Exercising In The Morning vs. Evening May Affect Your Fitness Results

Exercising around a busy schedule often comes down to squeezing your sweat sesh in wherever you have a spare moment, regardless of the time of day. It’s undeniable that working out is great for your body whenever you can get it done, but new research shows that depending on your fitness goals you may benefit from being more intentional with the time at which you’re working out.

In order to determine the benefit of fitting training into certain times of the day, one small study took 27 active women and 20 men and measured their fitness progress over the course of 12 weeks.

Participants began at the same baseline fitness level, and the study monitored various measures of strength progress, abdominal fat loss, and other health markers. The researchers ensured that participants also followed a similar macronutrient-dense diet.

In this study of active people, female participants who completed their strength training in the morning (6 to 8 a.m.) displayed not only improvements in lower-body power in exercises such as jump squats but also a significant reduction in total and abdominal fat. “It’s important to highlight these favourable body composition changes occurred in the absence of changes in body weight,” the study specified.

As for evening workouts (6:30 to 8:30 p.m.), female participants in this group were found to have better success in increasing upper-body strength, power, and endurance.

In terms of body composition, women who exercised in the evening still experienced a reduction in total body fat but less significantly than their morning workout counterparts. Instead, they were found to have better success with overall muscle growth, which can be useful to take into consideration when looking at fitness goals. “Exercise in the evening may provide improvements in upper body muscular performance, and possibly mood enhancement,” the study authors note.

As for men, those who exercised in the evening experienced the same change in body composition as the a.m. fitness group, but working out in the evening offered a more significant reduction in blood pressure.

It should come as no surprise that women and men react differently to exercise, but this study reveals exactly how much gender and the time at which you work out can play into body composition, strength gains, and overall fitness improvements. Separate from even your diet and the workouts you’re doing, catering your exercise time to specific goals can allow you to create a more targeted approach to fitness (and even boost your mood, in the case of evening workouts!)

At the end of the day what really matters is that you’re taking the time to work out and prioritize moving your body, whenever works best for you. But if you want to get granular, looking at the time you’re exercising may play a role.

Also Read: 5 easy lifestyle changes that you do to prevent heart diseases