I’ve heard its good to train in the morning because it boosts your metabloism for the remainder of the day, which seems like a good thing.
Anyone know if there are any pros and cons to training an hour or two before bed?
My schedule only allows evening sessions right now, and I’m wondering what effect it may/may not have on my training.
Specifically, if you train and then go to bed an hour later, could this somehow train your body to get used to sleeping after a hard session, and at a race a few months down the road you’ll totally bonk an hour into the race because you’re used to going to sleep an hour after training?
I prefer to train in the evening/late afternoon. I find that workouts in the morning take away from my productivity at work. I have had no problems with this affecting sleep. I’m out as soon as I hit the pillow and don’t wake up for at least 9 hours.
You will only feel wasted on next morning. If you had your workout in the morning, the body would have much more time to recover and you would feel fresh as a peach when you woke up. If you workout on the evening… you will have a tough morning, a busy work day and then a crappy workout in the evening. Well… this’ considering that the workout will take more out of you than your work.
That theory of yours about the body bonking an hour into the race just sounds…
If/when I train in the evening, I usually have a harder time falling asleep.
But maybe you adapt to that - I don’t train in the evenings much. I like morning and early afternoon.
I have heard two things that have held true for me:
morning exercisers tend to stick to their routine better. I think this research is more focused on people who struggle to stay with a program (you’re probably already pretty focused & determined). I think it applies to me because work may be get busy and I work late and miss a workout, while in the morning there’s no excuses.
hard exercising close to bedtime can make you sleep poorly. This seems very personal, but for me, very true. When I exercise in the evening I’m too wired to go to bed and then tend to sleep fitfully.
I doubt you’ll bonk during a race during this routine. But you may train yourself to relax and more quickly downshift after??
worlout schedules are based on convenience. Early afternoon or late evening workouts are convenient for most people, but niether are optimal. If you had all day to workout, it would probably be beat in the late morning or early akternoon. See the following article? http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/27/exercise.time/index.html
i have been working nights for almost 3 years now, so my evenings are your mornings and vice versa. swims and runs suite me well and sleep is not a problem. but lets say i run an hr or two before bed..it makes me sleep a little later than normal almost 10 am which is 10pm my time. i normally wake up at then run at 5. but i think even before i started to work nights, my rule was no runs after 7pm or i should be done running by 7:30 just as so i wont have a hard time sleeping.
I think this is 100% individual. I train after work so my sessions start around 5-5:30. I can do long workouts (IMAZ) and go to sleep just fine. I also think that I would struggle through the day if I did my workouts in the morning.
I think doing your workout on a consistent basis is the key and any benefit of am vs. pm is so small it doesn’t matter. On weekends I train in the morning to get it done and out of the way, but I have no time restrictions and don’t have to function at 100% if I don’t want to for the rest of the day. My schedule is pretty predictable so evening consistency is not an issue for me but I can see how some jobs would make getting anything done at night impossible. I think you just have to find what fits your schedule and hopefully that fits your body
I’ve typically found it easier to do hard intervals in the evening, which IIRC is consistent with a study on swimmers that found they could train faster in the evening than in the morning.
I’m more of a cyclist, but for me, when it comes to hard and fast training, nothing beats evenings. However, if there’s a long ride to do, I’ll always go for the morning. (Partly this is a routine/scheduling/pyschology thing.) Previously I’ve also used a morning one day, evening the next day protocol to attempt to get a bit more recovery in.
I’ve been racing for the last ten years and have only started training in the morning for the last two. I feel so much better during the day than when I used to train at night. The only thing I can’t do is swim early. I can throw myself into 50 degree water to surf at the crack of dawn, but I can’t get in the 72 degree pool before 4 o’clock.
I think it depends on how hard you go at night. I have a workout tonight that will be in Z4/Z5 and I won’t get to it until around 9:00. It is going to be a restless night’s sleep. On the other hand, late swims always make me sleep well.
I can ride and swim any time of day and feel good, however I run primarily in the a.m. I’ve tried running later in the day, like after work, but I really feel crappy and usually have a bad run overall.
As a swimmer I could swim 2 or so seconds faster over 200m if the race was at night…Well that’s what seemed to happen anyway assuming the same effort.
Always missed out on finals, eh?
If you are doing doubles, you have to work out in the morning!
I agree that quality is always better when done in the afternoon/evening, and aerobic stuff can easily be accomplished in the morning, plus it gets it out of the way and incase conflicts arise (family/work) you haven’t missed your workout?!