What Is The Best Time Of Day To Workout?

I remember a time when I was training with this very odd body builder who would only train at 5:00 A.M. in the morning. I would get up around 4:00, have a quick breakfast and head out to the gym for 4:45 A.M. For some reason, I simply could not get into the training, no matter how hard I tried. I was flat, weak, and unmotivated.

Afterwards, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. However, I had no choice but to get myself together and head off to work. Those were a couple of hard months. I’d show up to work like a complete zombie. After about my second month of this, I couldn’t do it anymore. I was getting weaker. I had to tell my buddy that I couldn’t do it.

I soon started training at my regular time of 6:00 P.M. It was a little weird at first but after a week I felt fuller, more pumped, and a lot stronger. What was going on here? After thinking about it for a while, I came to the conclusion that when I was training early in the morning, I had no fuel in my body at all. I was very low on protein and fat and couldn’t get anything going at all. I was basically running on a very low supply of nutrients. Also, my body was still in a weakened state from sleeping.

However, when I started training at 6:00 in the evening, I had at least 4 meals in my body with a lot of super nutrients and I was alert and well rested. My body was primed for heavy lifting because I was also thinking about the gym all day long.

Today, I’m very much in tune to what my body prefers in terms of training times. My most productive training time is 3:30 P.M. After 10 years of trial and error I’ve found my optimal workout time. Why 3:30 P.M.? Well, at this time, I’ve had 3 meals already and my body is full with nutrients. Also, my last meal was at about 12:30 which gives me plenty of time to digest the meal.

I’m usually finished my training about 4:30 in which I’ll have my protein drink. Afterwards, I’ll go home and prepare my dinner for 6:00 P.M. This fits my schedule to a tee.

Alright, what about you the reader, who is interested in finding out what the best time to workout is? This is what I’ve found. If you ‘re going to be lifting some really heavy weight, I would suggest you try and workout out in the afternoon. I know some of you can’t due to your daily schedules but if at all possible, aim for the afternoon. Training with heavy weights in the morning is very difficult to do and I find you are more susceptible to injury at this time.

However, if you are using very light weight and are trying to lose weight, this is probably your best time to train. I’ve found that doing aerobics and light weight training at this time is best for losing weight. Studies have also shown it is the optimal time to do your aerobics training to lose fat.

What is the best time to weight train for strength and building muscle? I personally think that the best time to do your heavy lifting is in the mid afternoon. I think at this time, you have about 3 meals in your body, fully digested and you are a little more alert at this time. You will come into the gym a little fuller and tighter. I think if you go in at around 7 or 8 P.M. or any time after that, your going to be a little drained and too tired to do an effective workout.

However, if you have no other choice but to workout after 7 P.M. try and get a 5 minute nap 1 hour before your workout. This will pick you up.

Of course, this is one guy’s opinion but I think all of us have an optimal workout time and you will have to experiment a little to find out what works best for you. Try and rearrange your workout schedules to fit your schedule that will produce the optimal results.

There are some pretty good resources out there that can really help you figure out the best time to workout and to help you with your weight training program. One of my favourites is Vince Delmonte’s guide to gaining weight for skinny trainers. The program includes a 215 page ebook, 29 week system, nutrition guide, 3 months email support and 3 hours of teleseminars. You can check out the program here.

Read my review of Vince's program here.

All the best,

Blake