Morning exercisers more fit than evening?

JewelsinBigD

I am a morning workout person at this point in my life. Could be age or just that is the time when the kids are in school and I can squeeze it into my work schedule. But this past week I had to work out at night and I noticed a huge difference (no pun intended) in the size of the people working out at night. I do Zumba - so I am comparing morning Zumba to night Zumba. It could be isolated- but it was such a striking difference that my jaw dropped. In the morning I am one of the big girls, but not in the night class! Has anyone else ever noticed a difference or is it just a weird isolated thing I experienced this week?

KristiRTT

I tend to believe more dedicated people exercise in the am! This time of year the gym is full of afternoon exercisers that won't be there in a month! However I have never done Zumba so I can't speak to that class! I am a runner and only use the gym for cross training and the treadmill when it's icy!

GiddyupTim

Yeah, nobody gets up early to work out unless they are REALLY committed.
People who work out early often choose to do so because then they get it over with before anything else can interfere. If you wait until later, oftentimes something else comes up, and/or you have time to talk yourself out of it.

Smashley1947

There is no difference between exercising in the morning or evening.

I would say its just demographics.

dbmata

There is no difference between exercising in the morning or evening.

I would say its just demographics.

Yup, some people have to work, some people don't.

Some of those people have to work until the evening.

ninerbuff

Could be just coincidence. My gym has them even on both morning and evening.

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meshashesha2012

YAY for logic fails!

Hornsby

Yep, as stated, I would assume that more people are dedicated to working out in the AM for the most part. The evening is full of once a weekers, New Years Resolutioners, and noobs.

FattyFeast

Quite possible! I guess it's a lot more convenient for most people to exercise in the evening - you have to have a fair bit of conviction to lug yourself out of bed super extra early to not only fit in the exercise but also come back and shower etc. Also you have to be quite regulated about time keeping otherwise you end up late for work, whereas I personally prefer to just relax and have running as a timeless period of the day. So I suppose motivated, regulated people are probably more likely to extend that to their attitude to everything else as well - exercise, food - so them being fitter would make sense!

I'm definitely an evening person. I'm most energetic in the evening after a day of sitting around, I like my sleep, and I find it takes me a lot longer to warm up in the mornings.

PLUS there's also the breakfast conundrum.
Namely: how on earth can you run on an empty stomach but also how to run on a full stomach?? I've tried both and they were respectively rubbish for different reasons, then I gave up on morning runs. In the evening you've eaten recently enough but had time to let it go down.

Also you can watch the sun setting for most of the year, which is the best time of day to be outside, in my humble opinion So beautiful and there's that moment when suddenly the temperature drops and everything smells glorious and powerful. Closest I come to a zen moment haha.

runnergrlfl

I work out in the PM. I must be unmotivated, unfit and lazy!



So dumb.

WalkingAlong

Yeah, nobody gets up early to work out unless they are REALLY committed.
People who work out early often choose to do so because then they get it over with before anything else can interfere. If you wait until later, oftentimes something else comes up, and/or you have time to talk yourself out of it.

This is actually true. People who do it early tend to do it more consistently. I've read that in several places.

But it's one of those things like 'people who take a multivitamin live longer'. There is correlation but definitely not causation. It's just that people who prioritize their health more highly tend to take vitamins and exercise early.

JewelsinBigD

I work out in the PM. I must be unmotivated, unfit and lazy!



So dumb.

I don't think anyone actually said that - I think the idea is just that people who wake up early to work out are dedicated. There are dedicated people at night too - certainly plenty of fit people I saw in the evening - just the overall demographic of the class was much heavier in the evening compared to the same class, same gym 10 hours earlier. There could also be a lot of noobs as some of the people mentioned. But it made me think that my job definitely did not help me stay in shape- I had to change my job schedule in order to make it to the gym 5x a week without my family time suffering...

awtume9

I tend to believe more dedicated people exercise in the am!

