When Is the Best Time of the Day to Exercise? Experts Weigh In
So you’ve started regularly working out. Now it’s time to get strategic about exactly what time of day you’re exercising.
From meditation to intermittent fasting, yoga to high-intensity interval training (HIIT), you’re already integrating loads of healthy living practices into your life. But did you know that when you do something is almost as important as the practice itself?
“Timing your wellness practices isn’t just a scheduling preference,” explains Valentina Lipskaia, Founder & Clinical Psychologist at Dzeny. “It has real neurological and psychological grounding, and getting it right can meaningfully amplify results.”
In this new series, we’re exploring the best time to take part in different wellness practices. We started things off with what many experts claim is the best way to start the day: meditation. For our second installment, we’re focusing on the best time to exercise and participate in different physical activities, whose benefits can change slightly depending on when you take part. And while, according to Lipskaia, “research consistently shows that late afternoon exercise — roughly 3 to 6 PM — aligns with peak muscle strength and cardiovascular efficiency,” she also notes that “exercise timing is where individual variation matters most.”
Dr. Chad Larson, a Naturopathic and Chiropractic Doctor and the founder and CEO of The Adapt Lab, agrees.
“Biological sex, menstrual cycle status, pregnancy, post-menopausal status and caloric availability impact your ability to fast, recover and engage in exercise,” explains Larson. That said, he continues, “these factors tend to vary from person-to-person much more so than they vary between genders.”
With these caveats in mind, when is the best time to workout? Here are some tips from our experts for optimizing your exercise regimen.
When to Practice Yoga
Yoga has been linked to a number of health benefits, including better balance1, reduced arthritis symptoms2, reduced stress levels3, and improved cardiovascular health4. And while a poll from the CDC reveals that more than 23% of U.S. women have already integrated a yoga practice into their daily routine, this is more than twice as likely as men (10.3%). Jenna Armitage, owner of GoodGood Studio in London, explains that for men, mobility, stretching, and yoga tend to be “the thing they avoid most — and it quietly causes problems down the line.”
She explains that research has connected lower testosterone in older men with poorer mobility, likely tied to weakened muscle and connective tissue. “Doesn’t mean stretching is some magic injury shield,” she cautions. “The research on that specifically is mixed. But the range-of-motion and quality-of-movement benefits are real, and men tend to neglect them completely.”
No matter your gender, according to Mark Gillilan, a former biologist with a B.S. in Biology and the founder of Kyoto Botanicals, yoga is something best practiced either in the morning or after work.
“From a biological perspective, the most impactful window for both meditation and yoga is during daytime transitions, specifically the transition zones between work and home,” he explains. He adds that this can help create a “buffer” and prevent work-induced stress from coming home with you.
Of course, this advice may vary depending on the kind of yoga you’re practicing. “Morning yoga can work beautifully if it’s gentler and movement-focused,” explains Lipskaia. But if you’re doing a more intense practice relying on a good deal of flexibility, “late morning or early afternoon tends to work well physiologically,” she explains. “Body temperature is rising, muscles are more pliable, and injury risk decreases.”
Larson agrees, noting that “more active forms of yoga such as vinyasa flow or ashtanga are better suited for earlier times of the day (prior to engaging in other activities),” while gentle or restorative yoga “is typically performed at night (as it helps release tension from the muscles prior to sleeping).”
“Morning practice tends to lean strength and activation,” echoes Armitage. “Evening practice tends to lean restorative and slow.”
When to Do Strength Training or HIIT
Much like yoga, strength training and HIIT workouts have been linked to a great number of health benefits, including improved brain health5, musculoskeletal health6, and metabolic health7. And in contrast to yoga, according to Armitage, it’s typically women who need to be most mindful of bringing these practices into their daily routines.
“For women, lifting heavy is something I bang on about constantly, because osteoporosis risk climbs so much as we age,” she says. “Research shows very low-intensity activity like walking alone doesn’t move the needle on bone density the way loaded resistance training does.”
“If you’re a woman and you’re only doing cardio,” she continues, “you’re leaving a huge protective tool on the table.” But when it comes to these more intense forms of exercise, there are more factors at play than timing alone.
It Depends on When You Eat
HIIT and strength training both require a decent amount of energy. When we’re talking about the human body, this means one thing: calories. So should you eat before or after a workout?
Ben Walker, Founder & Personal Trainer, Anywhere Fitness, recommends eating a decent amount of natural carbohydrates, like a banana or some oatmeal, about one to two hours before working out. “Before performing high intensity intervals, it’s important to provide the body with the fuel it is going to use,” he says. “When the hard work is done, the body will completely perform within the anaerobic zone, where no oxygen is used, and all the energy must come from glucose.”
But Ben Greenfield, Longevity, Biohacking and Human Performance Expert and producer of the new documentary, Boundless, which is centered on the emotional toll of seeking physical perfection, offers a different perspective.
