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Well, hey there. Welcome back. Today's episode is going to be short and sweet, but I'm going to answer a question that I get pretty often from my clients and even on my Instagram account on deliciously, fit and healthy people often leave it in the comments or DM it to me. So I figured, let me do a whole podcast on it and break down the science so that you can understand what is right for you. And that question is, when is the best time to work out?
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And before we get into today's episode, I do want to give a little shout out to like a Boat Doc. I love listening to Andrea's podcasts. They are full of amazing education and realness. My favorite thing about Andrea and these podcasts is the realness Andrea and her guests speak the truth without any extra sugar coating. It's always nice to have the reminder that I am not alone in mom life and mom struggles.
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No. Lego boat. Doc. You are not alone because let's be honest, sometimes motherhood seems lonely. Or even just being a woman can feel kind of lonely because we're not always great at communicating about the hard pieces of it.
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So I hope that you come here and you know that we have an open door policy that we can talk about all things and nothing is off limit. So you feel at home when you're listening to Make It Simple because life is complicated enough. We don't need to make it more complicated. Let's keep things simple and let's talk about everything. And as we get into today's episode, obviously one of the things I'm going to talk about when it comes to working out in the morning or evening is our sleep.
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When you use the code simple 40. Again, that's 40% off sitewide, simple 40. I promise you, sleep is important and those sheets are going to help you out. All right, straight to today's episode, short and sweet. Let's talk about when the best time to work out is.
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As I mentioned, I'm going to keep this really simple today. I'm going to link a couple of research studies in the show notes. As always, I'm going to give you the pros and cons, and then I want you to think about yourself and what works for you. So majority of the studies do actually say that exercising in the morning does have a slight edge, but something that I want you to think about is what your goals are because evenings have a slight edge when it comes to building muscle and the mornings have a slight edge when it comes to burning fat. And there are some studies that are mixed, so I will kind of discuss that as well.
00:03:03
But first, let's start with night workouts. If you're thinking about working out at night, or if you already are someone who works out at night, here are some of the benefits. One, you're able to better focus and you have more energy typically because you've had a longer day. They say that your performance peaks at around 11 hours of being awake. So this is a great time for you to exercise, obviously towards the end of the day, because your performance is peaking at that point.
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Some studies also show that it is easier for you to build muscle, probably because you have more energy, so you're able to pound heavier weights and go harder. It's also been proven that you can work up to 20% longer, which means you can exercise longer in the evenings without getting worn out and at a higher intensity if that's the type of workout you like to do. So it's a great time for you to really pop in a great workout and have great energy and build some amazing muscle. One study I found also said that women who work out in the afternoon or in the evening have a greater increase in upper body strength, power and endurance. That's huge.
00:04:09
I feel like that makes sense because I feel like often working on upper body can be harder for women, especially when we're working on pull ups or bigger muscles in the upper body. Sometimes in the morning we're a little drained so we'll tend to go lighter than maybe we didn't sleep well the night before. So it makes sense that you might be able to get better strength in your upper body if you work on it at night. And again, I will link the studies that kind of explain this because some of the studies were super interesting. I also found a study that said men have improved heart health, metabolic health and emotional well being in the night.
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It's really kind of cool because men and women are so different and I think our hormones play a huge role in that. But the benefits for each were even different depending on what time someone worked out, whether male or female and morning or night in some of the studies, which is really unique. So those are some really great benefits of working out in the night. The next thing that is a huge benefit for working out in the night is some people feel like they sleep better. Now, this is kind of a controversy because I honestly found research that said you sleep worse if you work out at night because it makes you kind of feel wired with energy, but a lot of studies are saying that's actually incorrect.
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One study said that only 2% of people felt like they slept worse after an evening workout, and 30% of people said they slept better. So when it comes to you and sleeping and how you're feeling, I would be the study of one I would work out. If you're someone who needs to work out in the evening, work out, see how you feel, if you can't sleep well after working out, then yes, it might be time to figure out if you can work out midday or in the morning. But if you're someone who's like, no, I actually sleep better after I work out at night, go for it. It's a great time and you can build better strength and have more energy in the evening.
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Now, the cons for the evening is you can kind of be mentally drained and physically drained. So I know for a lot of women, they kind of will feel overwhelmed by the end of the day, and the last thing they want to do is think about counting reps or working hard because they've been going hard all day, whether it's at work or with kids or in different scenarios. I know for people who have a physical job, it can be harder in the evening. My husband owned a landscaping business for years, and he would try to work out after work, but without fail, he was too tired. Like, he struggled working out at night.
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So if he didn't do it in the morning, he just didn't have the energy at night. So that's something else to think about when you're thinking about working out at night. Second, if you do miss a night workout, you can't make it up later. If you're someone who works out in the morning and you're like, oh, I really want to get a workout in, you can work out at lunch or you can work out in the evening, but if you're someone who works out in the night, that opportunity is kind of lost. And it's a lot easier for things to come up in the evening.
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So it can be a little bit harder to be consistent to work out in the evening because there's always events, your kids events, school things, church things, activities, whatever else is going on that might hinder that workout time. So those are the pros and cons for the evening workouts. Let's talk about morning workouts now, morning workouts have been proven to help establish a fitness routine, and I think that's mainly because there's less excuses, less things come up when you work out first thing in the morning and it is easier to make it consistent. One of the things I tell my clients is pick a workout time that you can consistently do as often as possible. If you can only work out in the evening two days a week, and then you need to do the mornings that's fine, but try to really choose a time where on Tuesdays it's always at the same time, on Wednesdays it's always at the same time.
