My Guest Blogger Joel has some very keen insight into the optimal timing of a good workout. (A good workout, three times per week, is the magic bullet for increased energy, decreased degenerative disease and illness, and so much more…)
I have some thoughts on the subject of timing as well.
Here are some that are based on the situation realities and rhythms of where I live, workout, and train people…
- If you workout at a gym, Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be less busy and crowded than are Mondays and Wednesdays. There are a lot of reasons for this, but it is true nationwide, and it is true on South Whidbey.
- I train a lot of people in small groups, so I really like Tuesdays and Thursdays, in the quiet and uncrowded gym.
- If you have kids, right after getting them off to school is a great time to get your workout in.
- The early afternoon is another very quiet time in most gyms. I have found this is a great time for me to workout. It pre-empts my tendency to nap much better than does an afternoon coffee, and it provides clarity and focus that carries into the second half of my day.
- Many people work “bankers hours”, and they have to work out in the evenings or early mornings. If you are an evening person more than an early morning person, the T Th trend can be your friend…
The best and most affordable medium-high intensity fitness training available on the Island is still the Vibrant Fitness 21-day Belly Blast. Three bomber-fun workouts every week, that shape you and rev-up your metabolism and bring you alive and into the power and beauty of your marvelous body.
It is available at a variety of times, based on many of these factors.
Read Joel’s pithy comments on the subject farther below.
The BEST time of day to Workout for Max Fatloss
-by Joel Marion
If I received a nickel for each time someone asked me a specific fitness related question, then “What is the best time of day to workout?” would undoubtedly be one of my main sources of income.
And generally, being the learned fitness professional I am, I’d respond by going into a lengthy diatribe all about glycogen depletion, diurnal rhythms of fat loss hormones, fat-burning potential, RER, substrate utilization, and a bunch of other sciency terms that no one really cares about.
You see, when someone asks me “What is the best time of day to workout?”, they’re really asking “When will I get the best results?”
That’s it. That’s all anyone cares about. Results.
And in a perfect world, if we’re talking fat loss results, the answer is probably “in the morning”.
Problem is, I suck at mornings, and I’m thinking there are at least a few other people on planet earth who share a similar problem (and perhaps a couple others on Pagliarini, my home planet).
And you know what? If one of them asked me that question, and I responded with “in the morning”, I’d be DEAD WRONG.
Why? Because they, like me, would have a crappy workout in the morning.
I say I’d probably only achieve, or rather I’d only be able to put forth about 75% of the effort in the morning that I’d be able to demonstrate at some point later in the day.
I may even cut the workout short in the morning, because hey, I don’t feel like doing strenuous activity to the point of nausea upon awakening. Go figure.
Does my morning funkiness make me a bad person? I don’t think so, but it does make me something I like to call human…it’s that thing that makes us all unique and equally imperfect at the same time.
Yes, I’m a “fitness professional”, yes, this is what I do for a living, but the truth is that I’m no different than everyone else out there. There are things about me that are obstacles when it comes to achieving my best body. There are things within my personality that I have to work around to be successful (be it in the gym, in business, in relationships, whatever).
In an ideal world I’d wake up at 5 a.m. each day ready and willing to go sprint my butt off, I probably wouldn’t be fantasizing about Reese’s Peanut Butter cups on an hourly basis, and I’d be totally awesome at being awesome in every single fitness related life-circumstance.
But I’m not. So I don’t work out in the morning, and maybe that costs me 1% fat loss per week.
Actually, and this is what I really want you to GET from this blog post, the fact that I don’t work out in the morning probably INCREASES my fat loss by 25%. Why? Because as I’ve alluded to several times now, I have infinitely better, more productive, more intense workouts in the afternoon.
Get it?
So when is the best time of day to work out? In an ideal world, for several factors, it’s probably in the morning.
But in the real world, the answer is the time of day in which you personally are able to workout out with the utmost intensity, put forth the greatest amount effort, and train with impeccable levels of focus.
Screw the science. That’s the best time of day to workout.