Do You Workout in the Morning or at Night?
As part of the August Healthy Living/Fitness Blogger Challenge hosted by http://fitnesscheerleader.com/, each day a question is posed and answered. Today’s question:
Do You Workout in the Morning or at Night? Why?
Answer: Yes!
The closer the competition the approaches the more often the gym greets me. A typical morning breakdown goes like this:
Wake 4:00 a.m. Eat breakfast (egg whites, oatmeal.) Take pre-workout supplements. Get to gym around 5:00 a.m. Do 45 mins. cardio. Do 20 mins. abs. Stretch for 10 minutes.
Go home, deal with the munchkins. Help my husband find his lost keys. (This is a daily experience.) Do my regular day-to-day stuff. Then after the kids are in bed and (yeah-right! asleep) I will go back to the gym around 9:30 p.m.
This entails 10 minute cardio warm up, 50 mins. weight lifting, 10 minute stretching in sauna.
But right now my trainer, Daniel, only wants me in the gym once a day, just to focus on weights. My second workout will get added back into the mix probably in mid-September.
Given the choice between working out in the morning versus the night, I choose MORNINGS hands-down, every single time. I love the peacefulness of seeing the moon as I drive to the gym. I have a lot more energy first thing in the morning than after a long day of business.
Plus, my morning gym rat peeps are fun to hang out with. We catch up with each other over the treadmill or in the gym locker room or sauna after the workout is complete.
The evening crowd is composed of college kids, and let’s face it, I envy their youth! They are cute to watch as they flirt with each other (with limited success) and it reminds me of my own tumultuous twenties. Glad I’m not there emotionally! But I do miss the tight body. Gravity does some pretty funky things over time. So does childbirth. I see these girls still awkward in their bodies and I want to tell them how truly fabulous they look and reiterate Tina Fey‘s advice to Brittney Spears about her spectacular ass, “Photograph it. Rub it with fine lineaments. You’ll miss it when it’s gone!”
Side note: You know you’re getting older when the college kids’ conversations don’t make any sense. For example, when did “later” become plural? Why do they say “laters” now?
Anyway, I’m a morning person.
How about you? Do you workout in the morning or at night?
Lisa
Sheslosingit.net (c) 2012 Lisa Traugott. All rights reserved. No portion of this blog, including any text, photographs, and artwork, may be reproduced or copied without written permission.
if you are going for specific goals then go for mornings. If it is just maintenance then evenings. No scientific reasoning it’s just the way it is. Mornings you have the ones that want to look good and evenings you get the ones that already look good and scared of losing it. I meanwhile eat fries at night even though I have a photoshoot coming up.
LOL! Sometimes the fries win.
If I don’t work out first thing in the morning, I don’t go. For some reason, I can not seem to get my butt to the gym at night. I would rather just roll out of bed, throw on my gym clothes and go. Then, it is done, I feel awake and great and I don’t have to think about it for the rest of the day. (maybe that has to do with dedication, but it works for me).
It wakes me up too. Sometimes at night the only thing I want to do is watch HBO…or blog…
Morning for sure!!! although working until late at night, a very quick 3 mile cardio in the am is about all I’ve had time for. Really banking on my 90% food to keep my weight down! lol! 🙂
kelly
http://nuttyalternatives.com
I love the morning people at the gym 🙂
The IDEA of working out in the morning is appealing. Get to it, get it done, no excuses. However, I found, after doing several months of early morning workouts, that I just wasn’t AWAKE. I didn’t give it my all. So I switched to nights and that worked fabulous. Now..? I do lunch time hot yoga and love it. To each their own..just so long as THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING right? 🙂 Great story! Congrats, you look great!
Thanks! I never used to be a morning person, but my 3 year old likes to crawl into bed with us around 4 a.m. and tug my ears, which means I can’t really sleep anyway, so why not exercise, right?
I’m a morning person too! I used to work out at night, but then I would be literally up all night after from the energy. You’d think I would want to pass out. Oh no. I would just want to go, go, go!
Yup!
I have a hard time with the mornings but I ssupect that as my kids get a little bit older & a bit more independent getting up will be easier. Thank you for sharing a glimpse into your routine – I totally wondered what kind of dedication it takes to be a mom and a fitness competitior. Oh – I have a question – are you able to easily fall asleep after a nigth weight workout?
Nope! I am up for hours after a night workout, which is another reason why I don’t like them. Of course, the upside is I get to read all 40 posts to your fitness challenge!