I used to be a chronic evening gym rat. I have always been a night owl all my life. And yes, that would be me up in the gym at 10PM on a Tuesday night! But these days I often just don’t have it in me by the end of the day so I began working out mostly in the mornings. And if you knew me -rest assured, I LOVE sleep -so this is no easy feat! For a long time I tried and tried to get up for a morning workout and just could not do it. Then one night I said, ‘I WILL get up tomorrow. I’ll just try it. If I hate it, I’ll never do it again.’ The idea of just taking on one day made it easier. That was about 7 months ago and now for the most part, I work out in the mornings before work. And the truth is, any day that I work out in the A.M. is a great day! I am full of energy and in a great mood for the whole day. Plus, I get a great night’s sleep later that evening. The morning run kick starts my endorphins in a way that boosts my day. This impacts my job performance at work, and just how I feel about myself overall. I’m alive, energetic, confident, and feel strong. I bounce into work rather than drag myself.
However, most recently I have gone back to lifting after work in the evenings though I still run in the mornings (occasionally, but usually not on the same day). Why when I just spoke about how great the a.m. workouts were? Well on my weightlifting days, I didn’t quite have the strength and “grrrrr” in the a.m for my hard-core lifting. Lifting, for me, is truly addictive, and I was not getting that response from my body in the a.m. so I started to doing that in the evening again. For the most part they are short and hard workouts and lend themselves well to a quick 40min – 1 hr in the gym
Why all the switching? You have to listen to your body. And your body, your life, and your needs changes all the time. I used to work out 6 nights per week. I just can’t swing that now. Sometimes I work very late, and regardless, I’m pretty tired by the end of the day. I tried only mornings for a while and found a piece of it worked and a piece didn’t. I listen to my body – what it needs, how it reacts – and take the necessary steps.
Ultimatley, the most important thing is that you exercise and that you do so CONSISTENTLY with a solid routine where you can measure your progress and increase difficulty. I don’t think it matters when you do it- just that you DO do it. Well, when do YOU do it? Let’s hear about it.
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