When to Exercise – Morning or Evening?

The question of what time is best for exercising has been asked by many people and has never been answered definitively. The truth is that neither exercising in the morning or in the evening has a greater or lesser number of advantages and the following points seek to elucidate the merits and demerits of both.

Exercising in the morning
Some consider exercising in the early hours of morning to be most effective as working out before you consume breakfast will result in loss of carbohydrates and hence loss of fat. However, this is purely a myth as exercising on an empty stomach can be extremely detrimental. You will need energy derived from food to perform your exercises and when you decide to work out without having eaten breakfast, your body will draw this required energy from the protein storage of your body. This causes the body to break down the muscles in your body in order to provide energy. Muscle tissue helps in the burning off of fat and thus the breaking down of your muscle tissue can be detrimental to burning calories and losing weight.

Exercising in the evening
Many others believe that exercising right before going to bed can help in better sleep. However, the converse is true as working out before you go to bed can actually prevent you from falling asleep. This is because that during exercise, the body gets charged up and thus it has a difficult time in calming down at bedtime. Thus, exercising right before you go to bed can make it hard for you to fall asleep. Also keep in mind that if you are exercising in the morning, you should let your body ‘wake up’. Hence you should perform a thorough warm up and stretch your muscles before starting your workout.

Exercise when you desire
The best thing for you to do is to exercise when you are most comfortable. If you happen to be a morning person, work out in the morning but make sure that you are not exercising on a completely empty stomach. Likewise, if you are an evening person, perform your workouts in the evening, but take care that you exercise a definite amount of time before you go to bed.

Consistency
The most important thing to remember is consistency. The way to get best results is to ensure that you follow a regular exercising schedule on a daily basis. At what time of the day you choose to exercise is not much of a factor. The only exception to this is if you want improvement of muscle mass. For this, you should workout either in the early evening or in the late afternoon as this is when your muscles are at their warmest. For any other health goals, the time of the day is not a factor.

Hence, if you are performing your exercises on a regular and daily basis, you do not need to worry about the time at which you are working out. Both exercising in the morning and evening have their own pros and cons and you should exercise at a time which is most suitable to your personal needs.

Author Bio: If you would like to hire personal trainer for a free personal training consultation, visit Personal Trainers Sydney.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: Personal Trainer

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