Best time for strength training

There is no universal "best time" for strength training - for you, the time when you can persist for a long time and when your body is most relaxed during training is the exclusive optimal solution. If you want to give a general reference to ordinary fitness people, 2 pm to 6 pm is the most physiologically suitable time.。

In the first half year after I joined the gym, I believed in various "time metaphysics". One time, I said I would lose muscle on an empty stomach in the morning, and another time, I said I would lose sleep after practicing at night. I forced myself to get up at 6 o'clock to rush for the first wave when the door opened. When I squatted 80kg, my eyesight went black and I almost hit the bar. Later, I changed to going to the gym first after get off work. After warming up for 10 minutes, I could reach my usual maximum weight. My exertion felt much better than in the morning, and I really felt the influence of circadian rhythm.

There is actually solid research support behind it: from 1 to 6 p.m., the human core body temperature is 1-2°C higher than in the morning, the muscle viscosity is lower, the joint mobility can be increased by about 10%, and the nerve excitability is also at a high level throughout the day. If you practice during this period, your strength performance can be increased by 10%-15% on average, and the risk of injury can be reduced by 20%. The hormone level is also friendly. In the morning, cortisol peaks throughout the day. Catabolism is strong and muscle building efficiency is reduced. In the afternoon, cortisol gradually falls back. The secretion of testosterone and growth hormone is relatively active, and the muscle synthesis efficiency after training is also higher.

But this is not absolute. The "morning and evening training debate" that has been quarreling in the fitness circle for more than ten years has never come to a unified conclusion. The essence is that individual differences are so large that they can erase the weak advantages at the physiological level.

I know an old friend who plays natural sports. He starts training at 5 a.m. every morning, and he never stops preparing for competitions during the season. The total of the three major events is almost 100kg higher than many people who practice in the afternoon. His logic is simple: no one is grabbing equipment at the gym in the morning, and plans will not be disrupted by last-minute work calls or dinner appointments with friends. More than ten years of work and rest have long since allowed the body to adapt to the morning training rhythm, and the impact of cortisol can be ignored at all. Many studies have also supported this point: if you have formed a fixed habit of morning training, your body will automatically adjust the rhythm of hormone secretion, and the muscle-building effect is not significantly different from that of afternoon training. On the contrary, fasting training has a stimulating effect on fat metabolism, which is more suitable for people who need to brush fat.

As for evening training, which is demonized by many people, I think it is the optimal solution for most 996 office workers today.

I used to say, “I’m so excited after practicing at night that I can’t sleep.” In fact, that’s for people who press heavy weights an hour before going to bed and whose nerves are completely in a state of high tension. As long as you arrange your training time 1.5 to 2 hours before going to bed, stretch and relax after training, and take a warm bath, you can actually increase your deep sleep time. Now I often work overtime until after 8 o'clock to catch up on projects. I still go to the gym to do 40 minutes of shoulder or arm training. Then I go home and lie down on the bed with a pillow to sleep. It is much better than scrolling on my phone in the middle of the night and tossing and turning. Several programmer friends around me practice regularly from 9 to 10 pm. After practicing for almost two years, my sleep quality is better than before, and my muscle mass has also increased steadily.

I have seen too many people struggle with the "best training time" until they end up not stepping into the gym for half a month.

There used to be a student who, in order to catch up with the so-called prime time in the afternoon, often skipped work for half an hour and left early to practice. Within two weeks, he was interviewed by the leader, and then he stopped practicing for three months. However, the progress was not as fast as the previous 20 minutes of dumbbell training at home every morning and chest and leg training on weekends. If you are really confused about which time to choose, you might as well spend a week doing a small test: choose three days each, and practice once each half an hour after getting up in the morning, after getting off work in the afternoon, and taking a one-hour break after dinner in the evening. Record the maximum weight you can complete, the feeling of force during training, the degree of fatigue after training, and the recovery state the next day. Choose whichever one is the most comfortable for you and can last for a long time. It is more effective than reading ten popular science articles.

To put it bluntly, when it comes to strength training, “doing it consistently” is always much more important than “doing it at the right time.” You can't just lie down and stop practicing today just because you can't wait for the prime time in the afternoon, right? After all, the weight you lift on your body is really effective, and the "best time" calculated by holding a watch is useless.