Prime time for aerobics, morning or evening?

There is no uniform "golden time" that suits everyone. The time period that you can persist in and feel comfortable is your golden period of aerobic exercise.

Speaking of which, I also had trouble with this issue a few years ago. At that time, I saw fitness bloggers saying that "fasting morning running is the ceiling for fat loss." When my brain got hot, I set an alarm clock for six o'clock, and got up and ran five kilometers around the community every day. I persisted for less than half a month, and I didn't feel much about whether the fat had gone away. But every morning I sat at my workstation and nodded like I was pecking at rice. I couldn't suppress my sleepiness even after drinking three cups of coffee. I couldn't even spot the typos when I changed the plan, and I was approved twice by the leader. Later, I couldn't bear it anymore and switched to running after get off work. Instead, I became more relaxed as I ran. My waist and shoulders, which were stiff after sitting for a day, became much more relaxed. Even falling asleep at night felt better than before.

Don't mention it, the sports medicine community has been arguing about exercise time for many years, and both groups have solid research support.

The one who stood in the morning came up with research data from the "Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition": the fat oxidation rate of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on an empty stomach is 15%-20% higher than that of evening exercise after meals, which is indeed a bonus for people in the fat loss period. Moreover, after morning exercise becomes a habit, the metabolic level will be slightly higher throughout the day, and it will be less likely to be tempted to eat snacks when fishing. But this school of thought has its own prerequisites: you must be a healthy person with no underlying diseases. If you have high blood pressure or coronary heart disease, your body's cortisol level will be at a high level throughout the day when you first wake up in the morning, and the pressure on your blood vessels will be high. If you do strenuous exercise rashly, you may be at risk. In addition, joint flexibility and muscle tone are poor when I first wake up in the morning. If I don’t warm up enough, I am more likely to get injured. I didn’t pay attention to this at the beginning. I sprained my ankle after running for a week and had to wear plaster for ten days. It was not worth the loss.

The argument for standing at night is also very strong. "Cell Metabolism" has previously published relevant research: in the period from evening to night, the human body's muscle activity and oxygen utilization are at their peak throughout the day. At the same running pace, endurance at night can be about 20% higher than in the morning, and the risk of injury is also much lower. Moreover, if I exercise for half an hour after get off work, the endorphins secreted are simply a "cleanser" for the troubles at work. Now I occasionally go to do exercise for half an hour after working overtime. The irritability I had previously held in my heart can be completely dissipated, and I will not take my work mood home with me at all. Of course, this does not mean that exercising at night is all beneficial. People with more sensitive nerves should choose carefully. My former colleague has stepped into this pitfall. After seeing other people saying that night running is good for losing fat, he ran five kilometers at 8pm every night for a week. As a result, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep until after 2pm every day. At the end of the month, three people were late on the attendance sheet, and the perfect attendance award was wasted. He was so angry that he stuffed his sportswear in the closet to gather dust.

In fact, there is really no need to insist on "must choose morning or evening", you can completely adjust according to your own situation.

If you have a regular schedule, don't feel dazed when you wake up in the morning, and want to increase your fat loss efficiency, then morning exercise is absolutely fine. Just remember to take a sip of salt water before running, or eat half a banana as a cushion to avoid running on an empty stomach for too long and causing you to faint. If you are born with difficulty getting up, and if you have to climb out of bed to exercise in the morning and have no energy for the whole day, there is really no need to suffer this problem. After get off work, change clothes and go for a walk in the park near your home, or dance with Pamela for half an hour. Friends with underlying diseases should not join in the fun in the morning and evening. Choose to exercise at three or four in the afternoon when the temperature is suitable and the body is in a stable state. Safety is the most important. If you are a running enthusiast preparing for a race, it is easier. You can train at what time the race starts to help your body adapt to the state in advance, which is much more useful than worrying about the golden time.

I don’t have a fixed exercise time at all now. I get up early on Monday and Wednesday mornings and go downstairs to jump rope for ten minutes to speed up my walking. I go to play badminton with friends for an hour early after get off work on Thursdays and Saturdays. I sleep in on Sundays and go hiking in the afternoon. I have never struggled with the time issue. My weight has been stable for more than a year and my body fat rate has been maintained at around 20%. I am in much better shape than when I used to run in the morning.

To put it bluntly, many people struggle with this problem because they essentially want to find the "most effective" shortcut, but when it comes to exercise, completion is always more important than perfection. If you spend half a month looking up information and wondering whether it is better to exercise in the morning or in the evening, it might not be as useful as walking around the neighborhood for twenty minutes after get off work today. There is no universal golden time. The time you can stick to is the best time.