An evening workout can work against fitness progression.
In life, most people have family and/or work long hours so they put themselves last in priority. This unselfishness leads people to do evening workouts late in the day if “they have time”. The fact is the evening is the worst time to plan on working out.
Here are 3 reasons to ditch that evening workout:
- Lack of energy after a workday – Let’s be real, most people are tired and lack the motivation for an evening workout. Desk job workers especially, sitting creates a lack of blood flow making them feel lethargic. Even if they go it’s most likely going to be a half – assed session. Good energy is needed going into your routine to make the exercises work at max efficiency for you.
- Loss of sleep – Evening workouts can lead to loss of sleep in a couple ways. The first is if caffeine is being used to help boost energy for the workout. Caffeine, depending on the individuals sensitivity, can last hours into the night depriving sleep. The second way is that it workouts can give people a boost of energy themselves so it might tak a while to wind down from the evening activity. Getting plenty of rest is essential to both losing weight, building muscle, and managing stress. By itself lack of sleep can halt the best fitness plan.
- All the cool people workout out earlier in the day anyways! Just kidding. But seriously working out earlier in the day, before work or at lunch time is a better option in my professional opinion. There are many more benefits to it and you don’t have to stress out about getting in that last minute workout. Don’t have to worry about motivating yourself or getting to the gym with no mental or physical energy. Lack of sleep won’t be an issue because you will have the evening to relax and get to bed earlier. More on this for another post.
Finally I would like to say do what works best for you and your lifestyle, if you’re getting good results with evening workouts then continue with that plan. This is just an idea to help people achieve their fitness goals without sacrificing other life priorities. Feel free to ask any questions you may have!
Shawn A.