Woooo Hoooooo!!!! I ❤️ answering a question I’ve had on the blog!! If there’s anything you would like me to cover or a question you’d like me to address then nip into the comments at the bottom of this post or pop me a DM over on Social Media and I’ll make sure it’s included.
So the question was;
When’s the right time to train?
AND the answer is actually the most infuriating of them all. “It depends.” BUT I won’t just leave you with that as that totally annoys me as a blanket response!
There’s all sorts of research on this particular topic that brings us all sorts of different answers from it’s better to train on a morning for weight loss and on an evening for muscle growth to you’ll get better performance benefits training on an afternoon to late afternoon/early evening being better for most people. The only answer that doesn’t seem to be backed by some sort of research is “in the middle of the night.” So, if you have any preference then you will no doubt find a plethora of evidence to support that (which is in fact true for an awful lot of topics!)
Instead here’s the things to consider;
1️⃣ When works best for you?! A schedule that you can keep is much better than a schedule you can’t! If you’re looking at your commitments and time for the week then look at when works for you. It doesn’t have to be static and solid either. There are some days I will train early doors and other days where I’ll train after lunch and other times where it’s in the evening. Make your schedule work for you.
2️⃣ Consider when your best time of day is. If you have more flexibility through the day or week then think about when you prefer to train. Given free rein I’d always train on a morning.
3️⃣ Train when you can be fuelled. Particularly if your going to be training for a longer period of time or at a higher intensity. In particular, women’s hormones don’t like a fasted state of training. It’s not optimal for us. It’s much better if you can pre-fuel and not pop your body into a state of stress from being fasted. It doesn’t have to be a stack of food before you train but anything of duration or intensity it’s better to be fuelled. Yeah, you could do it without but I personally am not prepared to compromise myself by doing it. As long as you’ve eaten a couple hours before training you’re good to go (if you’re later in the day). You will be able to play around with your fuelling and workout how long you need after fuelling before you can train. If we’re talking breakfast then my body only needs 15 minutes before we are good to go but if it’s a meal later in the day it can depend.
4️⃣ It might be that you have different considerations at different times of year. For example you might be happy to jump out of bed of a summers morning, pop a banana in for fuel and get out of the door whereas in winter that may be ridiculously less appealing. Weather may also play a part in your decisions of the time of day to train.
BUT ~ the best time to train is the time that works for you!
I hope that’s helpful (or at least more helpful than “it depends”). Do shout up if there’s anything you’d like me to cover
