The best times of day to exercise....

Today's Post: Friday, 8-16-2013

1.  Fitness expert, Craig Ballantyne, says it in a humorous way:  “Any day ending in Y. “

The point he is making is that any day you can exercise and do it is a plus.

The related point is that while exercising most days of every week has incredibly positive health benefits of several kinds, the benefits only show up if you do actually do the exercises!

The much better news is that if you do exercise most days of every week, the longer you do it in years without a big break in doing it, the better the health benefits and health protections get!

So, his point is that any day you actually exercise and fit it into your schedule is a huge positive!

There are some differences and what works for me or even most people may not work for you. 

Everyone is just a bit different.

That said, here’s some ideas as to what works best for most people and why.

2.  For most people the very best time to exercise is at home first thing in the day or at least before you leave the house or get busy on your day.

The second best time is that early in your day going someplace close by where you live to exercise.

Here are some of the reasons why first thing in the morning tends to work so well:

a)  Research shows that exercise, particularly vigorous exercise, even if brief, done first thing in your day is most effective at helping you sleep better.  (And compared to people who do no exercise, this is a BIG effect.)

b)  Because vigorous or intense exercise you work up to gradually, the most important kind, can be done in just a few minutes each day and the demands of your day tend to disrupt your plans later then that time, it’s about ten times easier to exercise reliably early in your day.

This is so true you can decide in advance what kinds of exercise you’ll do each day and hardly ever miss a session. 

(This has proved true for me.  I only miss exercising about one day every other month.  And, I often go a few months with no misses at all. 

My after work sessions are far less reliable despite my motivation to do them.  Things beyond my control often get us home late.  Some days, even I am just too tired or hungry to make myself do it.  I average between doing them half the time to about three times out of four when things go well.  Note the huge contrast with my reliability doing my morning exercises almost without fail.)

d) Do the statistics for most people and people new to exercise show this effect too?

They most certainly do!  Twice as many people who exercise first thing keep exercising as compared with people who exercise later in the day.

e)  For fat loss, eating a big breakfast with lots of protein and any higher glycemic foods you eat such as fruit or real fruit juice or even whole grains or a few foods with sugar, is THE best time of day to do this.

Even better, if you exercise first, your body tends to use these foods and the insulin they cause you to release to repair your body and build muscle.  Later in the day and without the exercise first, those same foods and the insulin release just make you and keep you fat!

3.  For the best results for building strength if you can do it reliably, the other best time is to exercise with at starting time between about 4 PM and 6 PM and before your evening meal.

That’s because your body is usually most awake and up and running at that time of day.  And you tend to be strongest at that time.

I just signed up to go to a once every week session to do superslow strength training at 6 PM every Tuesday at an appointment time I’m paying for in advance.

Between the definite appointment and how effective I know this to be, this a great way to go for this.  The extra incentives to be sure I do it each week are there to help me be reliable with it.

So that can be a good time under those kinds of circumstances.

Otherwise the first thing in the day time always tends to win!