“In terms of eating before or after, there are two camps on this,” he explains. “One is that those are very glycolytic activities that burn a lot of sugar, so a carbohydrate-rich meal one to two hours prior, allowing for gut emptying, would be ideal.”
This, he says, is particularly true for people who are exercising twice daily. “That intense exercise is going to drain carbohydrates,” he says. But if you’re exercising just once a day, he says it’s not quite as important to be on the ball regarding a pre-workout meal.
“Research has shown that unless you’re a two-a-day exerciser, you’ll naturally have carbohydrates in the muscles and liver restored after 24 hours of eating normally anyway,” he explains.
RDN Kezia Joy recommends fueling up after exercise on easily digestible carbohydrates with a small amount of protein, like yogurt paired with fruit. “Following the completion of physical activity, consume a combination of high-quality protein and carbohydrate in order to assist in repairing muscles and replenish the energy that your body expended,” she adds.
Ultimately, Greenfield urges everyone to listen to their own body when it comes to the question of to eat or not to eat. For example, those with sensitive digestion may find that they work out better on an empty stomach and can rely on post-workout meals to fuel up after exercise. For a deeper dive into how to time protein, carbs, and fats across your whole day, not just around workouts, it’s worth reading up on the best approach to meal timing.
Sleep Patterns Matter Too
If so many of our experts recommend that people take part in these more intense workouts in late morning or early afternoon, it’s not just a question of fuel. When you’ve just woken up, your muscles are less supple and flexible. Waiting a few hours before taking part in intense exercise can help reduce the risk of injury and even improve your performance.
“Typically, your body’s internal temperature increases throughout the course of the day, which provides additional support to your strength and endurance,” Larson explains.
And that’s not the only way in which your sleep patterns need to work in tandem with your exercise regimen. Intense exercise like HIIT may impact your ability to wind down at the end of the day, according to Greenfield, who notes that any form of exercise that pushes the heart rate to or near the lactic acid threshold “raises body temperature and also raises post-exercise metabolic rate.”
“Both of those can disrupt sleep architecture,” he explains. “You’d technically want to finish them up about three hours prior to bedtime.”
When it comes to exercise before bed, Armitage agrees. “My general rule is to get any heavy training or HIIT done before dinner, not right before bed,” she explains, citing research that shows that intense workouts raise heart rate and cortisol. “Finishing at least 2 to 3 hours before bed gives your body time to actually cool down and switch off.”
“One study found that when high intensity exercise ended just an hour before bedtime, heart rate stayed elevated and sleep onset was delayed by around 14 minutes8,” she explains. “So it’s not just a ‘vibe.’ Your body is genuinely still in fight-or-flight mode if you train too close to lights out.”
So is it bad to workout before bed? Well, all that said, it’s still fairly unique to the individual. “You have to listen to your own body,” Armitage continues. “After a hard session, does it wind you up or can you switch off and sleep? That tells you everything.” In other words, if working out before bed works for your routine and has never given you problems falling asleep, carry on.
Consider Synchronicity
If you’re incorporating both types of movement into your daily regimen, consider how your strength training and flexibility practices work in tandem.
“If you are participating in a strength training or HIIT program, I would recommend doing these workouts earlier in the day, and performing yoga in the evening or shortly after work,” says Walker. This pattern, he explains, “aims to balance your strength training with recovery.”
“The resistance training programs break down the muscle fibres so that they can repair and become stronger,” he continues. “Yoga in the evening helps to increase circulation and sends more blood to these muscles and connective tissues. It also helps to increase range of motion and flexibility in the joints, which is extremely important when breaking down the muscle tissues on a consistent basis.”
Be Wary of Procrastination
Above all, whenever you’re considering when and how to integrate exercise into your daily routine, consider when you’re most likely to honor that commitment to yourself. And bear in mind that for many people, the later you push your practice in the day, the less likely you are going to actually make good on the promise. The best time to workout from a physical standpoint may not be the best time to workout from a practical or mental standpoint, which is just as important when it comes to actually committing to daily exercise.
“From a psychological standpoint, when we’re talking about high-intensity exercise, there’s a certain amount of decision-making fatigue and willpower that wanes towards the end of the day,” explains Greenfield. “And it’s easiest for most people to eat the frog, so to speak, and get the intense activity done earlier in the day.”
Lipskaia agrees. “Sustainable wellness routines work because they reduce decision fatigue and create predictable anchors in the day — not because they’re perfectly timed,” she says.
Sources:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24517304/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30075589/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35689170/
- https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-yoga-heart-connection
- https://www.health.harvard.edu/exercise-and-fitness/cognitive-benefits-from-high-intensity-interval-training-may-last-for-years
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1995688/
- https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/22/15009
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1087079221001209
