Going to the gym around the same time every day is a great way to establish and maintain a training regimen. That being said, whether you choose to exercise in the morning or evening can make a huge difference.
The truth is, working out in the morning or evening can be equally sustainable and effective, but it just depends on who you are and what your lifestyle is. In this post, I’ll break down a few major areas of consideration when deciding between morning and evening workouts. I believe these factors strongly determine the desirability and efficacy of each, and will hopefully give you some insight as to which may be a better option for you.
Energy
Many proponents of early-morning gym sessions claim that working out first thing in the morning gives them the energy they need to go about the rest of their day. Getting their bodies moving and blood flowing powers them up so they’re not groggy when they show up to work or class.
This certainly has merit, but from my own experience, a caveat to this claim is that if you do intense training, exercising in the morning may have the opposite effect: you might end up feeling tired pretty early on in the day. This is because your body will have already used up a large amount of its energy during your workout.
When I exercise in the morning and perform resistance-heavy movements like bench pressing, I frequently find myself getting tired during the day, sometimes as early as around lunchtime.
If your workouts primarily revolve around moderate cardio and weightlifting that isn’t too strenuous, exercising in the morning might very literally be your cup of tea. On the other hand, if you’re someone who trains very vigorously and does a lot of benching, squatting, and deadlifting, you might want to be a bit more cautious of starting your day at the gym.
Training Effectiveness
Whether a workout leaves you energized or exhausted is one thing; another is whether you actually have enough energy to train effectively.
In my post explaining how hard you need to train in order to build muscle, I stress that one of the primary factors muscle growth depends on is the ability to fully exert your muscles during your workout. However, you won’t be able to reach that point if you’re sleepy and sluggish when you walk into the gym.
Ensuring you have optimal levels of energy to exercise can be a bit complicated. One could argue that you have the most energy when you just wake up in the morning, so you should work out then. However, it’s also worth noting that you might not be able to train to your full potential if you haven’t eaten anything or had a chance to digest your breakfast.
The same can be said for evening workouts. If you’re not a morning person, then you might have more energy to go to the gym at a later time. Unfortunately, if you wait until the evening, you’re also at risk of getting tired after a busy day, which would decrease the intensity of your session.
Consistency
Like I stated at the beginning of this article, going to the gym at the same time every day can help you more quickly develop a habit and routine, no matter what the time of day is. However, some people will find it easier to stick to a morning routine in the long-run, and others will find it easier with an evening routine.
If you’re someone who often comes home in the evening tired or hungry from a long day, it can definitely be a lot harder to then force yourself to exercise, instead of relaxing and watching TV, on a daily basis. In these cases, it can be hard to sustain an evening workout routine. You might want to consider exercising first thing in the morning, so nothing that comes up later in the day will interfere with the habit you’re trying to implement.
The same logic can be applied on the flip side. If you’re someone who struggles to get out of bed in the morning, there will likely be plenty of days when you wake up intending to go to the gym, only to then go back to sleep. This stop-and-start approach will make it incredibly hard to commit to a routine. If this sounds like you, then you’ll likely achieve more consistency if you go to the gym in the evening.
Focus
Like yoga and meditation, exercise can help people clear their heads. A benefit of working out in the morning is that if you start your day with a clear mind, you’ll be able to better focus on the tasks ahead of you, more effectively prioritize your duties, and just be more productive during the day.
That being said, if you’re frequently preoccupied in the morning by major responsibilities, such as important presentations or meetings later in the day, you won’t be able to fully immerse yourself in a workout. It’ll be hard to focus on what you’re doing at the gym, which will lead to a lot of ineffective training and wasted time.
If you’re a busy person and think it would be more beneficial to work out once the day is over and you can fully put your mind to it, then having an evening gym routine might be more appealing.
Practicality
Despite all the pros and cons I’ve just laid out about exercising in the morning and evening, the predominant influence should be how reasonable, sustainable, and healthy a morning or evening routine is for your lifestyle. Even if you really enjoy working out in the morning, if you have to constantly sacrifice sleep in order to do so, then this probably won’t be sustainable for long, since getting enough sleep is critical for muscle growth, fat loss, and overall health.
Likewise, if you prefer evening workouts, but your late work schedule means you’re only able to go to the gym sporadically, then chances are you’ll have a hard time seeing much progress. In this case, if you’re serious about meeting your fitness aspirations, you might just have to find the energy and willpower to get your gym session in at the start of your day.
The Best Routine is Your Routine
All of this may be a bit overwhelming. There are many factors to consider, but although these are helpful points to keep in mind, there’s no need to overthink it. Personally, I use a combination of morning and evening workouts. During the week, I like going to the gym in the evening once I am done with work and can concentrate on my training. However, on the weekends, I prefer to train first thing in the morning because it makes me feel refreshed and frees me up for the rest of the day.
As you can see, there’s not just one correct approach to integrating exercise into your schedule. Though people will give you different recommendations about whether it’s better to exercise in the morning or evening, in the end, anything can work as long as it maximizes the value of your workouts and remains sustainable for your lifestyle.
If you’re facing another problem, which is that you simply don’t have time to consistently exercise in the morning or evening, I’ve written a different post that addresses ways you can reach your fitness goals despite having a busy schedule.
