Is there actually a best time of day to exercise?
I contributed to GQ for a feature looking at the long-running morning versus evening training debate and whether the time you work out meaningfully affects strength, performance, fat loss and the results you achieve.
There are some genuine physiological differences across the day. But for most people, I think the practical answer is less complicated than trying to identify the scientifically perfect hour to train.
Your chronotype can matter
One of the areas I discussed with GQ was chronotype.
This is essentially your natural tendency to feel more alert and energetic at certain times of day. Some people naturally function well early in the morning, while others feel much sharper later in the day.
As I explained:
“Identifying your chronotype can help you schedule workouts when your body is naturally most capable, which can make sessions more enjoyable and easier to stick to.”
For someone genuinely interested in understanding this, the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire can provide a useful indication of whether they naturally lean towards being a morning or evening person.
But I wouldn’t build an entire training programme around chronotype alone.
The fundamentals matter much more
This is the bigger point for me.
You could spend a lot of time worrying about whether 7am or 6pm is theoretically better while ignoring the things that have a much larger influence on your results.
Are you sleeping properly?
Are you eating enough to support your training?
Are you hydrated?
Is the programme appropriate?
Are you gradually progressing what you’re capable of doing?
And, most importantly, are you actually training consistently?
Those factors are going to matter considerably more over months and years than finding the supposedly perfect hour of the day.
If someone consistently trains well at 7am because that’s the only reliable time they have available, I wouldn’t encourage them to move their training to the evening simply because some measures of physical performance can be slightly higher later in the day.
Consistency can change how you perform
There’s another interesting part to this.
Research suggests that our bodies can become accustomed to performing at the time of day we regularly train.
So if you repeatedly train in the morning, your ability to perform in the morning can improve.
The same principle applies to evening training.
That’s another reason I don’t think people need to become overly concerned about choosing the ‘perfect’ training window.
Your body is remarkably adaptable.
What about building muscle and strength?
There is evidence that certain measures of strength and performance can be higher later in the day.
That doesn’t automatically mean evening training will produce substantially more muscle over the long term.
When training volume and intensity are appropriately matched, research suggests hypertrophy outcomes can be similar regardless of whether someone regularly trains in the morning or evening.
So if your goal is building muscle, I would pay far more attention to the quality of your programme, progressive overload, recovery and consistency than whether your workout starts before or after work.
Real life usually makes the decision
This is where the conversation becomes much more practical.
Someone might theoretically perform very well at 6pm, but if their evening workouts are regularly cancelled because meetings run late, the commute takes longer than expected or family commitments appear, that isn’t a particularly useful training time for them.
For somebody else, a 6am session might mean consistently sacrificing sleep.
That’s not a great solution either.
The best training time therefore needs to work with the rest of your life rather than against it.
You want a window you can protect and repeat.
A workout you can do at any time
GQ also asked me for a simple workout that could be performed regardless of the time of day.
I suggested alternating basic strength exercises with short bouts of cardio:
- Push-ups
- Star jumps
- Prisoner squats
- High knees
- Straight-arm plank
- Burpees
- Glute bridge hold
- Mountain climbers
Two rounds provides a short full-body session, with a third round available for someone looking for a greater challenge.
If equipment is available, pull-ups or bent-over rows can also be added.
The important point isn’t that this is a magical workout.
It’s that an effective session doesn’t always need to be complicated or take an hour.
If you’re short on time, a simple circuit that trains the major muscle groups and gets your heart rate up can still be worthwhile.
So, morning or evening?
If you genuinely have complete freedom over when you train, experimenting with different times and paying attention to when you feel strongest and most energised makes sense.
Understanding your chronotype can help too.
But I wouldn’t allow the search for an optimal training time to become another reason not to train.
Good sleep, appropriate nutrition, sensible programming, progressive overload and repeatedly turning up will have a far greater influence on your results.
Morning, lunchtime or evening, find the time that works well enough for you to keep doing it.
You can read my full contribution in GQ HERE.
Joseph Webb.
