Morning Workouts: Helpful or Detrimental?

Sometimes people prefer to exercise in the morning whilst some are not, and never will be, ‘morning people' and will find morning workouts a real chore. Well there are good points in working out as soon as you get up, or by setting the alarm clock an hour earlier to schedule a work out, such as:

• Exercise in the morning will help you to wake up and be ready for the day!
• Distractions are minimal as everyone else is likely to be still in bed, getting ready for the day or having breakfast.
• Morning exercise kick-starts the metabolism and helps to burn even more calories during the day.
• Morning workouts help to keep our brains focused and our ability to concentrate improves and lasts for hours after.
• Because glycogen reserves are depleted in the morning, your body will turn to fat to burn for energy.
• When exercising in a gym, facilities are less likely to be crowded, enabling a greater choice in exercise machines, with minimal waiting time.
• Eliminates the problem of exercising in mid-day heat.

This all sounds great, but there are also bad points to consider in choosing morning workouts. If you are exercising before eating breakfast, your body may burn muscle as well as fat for energy as energy levels are likely to be low at this time of day.
Risk of injury may be increased, as your muscles are likely to be cold and stiff after a night’s sleep.

Perhaps most importantly, if you are the type of person that has to drag themselves out of bed in the morning, a morning exercise regime is unlikely to help and will probably result in irritability, annoyance and a negative association with exercise, all of which are less than positive and do not promote healthy weight loss. This may lead to less effort given in work outs or abandoning workouts altogether.

Conclusion

Well, the most sensible approach to take would be that, if you are one of the lucky few who are able to get out of bed with no problem and revels in the thought of morning activity, then setting the alarm clock an hour earlier is a great idea to schedule in some uninterrupted work out time. This will set you up for the day and kick start that metabolism.

If you hate getting up in the morning, don’t worry too much. Afternoon and evening workouts are still preferable to no exercise at all. The key is to find a time of day that you can enjoy and benefit from exercise and stick to it. By keeping to the same time of day, your body will become accustomed to the work outs and it will become a regular routine. Consistency is above all, the most important aspect of exercise.