“The best best time of day to exercise is the time you’ll actually do it.”
~Cat Kom

That said, there is more direct advice we can give you if that’s what you’re looking for.
Here are a 5 tips that might help you figure out the best time of day for you to workout!

People who are looking to lose weight, workout most often in the early morning before breakfast. With a structured early morning exercise routine, these exercisers tend to be on the healthier side and studies indicate morning exercisers are the most consistent with their schedules. Perks of morning exercise includes being less hungry for breakfast, more prone to making healthy choices and are more likely to keep moving and burn more calories throughout the rest of the day.

If you’re looking to get stronger, late afternoon or early evening would be the optimal time to implement a consistent workout routine. Since your body temperatures naturally rise between the hours of 1 to 4pm partly due to testosterone, you should feel more flexible and your lungs should be working at the highest efficiency, boosting your strength capacity for tougher workouts. Many argue that an evening workout disrupts sleep afterwards. Like everything else, your body will adjust to an evening workout but to speed your adaption period, settle on a strict bedtime routine.

Sometimes there are disruptions to your biological clock when your circadian cycle is out of sync. Sometimes we’re the ones to blame for the shift in our cycle like traveling to a different time zone or changing our work schedule while other times it can be a biological or genetic disruption. Some have even concluded a change in cycle can be a symptom of aging of the eyes where the natural changes in the lens and the development of cataracts lessens light exposure and affects the biological rhythm. Regardless of the changes, the best way to pay attention and maintain body temperature is by keeping your schedule on track and practicing a strict workout and sleep schedule. Studies indicate that midday workouts assist with re-stabilizing circadian levels so you might want to skip lunch with the coworkers and hit the gym!

In order to sleep better, exercise at any time of the day will significantly dip your body temperature for sleep hours but the most optimal time according to experts is after waking up. Working up a sweat in the morning reminds your brain when you woke up and when you need to power down. Morning exercises cause an additional 25 percent dip at night, which is related to better sleep.

Lastly, to set an astonishing and accomplished record with yourself, workout every day at the same exact time. Timing needs to be consistent in order to analyze your own workouts and rule out what is affecting your performance.

With all this being said, everyone is different and there’s no right or wrong time to break a sweat and depending on your goal and objective, countless options are available! As Cat said, the best time to workout is the time that’ll actually get you to do it!

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
CHECKOUT THESE DETAILS ON HOW SLEEP, CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS & BODY TEMPERATURE CAN IMPACT YOUR WORKOUT RESULTS

Try saying “Circadian Rhythm” five times without stopping. Tough right? At least it’s not too difficult to understand how human circadian rhythms play a role in the time of day that you might benefit the most from exercise! You see, our internal circadian biological clocks regulate the timing of intervals of sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the 24 hour time span of your day. Circadian rhythms increase and decrease at different times of the day so adults most intense sleep drive typically occur between 3 and 7 am, while an adult’s most wakeful state is between the hours of 1 to 4PM. There are exceptions, like Cat, because she takes a 10 min power nap between 1 and 4PM! Then the wakeful state is back on! She built that into her circadian rhythm! So how does this affect exercise you ask? Let’s break it down!

Your body intricately correlates to light and darkness right down to your muscles. Melatonin is one hormone that is responsible for our body’s daily cycle. When night falls and darkness resumes, the production of melatonin, the hormone that signals the brain to go into sleep mode, goes up. When the sun reappears, melatonin secretion is inhibited and the brain’s awake circuits restart, meaning the most optimal time to exercise would be during daylight hours.

That is why optimal exercise performance can also be tied to body temperature, which generally peaks in afternoon at around 1 to 4pm. Who knew, right!? Yep, interestingly enough, body temperature also plays a role in exercise and depending at what time and how intense your workout is, your body temperature can raise, lower or stay fairly constant in addition to having a major effect on your blood pressure, hormone levels and heart rate.

When you engage in a cardio heavy exercise routine, your body temperature naturally heightens, which gets rid of toxins that build up in your body and fuels you with more energy. Body temperature is the main reason for secreting sweat and why you leave the gym feeling satisfied and overall accomplished. It’s a major difference in body temperature antithetical to if you didn’t workout at all.

So by partaking in exercise during the hours of 1-4pm, it makes it possible for your body temperature to dip lower during the night for a more soundly and well rested sleep routine. Although cozying up to a mystery novel or watching your favorite Netflix series before bed can accomplish a similar result to your body temperature to get it as relaxed as possible, exercising comes unmatched to the stellar results you will witness due the drastic lowering of body temperature following an intense workout.

If you’re looking to tweak your body to receive the best results for your body temperature and align your biological clock, directly affecting your health and energy levels, consider cultivating a regular exercise schedule! By structuring your schedule to the point where you’re exercising several times per week, you will be able to control your body temperature and productivity level during the day and maximum unwinding during the night.

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Watch the full video for more tips from Cat Kom and Bethany and check out more videos like this on Studio SWEAT onDemand!