Best Time To Workout?

Now there’s a question we’d all like answered in a matter of fact kind of way! There are all sorts of theories. I think it’s about finding what’s right for you. Some people love lifting weights in the evening as they claim they have more energy. Others prefer the morning, others are lunchtime people! If you do cardio exercise in the morning before eating, you do start to burn fat faster and you give yourself the mental energy boost you need for the remainder of the day as oxygen pumps around the brain and you release all the right hormones in your brain. This is the time I prefer to exercise. In fact, I’m sluggish if I don’t exercise first thing these days. A recent study at Appalachian State University found that those who exercised in the morning had better sleep patterns and there’s also a relationship between exposure to light in the morning and lower body weight (I believe they mean fat – who cares how much you weigh?) Here are a few tips to get into the routine of exercising in the morning, should you so choose:

If you currently can’t fathom exercising in the morning, here are some tricks that work for other morning exercise achievers.1. Organize all your workout clothes/gear at night. Make it as easy as possible to get your workout in by having everything ready to go.

2. Go to bed earlier. When you start working out early, you’ll naturally start wanting to go to bed earlier too. But when starting out, try going to bed 30 minutes earlier than normal so it’s easier to get up for your workout.

3. Enlist a friend. Call a friend to see if s/he will meet you. Those who have exercise companions are more likely to get their workouts in.

4. Do what you love. There are so many ways to become fit, you don’t have to do something you don’t like. Find something (anything!) that you like and do that. It’s also great to shake it up, and do different types of exercise so it never gets boring. For best results combine aerobic exercise with strength workouts (with either bodyweight exercises or weights).

5. Reward yourself. For each am that you exercise, give yourself a little reward like a nice nonfat latte. The best part of all my am workouts is the latte at the end! After a week of doing your morning exercise, splurge on a new exercise DVD or video. There are so many great ones now, one of my favorites is P90X. It’s an at-home version of Crossfit which focuses on muscle confusion for building strength and endurance.

6. Don’t have an all or nothing attitude. If you only have time for a half hour workout, when your routine is usually an hour, go for the half hour and give yourself a pat on the back. Try to make up during the day (take the stairs, take a brisk walk on a break. When I have early morning meetings, I not only shorten my workout routine, but try to increase the intensity. If I walk out of an vigorous group fitness class early, it’s all smiles, no guilt!

–Sherri Nordstrom Stastny, Ph.D., RD, CSSD., Assistant Professor, Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences at North Dakota State University

7. I never know when co-workers or friends are going to want to go out for a glass of wine after work. If I haven’t exercised in the morning, I have to go to the gym after work, so no wine (big whine!), no great time relaxing with friends. I do, however, keep it to one glass and no appetizers. Although happy hour only happens maybe once a week, it’s in the back of my head on some of those “don’t want to do this” mornings, so I get up and go in order to keep my evening options open. –Colleen Luther RD, LD Read More on Appetite For Health