What is the best time for gym fitness

There is no universal "optimal fitness time". The time that really suits you is the time that you can persist for a long time, your physical condition is adapted, and it does not affect your daily routine. If you insist on giving a reference benchmark for ordinary fitness people, it is currently recognized by the exercise physiology community that the peak body function of the public is concentrated in the 16:00-19:00 range.

Don’t believe it, this conclusion is supported by real data. In the afternoon, a person's core body temperature will be 1-2°C higher than in the morning. Muscle viscosity is low, synovial fluid secretion is sufficient, and muscle strength, reaction speed, and cardiopulmonary function are at the highest point throughout the day. Relevant statistics show that the risk of injury during fitness during this period is about 20% lower than that of morning training. I used to know a sprint coach of a provincial team. Every time their team tested the 1RM limit weight, the results in the afternoon were generally 10%-15% higher than in the morning training. Professional teams all acquiesced to this rule, not to mention ordinary enthusiasts. If you practice in the afternoon, you can carry 5-10 pounds more weight in the squat press than in the morning, and the feel is completely different.

But for us ordinary workers, during this golden period, we are basically holding weekly meetings and changing plans. Those who can fish and work out are treated by the fairy company, and it is really not a crime to skip work just to make up for it. Therefore, there is no need to worry about whether practicing at the "best time" is in vain. There is now a consensus in the academic circles: as long as the total training volume and caloric intake are well controlled, the difference in the muscle-building and fat-reducing effects of fitness in different time periods is less than 5%. There is no statistical difference at all. Those who say "I missed the prime time and practiced in vain" are either selling time cards, or they are just trying to find excuses for three days of fishing and two days of surfing the Internet.

There are many morning exercise groups around me. They go to the gym from 7 to 8 in the morning every day. The benefits of morning exercise are real: the energy supply ratio of fat is higher in the fasting state, and the efficiency of fat removal is higher than that of exercise after a full meal. After the exercise, a person will feel refreshed throughout the day, and the metabolic level will also be slightly improved, making him more awake than when squatting downstairs in the company to buy soy milk. But there are pitfalls to be aware of when exercising in the morning. When you first wake up in the morning, your cortisol level is high and your joints haven’t moved yet. Don’t hit heavy weights right away. I once had a colleague who squatted 120kg without warming up in the morning. His waist hurt and he lay down at home for half a month. The gain outweighed the loss. It is generally recommended to do a 10-minute dynamic warm-up first in the morning exercise, giving priority to aerobic or light-weight strength training, and do not push yourself to the limit.

More people are probably like me, having time to go to the gym at 7 or 8 after get off work. People always say that working out at night will affect your sleep. I have personally tested it for three years. As long as I don’t rush into HIIT an hour before going to bed and raise my heart rate to over 180, it won’t have any impact at all. Instead, I take a hot bath after training, lie down on the bed and dip my pillow into my pillow to sleep. It is much better than working overtime until one or two o’clock late at night and scrolling through my mobile phone. I also have friends who are more sensitive to sleep. They usually advance their fitness time to before 7 pm. After training, they can also stop by the supermarket to buy groceries, so there is no delay at all.

There are also those ruthless people who make full use of their lunch breaks. When I was working at an Internet company, there was a girl sitting next to me who would spend 40 minutes every day at noon to go to the gym downstairs to do some shoulder and shoulder exercises. Then she would have a light meal when she came back, and the remaining 20 minutes would lie on the table and squint for a while. She didn’t feel sleepy at all at work in the afternoon. It was much better than those of us lying on the table drooling for 40 minutes and still feeling groggy after 40 minutes of sleep. As long as you can adapt to this, it's totally fine.

In fact, there are two core criteria for choosing a fitness time. One is whether you can fix it for a long time. For example, if you have always practiced at 8 o'clock in the evening, don't suddenly get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to weight.

Really, don't worry about the best time to go to the gym every day. If you can go three times this week and practice seriously for an hour each time, it will be much more effective than reading ten "Best Fitness Time" posts. When it comes to fitness, persistence is always more important than stuck time.