Deanna and Shannon record their new Helen PR’s up on the Leaderboard!
The familiar age-old debate of when is the best time to work out is still standing. Which is better for you: A morning workout or an evening one?
Some people prefer morning workouts. There’s a rumoured health benefit that we avail ourselves of by getting up a good sweat first thing in the day. During sleep, our bodies release more growth hormone and that level stays elevated for about an hour after rising. This is increased with intense exercise, like Crossfit. This higher level of growth hormone makes your cells more insulin resistant, in turn making you more likely to store breakfast as fat. This is good news!
On the other hand, some say performance peaks later in the day. They may have more workout intensity in the evening when they’re properly awake and have been moving around all day. Plus, one advantage of working out in the evening is that it can provide you with stress relief from your daytime job.
But, really, the best time for people to work out is when you can fit it into to your schedule, and when you are feeling most motivated. Whether this happens to be in the morning or the evening shouldn’t matter too much in the end. Either way, we all feel the same way after these good workouts: physically and mentally more energetic and sharp for whatever part of our day is left.
Relax, enjoy your routine, and give yourself credit for doing what counts!
What about you, CrossFit Zoners? Which do YOU prefer?
Today’s Workout:
Buy-In– 3 sets of 3 turkish get-ups per side
WOD – “Can’t Skip The Wallballs”
Elite/Zone 3: : 6 rounds for time:
• 20 wallball
• 30 double unders/120 skips
Zone 2: Scale to 4 rounds for time
• 20 wallball
• 20 double unders/80 skips
Zone 1: Scale to:
• 10 wallball
• 10 double unders/40 skips
Cash-Out – Max pushups, 1 set!
I find it depends a bit on the workout. I like to have my running races in the morning because then I don’t have to think as much about digestion issues. I can just have a light breakfast and go directly to the race. For a late race, I have to be careful about what I eat all day.
I don’t mind working out in the morning provided I’ve been up for at least an hour. I do find my performance for lifting weights is not as good in the morning as later in the day, but with a good warm up there’s probably less of a difference.
Generally, I think I prefer post-work workouts as it’s a nice stress release after sitting at my computer all day. It gives my brain some much needed time off :-).
With the CrossFit program, constantly varied… this is not just in the exercises and loads, you should also mix up the time of day you workout, working out on an empty stomach, different elevations, hot/cold environments. Your body responds to all possible circumstances that you throw at it.
Most research supports that the majority of people function best physically in the afternoon. Body temperature is more optimal during this time and the body is fully alert and properly fuelled. That being said, I know some people thrive on the early mornings!
I do like to get runs done in the morning but find them very hard some days. The best things about doing something in the morning though is that it jumpstarts your metabolism and it means you can also do a workout in the evening as well (since you’ll be pretty recovered by then :).
Definitely though it depends on what fits in the schedule. I perform the best in the afternoon and evening (sometimes night!) but I do try and vary it up to challenge myself.
Good rowing today peeps! It was fun to mix in with the 5pm gang… tower of power!!
Turts
I have the most energy in the morning, after coffee and maybe a piece of fruit, but before breakfast. However I tend to work out in the afternoon both because it fits my schedule better, and it wakes me up for the rest of the day.
The best time for me varies. There are mornings where it’s all I can do just to get out of bed, and then there are evenings when I feel like I can hardly keep my head up after work. I suppose what I usually do is just listen to my energy levels on certain days and make the decision as to what time is best then. I know after a really great morning workout it really sets the tone for my day and makes me feel healthy and strong. Then there are those evenings where the workout seems to be the first thing all day that makes me feel settled and stress-free. I like to mix it up! Bit ‘o both.
I find my best workouts are early evening however I prefer to workout in the morning. This is because once I’ve recovered a bit from a workout I have tons of energy and that doesn’t really help in the evening when I want to sleep.
I used to prefer morning workouts when it was just weight lifting, but I have tried doing CF in the morning and it is a no go. I think my body would adjust to it in time but evenings work best for my schedule.
I would like to run more in the morning and then be recovered enough to WOD in the evening…that would be ideal.
I agree with Coach D though, varying your workout environment, hunger levels, time of WOD and other variables seems to fit into the CF “constantly varied” philosophy and would probably increase your GPP.
So…you people that are saying they don’t mind running in the morning…anyone want to start a running club with me for about 5:30am?? 🙂 Nothing too crazy…just a run along Dallas Road? Maybe anywhere between 30-60 minutes? I’ve been off running for about 6 weeks now…so I’m just starting to ease back into it.
Would love to join you Krista..but the kiddlets are priority…yuck yuck…..love working out in the evening cause my ideal schedule is a bed time of 11pm wake 7am…but my life dictates otherwise. If I workout too late and too hard…I cant sleep…like after the recent Helen…wired man…how do I tackle that?
Andree… just work out harder 😉 haha. I find reading before bed is good or stretching out after the WOD to wind down…
Oh and KDF, that’s wayyyyyy too early for me right now!