Best time of the day to work out

What’s the Best Time of Day to Work Out?

When it comes to the best time of day to work out, there’s a lot of conflicting opinions out there. So, our Mytime Active fitness team decided to compare the benefits of different exercise timings, so you can choose the best time for you:

3 Benefits of working out in the morning:

• Get your workout done before you start your day – once you’ve ticked this off your list, you can spend more time in the evening relaxing with your family or socialising with friends.
• Less likely to be tempted by unhealthy foods – an interesting study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise found that women who worked out in the morning were less distracted by photos of food.
• Increase your metabolism – morning workouts will help you burn calories throughout the day. The same study above also found that when people exercised in the morning, their daily physical activity increased too.

3 Benefits of working out in the afternoon / evening:

• Your body’s ability to perform peaks – another study on exercise found that as your body temperature increases throughout the day, this can help to optimise muscle function, strength and endurance. So, doing a workout between 2 – 4pm, when your body temperature is at its highest, could be a more effective session. 
• Less time needed for a warm up – although we would always recommend warming up before any physical activity, your body is better prepared for workouts in the evening, which means shorter warm up sessions.
• Faster reaction time for more intensive workouts ­­­­– afternoon and evenings are the ideal time for high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Late afternoon, your heart rate and blood pressure are at the lowest levels, which helps to decrease the risk of injury while improving performance.

No matter what time of day you choose to work out, exercise is important. What really matters is finding a regular time that fits in with your busy life or work schedule, so that you can stick to it.

Whatever time of day you choose to workout, our Mytime Active sites and centres offer hundreds of different activities throughout the day and evenings.