morning or evening workouts-what works best for you and why?

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  • joec63
    joec63 Posts: 56 Member
    I've tried mornings and evenings after work. Definetly get a better workout first thing in the AM to start my day. Done P90X and Insanity several times. Now onto Body Beast. I make it a priority to workout early and have no excuses or conflicts at the end of the day on why I couldn't get it in. Plus I'm pumped all day from the morning workout.
  • Elen_Sia
    Elen_Sia Posts: 638 Member
    Evenings because gawd, I'd much rather sleep in the wee hours of the morning.
  • chaNyn613
    chaNyn613 Posts: 112 Member
    I'm a morning person regardless of my workout schedule so working out at 5:30 am suits me. The benefits to early morning w/o: people tend to talk less and workout more, rarely have to wait for my equipment, I make better food choices and I go to work with a relaxed attitude. Working out in the evening= trouble falling asleep because I still pumped from my workout.
  • pixelberry
    pixelberry Posts: 167 Member
    I try to get my cycling in during the early morning hours. The trail I ride gets quite busy after the sun comes up, so I'm generally trying to beat the crowding. I do weight lifting in the late mornings or early afternoons.
  • jackflak
    jackflak Posts: 153 Member
    FitbunnyEm

    I usually worked out in the afternoon's after work. It's hot in the garage-I get a great sweat. So this morning when we worked out it wasn't hot-but I still found that I sweat pretty good.

    I am dragging a little bit though...but not sure if that was from poor sleep or what.

    I'm going to keep doing my Insanity workouts in the morning and then when I come home from work do some running on the hamster wheel.
  • mellabyte
    mellabyte Posts: 193 Member
    I used to work out in the mornings - I'd get up at 4:45am to make it to the gym by 5:30am... That was _rough_ but I liked it because it energized me for the day and I got all that being sweaty and stinky stuff out of the way in the morning. Also, no one is ever in the gym that early. So you have your run of the place and don't have to deal with the usual gym-peeves. (Assuming you go to a gym-like facility.) But that was also when I worked 8 hour days... So I didn't have to be at work until 8 or 9am, so I could leave by 4;30-5:30pm - not so late that I felt like I had no evening to get anything done or do anything.

    Now I work 9 hour days so I can get a 3 day weekend every other week. My choice, of course, so I have to deal with the consequences. ^_^ This means I wake up at 5am to make it to work by 6:30-7am, so I can leave by 4-4:30pm. So now I switched my workouts to evenings/nights. I've found that I'm still just as energized - because when it comes down to it - I'm still being active and that's what was keeping my energy levels up.

    It's had me change a bit how I plan my meals though. When I worked out in the morning - I had my entire calorie deficit before me before the day started...easy-peasy. On the days I do Kung Fu - I eat dinner after - so that's not so tricky - I usually plan to have a bigger lunch and/or breakfast on those days or more filling snacks and can keep a light dinner. On my other work out days, I workout after dinner. So I have to make sure I plan good post workout snacks or plan a more calorie-dense (but not heavy-feeling) dinner. It's only more complicated when I workout after dinner I guess because I've noticed the intensities of my work outs vary more during that time. o_Oa
  • 20shan08
    20shan08 Posts: 219 Member
    I do 30 day shred in the mornings, 4:30am, before I get ready for work. Gives me energy and makes me feel great during the day. And then I do my elliptical after my daughter goes to sleep at night.
  • TriThreat
    TriThreat Posts: 313
    WHAT I'VE BEEN TOLD :

    morning workouts - help jumpstart your metabolism, you burn more calories throughout the day, and it can boost your energy level. (cons - you don't have a high energy store to pull from just yet, by the end of the day your metabolism will have slowed down and won't combat the "dinner calories")

    evening workouts - testosterone level is higher at night to help build muscle, boosts metabolism to burn calories throughout the night, body has more time to recover since you go to bed shortly after. (cons - you may get "hyped up" and have trouble sleeping)

    again, this is all subjective, and what people have told me, but I think it really does just become a personal preference :smile:

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