The best time to work out is what works best for you
Q
Is it more effective to train in the morning or the evenings, and would I get better results if I paid attention to nutrient timing?
A
Tyson, the neighbourhood boxer, is a lovely chap. Nightly, usually between 2am and 4am, he serenades us with his melancholic lament, his jowls telling a story of a bygone age of daily walks and encounters with other neighbourhood dogs.
You see, during the hard lockdown, Tyson’s parents became vociferous activists for our inalienable right to walk dogs. They resisted the brutal regime’s stage 4 and 5 lockdown madness with zest.
Tyson walked daily, sometimes twice daily, living every moment of his canine life to the full. And then it all ended. Alcohol was available once more and suburban freedom was no longer expressed by walking the dog.
Except that poor old Tyson must tolerate dozens of other dogs being taken on lovely morning and evening walks while he catches a glimpse and whiff from the side gate. It’s only Tyson who suffers — and those of us with ears — because I’ve seen his folks pull out of the local Virgin Active parking lot so at least they still get their daily stroll.
What does Tyson’s lament have to do with timing your workouts and nutrients? Either you will lament gains (or fat loss) left on the table or you will keep doing the best you can. Moving is more important than paralysis by analysis or stopping a routine altogether because you have read that there is a better way.
Nutritionists, dietitians and sports scientists may well protest, and they should, because when you train and when you eat or supplement does have an important effect on how successful you may or may not be with your fitness regimen. That is true.
Nutrient timing has been shown to give a competitive advantage to athletes, though the benefits for the average Joe are less convincing, where a good diet with the right macronutrients taken in during the course of a day is likely to yield similar results (and certainly make you easier to live with).
Feeding muscles in the anabolic window post-workout, training on an empty stomach to promote fat loss or eating 90 minutes before a workout to support performance or muscle gain, not eating late at night — these all matter. But are they right for you?
What if you work night shifts? What if, like me, you have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but you prefer to breakfast at 11am because it makes you feel better and less bloated?
The Guardian recently ran a fascinating article that cites various studies on the best time to train in support of our circadian rhythms. Those wishing to fend off heart disease and stroke should aim to train between 8am and 11am, but preferably as close to 11am as possible. Tell that to your management team.
Another study found that women who trained in the morning shed more abdominal fat and lowered their blood pressure more than those who trained later in the day.
However, it was found in the same study that men who trained later in the day lowered cholesterol levels, body fat and blood pressure more effectively.
To complicate matters, it also found that everyone fought off muscle waste and built muscle better if they trained later in the day — women included. It also found that people are stronger in the evenings and their tendons are less rigid, and so besides being able to train harder, stretching was more effective later in the day.
Perhaps the most important insight was that shorter sessions are generally as good as longer sessions, but unlike Tyson’s parents, perhaps we should ask ourselves, what do our lives look like? What are our routines? How do we fit in children, extramurals, work, a social life and charging lithium batteries between bouts of load-shedding?
By all means, research pre-, intra-, post- and night-time nutrition. Try to train in sync with your circadian rhythm. But if you can’t, then do your best and find a routine and diet plan that works for you. The alternative is catching glimpses and whiffs of other people’s fitness success, obscured by a self-imposed side gate.