When should you work out?
Monday, January 22nd, 2007A person on 43things posted the following question -
“What is the best time to work out during the day? When do you work out?”
Here was my repsonse -
“‘Best’ is a subjective judgment, each one of us reacts differently to working out at various times and for various reasons, there is no one answer.
However, you can discover the answer that is true for you. Take ideas other people offer, try them out, then keep a simple journal to track results.
Keep the entries simple-
- Date
- Time
- Parameters of timing (ie, before food or after, morning - noon - or night, with snacks during or not, level of hydration)
- Duration
- Mood
- Effects
Do that for a few weeks then figure out your own answer.
For what it’s worth -
I have tried numerous workout schedules. Currently I alternate days at my dojo between morning and night classes. My meal timing varies - if I am going to a morning class it is about a half hour after a small breakfast, if it’s a night class it is about 5 hours after a meal. The only real difference I have noted is only slight hunger after the morning class and lots after the night class but that is obviously a result of meal timing. The intensity, effectiveness and recovery time of my workouts do not seem to vary.
As an aside, I gave up free weights and the gym a few years back in favor of incorporating more calisthenics into my dojo time (before, during, and after class). My strength, and agility have continued to increase, and my weight has dropped. I just generally get bored in gym settings, and working with weights feels terribly repetitive and brainless whereas high reps of the same intense body movement does not.”
You can see how other people responded here.
, I’ll let you know how it goes.
system. Check it out if you are interested. I have found some of the concepts to be terribly useful. I have not gone the full monty on it yet, but it’s still very nifty.