I'm sorry but that is just ridiculous.

dbmata

I tend to believe more dedicated people exercise in the am!

I'm sorry but that is just ridiculous.

But accurate if they work out in the am and the pm.

awtume9

Yep, as stated, I would assume that more people are dedicated to working out in the AM for the most part. The evening is full of once a weekers, New Years Resolutioners, and noobs.

And this. I don't know what gym you go to but mine is nothing like this.

I have consistently been there 4-5 NIGHTS per week for the last year. And I always see the same people. Nothing to do with dedication, different people have different schedules.

These responses seriously make no sense.

PtheronJr

There's a lot of reasons working out in the morning is better for me. I don't have to fight over a bench or squat rack, I don't have to worry about people getting in my way while the free weight area is crowded, I don't have to worry about people using the cross-over station for single cable work while single cables are open like morons, I don't have to worry about the other 85 pound dumbbell vanishing off the face of the earth because some nimrod took a single dumbbell and left it in some uncharted corner somewhere, I don't have to look around for ten minutes to find two clips so I can do a proper overhead press.
I don't have to worry about people distributing the free weights around to random places and placing all the 45s in the 25 slot behind a stack of 10s, I don't have to worry about twenty people in the stretching room doing agonizingly long static stretches while taking rests (FOR STRETCHES), I don't ever see anyone doing kipping pull ups (or in one bizarre case, kipping dips) making me afraid to go use the other pullup stations nearby, and I don't have to worry about anyone forcing me into a twenty minute long conversation that's nearly impossible to escape from without being blatantly rude.

My gym is a jungle in the evening, it's hard to get things done when everything is so out of order and the gym has suffered the daily barrage of people slowly dismantling everything and spreading it all across the four corners of the gym.
By the end of the day, my gym is like a fantasy videogame, where if you want do to a set of squats, you have to go on the epic quest to find the four magical pieces of equipment to bring home and save your village from the deadly curse of No Squats.

So yeah, I like going in the morning.

awtume9

I tend to believe more dedicated people exercise in the am!

I'm sorry but that is just ridiculous.

But accurate if they work out in the am and the pm.

Well yeah but that's not what was said.

usmcmp

People who workout at a time that fits their lifestyle the best are more fit than those who try to workout at a specific time thinking it will give them an edge.

I workout on my lunch hour because it is when I can fit it in. If I had to wake up at 4am to workout I would quit after a few days.

qtgonewild

i would love to work out in the am. and on the weekends i do. however, during the week my schedule does not allow it. i need to be at work by 7. i work an hour away from home. and my gym doesnt open until 5. so i am one of the BIG GIRLS at the gym in the evening. doesnt mean im still not gettin it. and im not someone that will be gone in a month.

Sunitagt

Yep, as stated, I would assume that more people are dedicated to working out in the AM for the most part. The evening is full of once a weekers, New Years Resolutioners, and noobs.

And this. I don't know what gym you go to but mine is nothing like this.

I have consistently been there 4-5 NIGHTS per week for the last year. And I always see the same people. Nothing to do with dedication, different people have different schedules.

These responses seriously make no sense.

^ This. I've been really consistent since I started, and when I had 1x job I would go at whatever time in the day was most convinient to the errands I had to run, it was in the morning some days and the evenings others, really late at night sometimes, but I *always* went. Now I go in the evenings because I go for a 40 minute walk every morning and would not have the time to sleep as well as get my workout in before starting my 2nd job. No correlation I think, more demographics.

steve_mfp

http://bayesianbodybuilding.com/best-time-to-work-out/

I'm lucky and can fit my workout to when it gives my body the best results.

I'm not on an early AM schedule so my ideal time is late afternoon.

However, if you force your body to work out at a consistent time it will adapt.

EmilyEmpowered

I work out in the PM. I must be unmotivated, unfit and lazy!



So dumb.

