Tuesday 26 November 2013

Best Time of Day to Exercise for Better Performance

Having spare time is the constraint that plays a vital role for the people to choose when to exercise. Each and every individual have their own idea about the best time to exercise, some prefer it so early in the morning and some others prefer it either in the evening or during afternoon. Despite this, for most it may be a huge challenge to exercise successfully in the morning.  We experience feelings of perceived weakness, low energy and poor motivation in comparison to exercise sessions taken later in the day – but why is this and what could be the root cause? There are various reasons for such a negative early morning exercise experience. Some potential causes are discussed below:
Body Clock, Body Function and Body Routine
Its human kind that if we do something consistently for long period then we feel convenient and get accustomed to perform the task at the same time even it is not the best time of doing. The same thing applies to exercise also and any change in the timings will potentially translate in to a feeling of low energy and decreased performance i.e. weakness, lack of pace, etc. It’s applying something consistently that allows our body to adapt to something and respond accordingly.

Body and Muscle Temperature
Exercise that involves explosive and quick paced movements activate fast twitch muscle fibers to successfully perform the movements. This requires higher body temperatures that are most often experienced late in the afternoon or evening. This makes the performers feel more energetic and with increased performance when such workout is done during late afternoon or evening.

Flexibility and Warm Up
Flexibility is low during morning as the body will be in lower temperature and also it has been in relaxed state all the night making specific movements and stretch limits restricted, directly effecting performance of exercise in terms of speed, strength and power.

Mind and Motivation Status
Being more positively concerned to exercising at the times we are unaccustomed to can make a huge difference to how we approach the exercise and how we feel during it. Believing that we can perform well, will translate into a solid exercise performance – difficult to do, but certainly possible to achieve. Technology blessed fitness and health gadgets supports in motivating by showing the targets to be accomplished.

Hydration Status
Early in the morning when we wake up, we are most dehydrated and this will play havoc on our ability to function and perform specific tasks – including exercise. The best solution to this potential problem is to consume a large glass of water soon after wake up.

Sleep Quality and Quantity
Best Time of Day to Exercise for Better Performance
Our energy levels will naturally be higher in the morning because of good sleep. Oversleep will result in deep feelings of tiredness. The darker the room, the better the sleep one can experience due to release of the hormone Melatonin, which promotes sleep quality.

Wake Up and Rise Time
Aim to get up at least 90 minutes before workout so as to allow the body to wake up and prepare for the stressful events ahead. Once after wake up make sure to expose yourself to bright light in order to activate the body’s natural body clock.

Nutritional Strategy
Relevant snack at least 60 minutes before workout will improve the performance and top up blood sugar and energy levels.

                  The best time of the day to perform exercise is the time of day that best works for you. The highest level of performance can be expected only at the time when we consistently follow, as body gets habituated to that time. Accepting that we cannot always be on top in every single exercise session, will help to remove any negative thoughts about the entire situation, and this can really help to move on and improve greatly in the future.

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