Exercise

August 22, 2010

Is It Better to Work Out in the Morning?

I continue to hear various fitness pros profess that it’s best to work out first thing in the morning. I’ve heard some go as far as to state that if you’re not in the gym early you’ll miss out on half the benefits of exercise. Unfortunately, none of these “experts” ever provide a shred of peer-reviewed evidence to support their claims.

Fact is, research has failed to show any superiority for working out at a particular time of the day, be it morning, afternoon, or night. A recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research reinforces this fact. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a morning or afternoon training group. After 10 weeks, no significant differences were found in muscle development between the groups. Interestingly, the afternoon group actually showed slightly better results, but the findings did not reach statistical significance.

So what’s the real scoop? For all practical purposes, the most important consideration about when to train is to pick a time when you will be at your best. If you’re a morning person, then an early workout will optimize your results. But if you do better in the evening, you’ll only end up sleepwalking through a morning workout. Certainly this will be counterproductive to achieving your best gains. It’s simply common sense that you’d be best off training later in the day.

Bottom line: Don’t be swayed by the hype about morning workouts being best. Let your biorhythms dictate when you work out. Remember, the effort that you put into training will dictate what you get out of it.

Stay Fit!

Brad

Sedliak M, Finni T, Cheng S, Lind M, Häkkinen K. (2009). Effect of time-of-day-specific strength training on muscular hypertrophy in men. J Strength Cond Res. 23(9):2451-7.