Playing sports or exercising is always good and positive for our health and well-being, although not every hour is equally suitable. Whether in the morning, in the afternoon or at night, sport is associated with the most varied benefits, from the strictly physical to the mental.
It does not matter the format or the age, applied to our physical form, obviously. It can be simply jogging for a while, going for a run or, if we can handle it, long runs or strength exercises. Likewise, we must be clear that if our sports objective is weight loss, it must be associated with a caloric deficit.
That does not mean that there are not better times of the day to play sports, of course. We must also bear in mind that we run into numerous daily habits that collide with free time schedules. Family, work and obligations of all kinds can be a hindrance to find the best time of day to play sports.
Even more so with busy schedules where work shifts overlap with leisure time, sometimes leaving relatively little room for sports. However, if we are aware of it, there is a time of day when it is better to play sports.
Do sports in the morning: gold
Depending on the time of day, we can get more benefits from sport.
We assume that starting the daily routine is a ball for more than one reader. It is logical and in our daily habits not only what we do matters, but even our genetics can predispose us to these tendencies . However, if we manage to adapt to it, the best option at all levels to do sports is in the morning.
Not because of the theory that we should do sports on an empty stomach as an opportunity to lose weight —we insist on the importance of caloric deficit—, but because we ‘wake up’ the whole body at the same time. A kind of hormonal revolution led by cortisol, responsible for waking us up, and that can help us burn fat more quickly, especially if we accompany it with physical exercise.
The advantage is also associated, as a study published in 2019 in the Journal of Phisiology explained, with keeping us alert from early in the morning. In this sense, they guarantee that early risers will be more on guard throughout the day, gradually getting tired during the rest of the morning and afternoon, and thus allowing a better rest when it is time to go to sleep.
The adoption of this type of routine is thus associated with the natural sleep cycle that we have, marked by circadian rhythms, and that would also allow us to fulfill the rest of our daily obligations. In this sense, playing sports in the early hours of the day would also be related to the secretion of endorphins , baptized as the hormone of happiness, which reduces stress levels, as explained by the Mayo Clinic .
In any case, we know that doing sports in the morning is always complex because it collides with numerous routines, so we would talk about doing it between six and nine in the morning, also concentrating that moment for ourselves.
Do sports in the afternoon: silver
There are really few differences that separate doing sports in the afternoon from doing it in the morning. It is true that we lose part of that morning hormonal boost, which wakes us up and helps us get in tune. However, it is obvious to think that most of us have more free time in the afternoon, from four until eight or nine, at which time it would be dark.
However, the optimal time to do sports in the afternoon would be from one to four in the afternoon, according to Time magazine , citing The Journal of Phisiology . The benefits would be similar to those we would have from a morning workout, it would help us get ‘on time’, even with a light walk, and it would allow us to maintain the daily dynamic.
That is, obviously, in a hypothetical case that is not confronted with the rest of our daily life. However, there are also benefits to doing sports in the afternoon —beyond noon—, related to burning sugar. By practicing sports in the afternoon and giving a subsequent margin to digestion, we will be a small blood glucose pump, which will come in handy to do sports with greater intensity. In that case, also doing sports and the release of endorphins and adrenaline that it generates, will come in handy so that in the middle of the afternoon we do not suffer the classic slump that occurs.
Do sports at night: bronze
During the night we can reduce stress through sports, but it should be slow and not particularly exciting.
Unless our schedules are very irregular and broken, the human body is not designed for us to go to sleep after having become a source of endorphins and adrenaline. Paying attention to our body and approaching the moment of sleep by lowering the intensity of our rhythm is the most convenient.
For this reason, doing sports at night would not be the best time of day to do it. Here we would catalog night from eight in the afternoon onwards, but obviously it will have to do with the type of previous habits we have. And, of course, the personal and working conditions that mark it. In any case, if we fall into evening or night sports, it better be as soon as possible.
The reality is that two sensations come together. On the one hand, the fatigue typical of sport, which can invite us to stop and relax, but also the secretion of those hormones that have remained in the break ranks until the last moment. We have increased our pulse rate, blood pressure, our breathing and the body feels this way, so ‘inviting’ him to sleep right after will be difficult to achieve. In that sense, it is advisable to give a certain margin between the end of the exercise and bedtime.
In any case, despite the abundant medical literature and the reviews carried out to assess the relationship between sleep and exercise , there are few publications that find a direct correlation between sleeping better and playing sports at night.