Me too... It didnt take any dedication at all to lose over 100 pounds.... I wish I could be considered dedicated, but I guess without AM workouts I dont fit into that club LOL

1ZenGirl

I tend to believe more dedicated people exercise in the am!

What an absolutely moronic thing to say.

ChristineOlivarri

I totally notice that at my gym. I do zumba M W F & S in the am but I decided to double up Wednesday and do the morning and night class and yes I agree with you 100% I also feel much more motivated in the am because I'm surrounded by these beautifully fit women, it pushes me harder to do the workout. I definitely love the am workouts better !!

davert123

There is no difference between exercising in the morning or evening.

I would say its just demographics.

Yup, some people have to work, some people don't.

Some of those people have to work until the evening.

I find it far harder work to exercise in the morning than in the evening for some reason :-(

tabbyxxcat

I am a morning workout person at this point in my life. Could be age or just that is the time when the kids are in school and I can squeeze it into my work schedule. But this past week I had to work out at night and I noticed a huge difference (no pun intended) in the size of the people working out at night. I do Zumba - so I am comparing morning Zumba to night Zumba. It could be isolated- but it was such a striking difference that my jaw dropped. In the morning I am one of the big girls, but not in the night class! Has anyone else ever noticed a difference or is it just a weird isolated thing I experienced this week?

I also noticed this the first time I walked into my gym to work out at 6am rather than 4pm (I worked out at 5am during high school and wanted to get back into what works for me). I immediately texted my boyfriend, "all of the people in here this early look so thin and determined. I SHALL JOIN THEM SOON!!!!!!!!"

There are also virtually no "new years resolutioners" of whom I expect to quit in the following months in the mornings, but when I have to go after work for a change or after I sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays the gym has been EXTREMELY PACKED. So the idea that morning workout people DO have more dedication also seems pretty apparent,

It is a backed observation, but doesn't necessarily point to the *conclusion* that people who workout in the evening are doing something wrong. After all, I work out some evenings still, too ;P

awtume9

I also feel much more motivated in the am because I'm surrounded by these beautifully fit women, it pushes me harder to do the workout. I definitely love the am workouts better

all of the people in here this early look so thin and determined.

Meh I'm content being in the 'Ugly Late Exercisers group'

WalkingAlong

I work out in the PM. I must be unmotivated, unfit and lazy!



So dumb.

You understand it implies nothing about ALL evening exercisers, right? Or you? It's an averages thing, not an absolute one.

http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/features/whats-the-best-time-to-exercise

"Research suggests in terms of performing a consistent exercise habit, individuals who exercise in the morning tend to do better," says Cedric Bryant, PhD, chief science officer with the American Council on Exercise in San Diego.

"The thinking is that they get their exercise in before other time pressures interfere," Bryant says. "I usually exercise at 6 a.m., because no matter how well-intentioned I am, if I don't exercise in the morning, other things will squeeze it out."

JewelsinBigD

i would love to work out in the am. and on the weekends i do. however, during the week my schedule does not allow it. i need to be at work by 7. i work an hour away from home. and my gym doesnt open until 5. so i am one of the BIG GIRLS at the gym in the evening. doesnt mean im still not gettin it. and im not someone that will be gone in a month.

Girl - you are hardly one of the big girls - that would be me. Maybe it is the 8-5 work schedule that contributes to gaining weight... my thoughts on this were more around the whole 8-5 work gig than whether morning or evening is better for you _ I don't think that is the case at all- a calorie burned is a calorie burned and 10 years ago when I was working out in the evening I was more fit than I am today (still working my way back after kiddos). Maybe it is because during the time a lot of people have the most energy they are stuck at a desk or something and by the time they finish 9 hours of work are just too tired to go as often or give it as much at the gym...maybe the SAHM has the edge there over the working mom...I don't know...just observations

TheSlorax

causation =/= correlation


any further questions?

BekaBooluvsu

I tend to believe more dedicated people exercise in the am! This time of year the gym is full of afternoon exercisers that won't be there in a month!

This!