Hello- I wanted to ask if anyone knew what the best time of day to workout is? I can get up early and exercise, or after 6:30 pm. So far as getting the most from my workout (cardio and weight training), what do people normally recommend? I have heard for so long that if you exercise in the morning, that you are more susceptible to heart attacks. That always seemd like crap to me, but who knows? I would love to know what everyone thinks about this.
Time of Day to Workout
- Thread starter theposhpea
- Start date
I work out early in the morning. The only negative side to that is that you are coming off a fast and have a nutrient deficit. However a good pre-workout shake can pretty much overcome that. I know a lot of people don't like working out first thing in the morning because they feel weak or it is just to difficult to get up and get motivated, but I found after forcing myself to do it for a few months it became a habit and now I hate to work out any other time of the day! The good thing to me is it is over and I can forget about it for the rest of the day and concentrate on my work and my family.
If you decide on working out in the morning, make sure you take down a decent pre workout meal as dswithers has stated. Also, caffeine helps alot in the a.m.
I have not heard of the heart attack problem, so I would say that is probably false. Just make sure your nutrition is up to par.
I have not heard of the heart attack problem, so I would say that is probably false. Just make sure your nutrition is up to par.
TANGENT:
So how long before my mornign routine should I take in a MRP shake?
15 - 20 minutes sufficient?
So how long before my mornign routine should I take in a MRP shake?
15 - 20 minutes sufficient?
basicly...
Early - you wont have the fule to workout 100% and will be a long time before you rest
late morning - lots of energy, but it will be a long time before you get to rest your muscles, but you have time to eat and supply the muscles with energy to heal.
Late - you may be tired, you may not get all the energy you need to heal if your only eatting one meal after your workout but the good thing is you'll soon be inbed and resting your muscles.
Early - you wont have the fule to workout 100% and will be a long time before you rest
late morning - lots of energy, but it will be a long time before you get to rest your muscles, but you have time to eat and supply the muscles with energy to heal.
Late - you may be tired, you may not get all the energy you need to heal if your only eatting one meal after your workout but the good thing is you'll soon be inbed and resting your muscles.
I don't advise heavy weight training in the morning, because the spine and central nervous system take about 90-120 mins from waking to compress and kick in.
you don't want a loose spine on squats or deadlifts, and having the CNS awake and firing on all cylinders will give you more control over the weight and I've always personally found I can push (or pull) more weight several hours after getting up, vs. waking up, driving to the gym and trying to do the same lifts.
you don't want a loose spine on squats or deadlifts, and having the CNS awake and firing on all cylinders will give you more control over the weight and I've always personally found I can push (or pull) more weight several hours after getting up, vs. waking up, driving to the gym and trying to do the same lifts.
An MRP = meal replacement powder- should be considered a normal meal and not a preworkout meal. I would advise an hour or more. The reason: a high caloric intake will take time to digest. Your bodies attention will be diverted to digestion. A good preworkout meal is a small amount of protein and lots of simple carbs and electrolytes.
I disagree with Malkore and Kent here. An intense early morning workout is just fine. A few studies here and there may have been done to show and disprove these guys comments, but I have trained myself as well as other clients seeking more max strength in the early a.m. They were just find because of SAID principle. Their (and my) anatomy adapted to the stimuli with no problems.
You train your body to do it and most likely it will adapt and do it.
Well, my problem is that I don't have that much tim in the day, so let me show you my schedule:
Prepare for Work/Commute: 7:00am-7:30am
Work - 7:30am-5:00pm (my week T-W-Th-F-Sat) Sun & M off
Go Home and Get Ready for School and Go to School - 5:00-6:00pm
In school from 6pm - 10pm on M-T-W-Th
Go home, eat light, and sleep by 11:30pm
This happens Tu-Th, Friday no school but Work 8am-6pm
Sat I work 8am-4pm
Sunday is free all day
So, to keep a linear schedule I want to concentrate my strength conditioning in the mornings. I would like to put in 1 hour, from 6am - 7am Monday to Friday, Cardio on the weekends and afternoons.
Can anyone help me on this??
