometimes, after an intensive workout, we lose our appetite because we’re exhausted from the workout, and we often pick food that’s easier on the stomach, and we can’t eat a lot of it.

Change in diet: A study in 2019 published in the International Journal of Obesity shows that people who have a morning workout routine often change their diets that involve healthier food.

More energy: Even when we’re exhausted after a morning workout, we feel more energized. The best time of day we need energy is in the morning, because we work after the routine, and we need to have energy for that.

More focus: Any type of physical activity comes with better focus, but when we do it in the morning, we have more focus throughout the day. This is a very important advantage of doing exercises in the morning unless you’re a night owl, and you like to stay awake during the night.

Improved sleep: Working out of the day gives you better sleep, but the fact you feel more energized after a workout means that after working out in the evening, you probably won’t fall asleep that easily.

Best for weight loss: If you want to lose weight faster, and in a short period, working out in the morning might be the best choice. A study on exercising in the morning before breakfast shows faster weight loss.

Afternoon or Evening Workout

If you’re not an early bird, and you prefer working out in the evening or the afternoon after work, don’t worry, there are benefits to working out during these times of day as well. Let’s see the benefits of these late-day workouts:

Easier start of workout: Because our body temperature increases throughout the day, it’s easier for us to start the workout because we’re already in the mood for it, and there’s no need for excessive warmup.

Stress-reliever: Exercise relieves stress because we get all that negative energy out of our system as we work out. That’s why after a long day at work and the regular stress we experience in our daily lives, it’s best to work out until we feel more relaxed.

Influence of testosterone: Sometimes we produce more testosterone in the afternoon, and it’s important to have testosterone on your side when building muscle. This is one advantage of working out later during the day.

Better than most activities: Perhaps the most important benefit is that it’s a healthier habit than any other. When we come back from work, all we want to do is rest and relax, and the first thing we grab is usually the remote. The next one is a sandwich. Replacing bad habits of exercise benefits our well-being.

However, the disadvantages of working out in the afternoon and evening are that when we exercise, we feel warmed up to do more, and this might interfere with our regular sleep schedule. Another thing is that we can’t always do the exercises because something more important can come up, and this might be an issue.

Conclusion

Workout times are highly individual and depend on our priorities, and that’s why we should organize ourselves according to our work and those priorities. However, if we want to reap the full benefits of exercising, we should choose the time.

Exercising in the morning helps us regulate our appetite, eat healthier, improve our sleep, and lose weight faster. Evening workouts relieve stress, help us get rid of bad habits, and they don’t require a thorough warmup.