Ok. I've heard many different things from friends, trainers and so forth and I'm quite sure it does have to reflect somewhat on the person and their chemistry and stuff. But in your opinion, is it better to work out in the morning or afternoon?.
For most gym rats, it doesn't really matter.
Simply work out when it is most convenient for you - or when you feel the most motivated - to workout.
If mornings work better for you ( for whatever reason ) - then do mornings.
I'd rather get it done in the morning because I like having nights free and gym is packed. But I start work at 7am. Last job I had, i'd work out at 6am and get to worked already fried and exhausted.
I did morning workouts for years ( up at 4:30 a.m......in the gym by 6:00 a.m. ......at my desk for 8:30 a.m. ) and had the opposite experience - I felt great at work - very energized.
Granted, everyone is different, but you shouldn't feel ' gassed ' for the start of the day after a morning workout IMO - most people feel energized.
Which brings me to another question, does anyone recommend a good energy booster? I never got that feeling of being energized after a workout. I felt good of course but tired. I've tried sugar free red bulls and they only make me feel drunk and then hungover.
Remember, sugar free red bulls have caffeine as the main ingredient and caffeine is simply a stimulant ( i.e it's primarily intended to keep you alert and awake ) and not an intended source of ( caloric ) energy in and of itself. That said, a sugar free red bull only has about 15 calories - which is virtually nothing in terms of being able to supply your body with the energy needed to either fuel exercise or properly stabilize your blood sugar.
You might try and have a good carb based snack sometime before you go to bed the night before and then have another light snack of mostly carbs and some protein about 30 - 40 minutes before you train in the morning in order to stabilize your blood sugar. If you train on low blood sugar, you're really running on fumes, and you're apt to feel tired and fatigued much sooner than you should. Something like a banana, or a glass of OJ or a slice of toast / bagel or a bit of cereal - or some combo of those - something around 200 calories should do the trick.
Also, how long is too long to be doing cardio and weightlifting? I've heard that an hour is too long, I've heard that if you want to get killer results you should basically live in the gym and so forth. I'm confused.
For most average gym rats, you should be able to do a good full body weight workout in 40 minutes to 1 hour. So, I would tend to agree, anything beyond an hour is inefficient IMO - but that's just me. Doing that FBW 3X a week for an hour or less on non-consecutive days should be all you really need.
As far as cardio goes, there is no hard and fast rule. If you do cardio and weights at the same session, you don't want to spend hours at the gym, so 20 - 30 minutes of cardio is probably fine. Sort of depends on what your goals are.
If you want to dedicate one day entirely to cardio you can do 30 minutes - 1 hour sessions of cardio per session or do 2 30 sessions of cardio - each at a different times of the day etc. A lot of it simply depends on your goals, fitness level and schedule.