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And that is going to be easier if you work out in the morning. So it can be more beneficial that way. Morning workouts also improve cognitive function, so basically they help you wake up and keep you awake and alert for the next couple of hours. So I linked a study in the show Notes where it said that fat oxidizes faster over 24 hours when you exercise in the morning before breakfast. So that means that you are exercising on an empty stomach in a fasted state.
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And that has been a little bit more proven to help with fat loss. If your goal is building muscle again, that's probably not the best situation for you. Maybe night would be better for you, or you need to eat breakfast and then work out. That's going to help you build muscle. One is not better than the other.
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You can obviously lose fat when you add muscle. Anytime you add muscle, you're going to speed up your metabolism. So don't think you're doomed just because you're someone who likes to eat before you work out. That's no big deal. All that means is you might have a little bit more energy for your workout, which means that you will be able to possibly lift more weights and that will help build more muscle, which can help in general with a faster metabolism over a long period of time.
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But the study I found watched people for twelve weeks and in that twelve week cycle, the women in that study did tend to lose a little bit more fat in the morning workouts than the evening workouts. When they performed the exercise in a fasted state. When they were fed, it was about the same as the evening workout. So that's something to be aware of based on your goals. Also in the morning you can have increased mood, obviously, because when you exercise you release endorphins, which is like your feel good, happy chemical, and that keeps your mood elevated after your workout for an extended period of time.
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If you work out in the evening, you might get that bump, but then you're going to sleep, so you won't get that elevated mood. Now the downside of working out in the morning is you might be running a little bit low on fuel, like you're just a little bit worn out. You also can wake up a little too early trying to work out early, which can disrupt your sleep cycles and your circadian rhythm and kind of affect your deep sleep. So if you're someone who doesn't get a ton of sleep, waking up really early to work out is probably not the best choice because sleep is huge for muscle recovery. It is so important.
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And if you're trying to build muscle and you're not sleeping, it is literally like straddling a fence, you're not going to see the changes that you want. So that's really important that you get enough sleep. Also, first thing in the morning, I'm sure that you've noticed I'm a little more stiff and a little bit more inflexible than I am by the afternoon, midday, evening. So it might take a little bit longer to warm up when you are working out first thing in the morning. So just kind of being aware of that and possibly planning for that extra time.
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Because if you're trying to fly through your morning workout but you're not warmed up, you're going to be more prone to injury. You're going to have worse form, for example, on your squats and your lower body movements. I take at least 15 minutes to kind of warm up those joints and ligaments for my lower body to make sure that I can really power weight for my lower body. So you have to kind of be aware of having that time in the morning or you might not see some of those benefits that you want. Now, with all this said, I laid out the pros, I laid out the cons.
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Obviously it depends on your goals. If your goal is building muscle, the evening might just be a slightly better fit. If your goal is fat loss, the morning might be a slightly better fit. But honestly, I would look at all the pros and cons and see what works for you. And then if I'm completely honest, I would cross out both of those lists and I would find a time you can be consistent with.
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Looking at these pros and cons of night and morning is truly like a good, better best. The last thing I want is someone to walk away and say, shoot, I can only work out in the evening. And you can burn. Studies show that you burn a little bit more fat like you oxidize fat, a little bit better on a fasted workout. Oh, well, that's no big deal.
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That's one tiny variable. You can lift more weights when you do it at night, which means you can build a stronger metabolism in the evening, maybe because you're adding muscle or maybe you're going to go harder in the evening because you have the energy. So there truly are pros and cons and it's really hard to take one variable and say that's the only variable that matters. And because I can't do that variable, I'm not going to have success in whatever my goals are. So please be aware that even though there are pros and cons, the point is to pick a time that works for you, that's effective for you, that you can be consistent in and you can feel good in.
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You are always the study of one. I can feed you studies and research and research after research. In fact, I almost went down a black hole of why heart health was a little bit stronger for men in the evening than it was for women. And I was like, I can't go down that black hole right now on research studies, but we can do that until we're blue in the face. But the point is to find something that works for you.
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There is no perfect answer. There's pros and cons to both. And I know in fitness we want it to be black and white. We want a clear cut yes answer or a clear cut no answer, or we want a clear cut time. People write me all the time say, what is the perfect diet?
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What is the perfect exercise? What is the perfect time to work out? There is no such thing. The perfect diet, exercise, workout routine is the one you can maintain. It's the one you can consistently do.
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It's the one that makes you feel good. It's the one you enjoy. It's the one that challenges you, that is going to be the best, and that is going to be the same for this. Pick a time that works for you. Don't worry about the cons for whatever time that you choose.
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Focus on the pros of the night if you're a night workout person or the morning if you're a workout person. And just take joy in those pros and move on. And don't worry about the perfect time, because the perfect time is going to be different for everybody. And there are pros to all of them. That's it.
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I'm sure you wanted a clear cut answer, but you know me. I love to live in the gray. I love to keep it simple. And I love to show you there is no right or wrong way. It's about being consistent.
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All right? Remember, you're doing so much better than you think you are. And we'll chat next week.