Prepare for Work/Commute: 7:00am-7:30am
Work - 7:30am-5:00pm (my week T-W-Th-F-Sat) Sun & M off
Go Home and Get Ready for School and Go to School - 5:00-6:00pm
In school from 6pm - 10pm on M-T-W-Th
Go home, eat light, and sleep by 11:30pm
This happens Tu-Th, Friday no school but Work 8am-6pm
Sat I work 8am-4pm
Sunday is free all day
So, to keep a linear schedule I want to concentrate my strength conditioning in the mornings. I would like to put in 1 hour, from 6am - 7am Monday to Friday, Cardio on the weekends and afternoons.
Can anyone help me on this??
Today's training tip comes from Stuart McGill:
Not a Good Morning
Full spine bending first thing in the morning is a great way to damage your back. You're taller when you wake up in the morning than when you go to bed at night. This is because the discs suck up water while you sleep. After rising, just walking around and using the muscles during the day compress your spine and the fluid is squeezed out, decreasing the anular tensions in the disc. So, when you wake up the extra height in the discs are analogous to a water balloon ready to burst. If you bend, you build up much higher stresses in the disc. In fact, the stresses are three times higher than when you perform the same bend two or three hours later. So, heavy bending exercises, good mornings or sit-ups for example, performed first thing in the morning is not a good idea.
Well, Mr. McGill needs to step out of the lab once in a while.
Find me a person who trains heavy regularly, and does so directly after rising, and I will show you a teenager who does so for 10 days before burnout.
Reality check:
People wake.
People BEND to get out of bed.
People STRETCH to move.
People then, (at least the overwhelming MAJORITY), SHOWER. -And most with hot water.
All of these things fix Mr McGill's issues.
Follow this sequence with breakfast, then a heavy lifting routine 1 1/2 hours later. -THAT is the best.
Do people do it this way? Not normally. People work, go to school, take care of family, etc. -They put their health last.
In any case, following the morning routine IS the best for strength and cardio because it trains the body to do its hard work and then maintain functionality after, rather than trying to explode on the scene after an exhausting day.
If any such heart attack link COULD exist, it would be linked to late training schedules. A late training time such as in evening hours causes a chemically predispositioned metabolism to try to reverse a sleep mode, and turn it into hyperactivity mode. This can be correllated to a min-PTSD effect if you will. Therefore, long term workouts such as that could overstress the heart, nervous system, and mental functions.
I hope something I posted helps.
You're kidding, right? Do you even know who Dr. Stuart McGill is?
Here...let me give you a hint:
Anyway...I agree with Dr. McGill.
I also agree with Eric Cressey, Dr. Ryan, and the others who are in the lab and get under the bar for powerlifting competitions and they would agree that a few hours from teh time of waking to lifting heavy loads on the spine is optimal.
However, if you're not attempting maxs then this maybe a mute point.
Also, find out for yourself what you work best with. I've found through trial and error that my body is primed the best between the hours of 3-4pm and I've had some outstanding workouts as late as midnight. I don't do well with early morning workouts but you might. So, take a few training sessions at night and take a few in the morning and see what you like the most...you'll have the most success with what you enjoy the most.
Everyone has their own perspective, so I am not going to dowplay those who agree with him.
The bottom line is that the most educated people are the most often wrong because they are too tunnelvisioned about a specific set of details under perfect conditions, that they then build a philosophy around it without taking everything else into context.
McGill is no different.
He can be wrong as can anyone else. The point is that reality often contradicts theory. To hold a person's claims up because of a reputation alone is insane. I wouldn't expect anyone to agree with me either without proving my perspectives correct.
He may know his stuff in a given area, but that does not mean his conclusions about what he knows are correct in application. My perspective still stands.
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I just know that I have to drop all my weight in the mornings. I'd rather have a full day's worth of fuel in my stomach and be able to rest/heal within a few hours of doing intense training. That's just my personal opinion. I can lift more in the afternoons and I also like to get a full night's sleep as well. My body does NOT like to go to sleep before midnight. I get up at 9am, do fasted cardio by 10:30, eat, shower, work, eat, eat, eat, weight train, shower, eat pwo, eat ppwo, asleep by 12-1...and again the next day.