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1. Opening
2. The 3 views
3. Conclusion
“Best time to exercise” is, as you will see, dependent on what you already do today. You will discover that experts are divided between three schools of thought – I explain below:
Experts group #1 strongly believes that the best time to exercise is derived from something called “circadian rhythms”. In short, these are the biological “events” which happen inside our bodies throughout the day (every day). These rhythms regulate things like body temperature, metabolism and blood pressure. According to these circadian rhythms the highest body temperature we have during the day is at around 7:00 pm and of course the most optimal for our body is to exercise when our bodies are as warm as possible. Why? Because, as consistently shown by various studies, when the temperature of the body is higher then any exercise is more productive. When it is low the benefit to our body from exercise is much less (and the chance of injury is higher).
Therefore, based on this the recommendation for the best time to exercise at around 7:00 p.m.
It is also important to note that our body temperature is at its lowest few hours before we wake up in the morning and this is exactly why this 1st group of experts argue against morning as the best time to exercise.
Expert group #2 derive their strong believes from a number of studies which have shown that people who exercise in the morning are more successful at making it a habit. It could very well be the case that 7:00 p.m. exercise is the best time for a workout, but it seems that people often skip this “appointment” or suddenly find themselves engaged in different plans after work, i.e. if the exercise is not done in the morning, data shows that people tend to skip the afternoon or evening exercise often. Therefore, the recommendation made by this group is better to exercise with slightly less efficiency in the morning then not at all. Additionally, morning exercise gives a quick wake up call to the metabolism and therefore the body works at full speed from the get go rather then slowly recovering from slow metabolism until noon.
Expert group #3 says something very simple – if you are already following a consistent schedule, if you have already found your best time to exercise – do not change it! As already mentioned, exercise at any time is better than no exercise at all. Here, the most important message is that we must exercise as often as possible for a healthier and better life and therefore if someone already does this at a “very strange time” then the small inefficiencies from the wrong timing can be ignored.
To conclude:
We learned that the body must be at its warmest and that we must exercise regularly (create a habit), therefore, we can put this information together and understand that the best time to exercise, for people who do not yet have a regular plan, is the morning exercise, immediately after waking up, with a slight adjustment, i.e. we must increase our body temperature with a 5 minute stretching / cardio / jump rope / bicycle before we give it our best effort. With this method we will have the habit, the high body temperature and the higher metabolism for the rest of the day.
And for the ones who have already found their best time to exercise – keep it!
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