There are best times of the day to exercise, which can lead to better results.

Chicago-area freelance writer Claire Zarkie, 44, has a well-established morning routine. He sends his kids to school, watches his favorite shows on TV, and does full-body workouts. When the work is completed, Mr. Zulky takes a shower and gets to work.

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Megan Curry, by contrast, works a full day and then hits the gym on her way home. The 32-year-old graphic designer from Maryland calls herself a “slow starter” in the morning, finding it difficult to get moving early in the day.

Each incorporates exercise, but are some times of the day more effective than others?

Consider your fitness goals

a small study Researchers at Skidmore College investigated the benefits of morning and evening exercise for both women and men. Dr. Paul J. Arcielo, Professor of Health and Human Physiology at Skidmore College, was the principal investigator.

“We had the groups follow the same multimodal routine and randomly split them into evening and morning groups,” he says. “We were surprised to find that women and men responded differently to different types of exercise at different times of the day.”

The study found that morning exercise was the most effective for women looking to lower blood pressure and reduce belly fat.Women looking to build upper body muscle, endurance, or improve overall mood improvement Evening training should be considered.

Among male participants, the results were slightly reversed. Evening exercise reduces blood pressure, heart disease risk, and fatigue, while morning exercise burns more fat, just like women. Additional research is needed to understand the reasons behind the results.

Therefore, the best thing to do, Arciello says, is to schedule your workouts for the times when you’ll get the most benefit. “For women, cardio in the morning and strength training in the evening is a good idea,” he says.

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early risers and night owls

“For many people, [the best time to exercise] ‘ said Associate Professor of Kinesiology at McMaster University. Heal your mind by moving your body.

Your chronotype is your body’s natural tendency to want to sleep at a particular time, and it determines whether you’re a night owl or a night owl. get up early. For the 25% of the population who consider themselves to be night owls, getting both enough sleep and enough exercise can be difficult, Heiss says.

“Exercising at night can go against social norms,” she explains. “Obviously, you might stay up until midnight and work out late at night, but if you have to be out at 7am the next morning, you’re not getting enough sleep.”

Sleep provides the time your body needs to recover and reap the benefits of exercise, but it should always be a priority when it comes to exercise. Regardless of the research on the benefits of doing certain types of exercise at certain times of the day, if you don’t get enough sleep, the benefits are diminished.

How to stagger training times

If your goal is to change your routine to follow Arcielo’s findings on exercise time per day, or simply to make exercise more convenient, even if it goes against your chronotype, it’s possible. says Hyes.

“For example, if you want to transition into a morning routine, the good news is that both the sun and exercise can reset your biological cues,” she says. “Exercising outdoors in the sun will enhance the effect.”

For older people who tend to get up early sometimes and have trouble falling asleep again, a desirable shift may be exercise at night. “This may help you fall asleep later and stay asleep longer,” says Heiss.

If you’re worried that your evening workout might affect your ability to fall asleep, switch to a more gentle exercise such as yoga. Avoid strenuous exercise such as running. Your heart rate will increase and you may find it difficult to relax.

For Curry, who works out at night, the trick is to train when you get home from work, long enough from bedtime so it doesn’t affect your sleep. “If she had gone home earlier, she probably wouldn’t have exercised,” she admits. “But I have more time to relax at night.”

According to Arciello, the most important thing when you want to exercise is to adopt a multi-modal approach. For his research, Arcielo developed a program called RISE that does just that: resistance training, sprints, interval training, stretching, and strengthening endurance. “We found that when he did each type of exercise once a week, he became more compliant and more effective,” he explains.

This story was originally Fortune.com

Details from Fortune:
5 Side Jobs That Could Earn $20,000+ A Year While Working From Home
Want to earn extra cash?Currently APY for this CD is 5.15%
Buy a house?See how much you can save here
This is how much you need to earn per year to comfortably buy a $600,000 house