Is it better to do fitness exercises in the afternoon or in the evening

There is no absolute optimal answer to the question of "should you do fitness in the afternoon or in the evening?" - the best choice is a period of time that suits your daily rhythm, allows you to persist for a long time, and has no obvious physical burden after practicing.

The first person to say that fitness is more efficient in the afternoon was actually the physical coach of a professional team. A few years ago, when I trained strength with a coach who retired from the provincial team, he always liked to arrange strength classes between 3 and 5 pm. It’s not a mystery. During that time, the human body’s core body temperature is 0.5-1℃ higher than in the morning. Muscle viscosity is lower, joint flexibility is better, and nerve response speed is also at its peak throughout the day. The most obvious thing I feel is that under the same condition, I can press 5kg more in the bench press in the afternoon than in the morning when I first went to work, and I feel much safer when pressing heavy weights. This conclusion has also been supported by exercise physiology. The ratio of testosterone and cortisol during this period is more friendly, and it is indeed the most cost-effective option for those who want to gain muscle.

But this "optimal time period" has really limited reference value for most ordinary people. We, who work from 9 to 6, can't just carry a gym bag and say to the boss at 3 pm, "I'm going to go to a scientific fitness point." If you are lucky, you will be sweating when you go back to work after practicing. If you are unlucky, you will receive an emergency meeting call just after unloading the barbell, and you will have to rush to the conference room before finishing half a set of deadlifts. Anyone who has experienced it will understand the sour feeling. Even if you are a freelancer with free time, you will inevitably encounter situations where you have to take on work in the afternoon, or you are lazy and don’t want to move. If you are stuck in the time to exercise, you will easily feel frustrated because you cannot complete it.

Taking a step back, 80% of people who insist on long-term fitness now choose to do so in the evening. Several fitness guys around me who have been practicing for five or six years all go to the gym directly after get off work. After training, they take a slow shower and then go home. When they are not in a hurry, the completion of the movements is much higher than in the afternoon when they are in a hurry. Many people used to say that "exercising at night will cause insomnia." This actually depends on the person. I used to have a partner who complained that he kept his eyes open until two o'clock after practicing. Later, he changed the high-intensity HIIT that originally started at 8:30 to strength training from 7 to 8 o'clock. He also left 15 minutes for foam rolling to relax and deepen his breathing. Now he lies down and sleeps with a pillow. The quality of sleep is much better than before when he checked his mobile phone until 12 o'clock. Different people have different opinions. Health advocates say that exercising after 9 pm consumes yang energy. Neuroscience bloggers say that as long as you leave a buffer time of 1-2 hours, it will be no problem. I even tried shoulder training at 10 o'clock. As long as I don't press heavy weights at the end and don't watch stimulating short videos after the end, it doesn't affect falling asleep at 12 o'clock. The key point is actually not to do exercises that highly excite the sympathetic nerves right before going to bed. If you go to bed at 11 o'clock and are still there doing 150kg deadlift at 10 o'clock, your nerves will be so high that it will be strange to fall asleep.

I basically choose my time flexibly now. If I am not busy with projects this week, I will sneak out to do some shoulder training in the middle of the week. When I am busy, I will take an hour off after get off work to do back training. I have never been stuck for dead time and have not delayed my strength increase. Last year, my deadlift increased from 100kg to 140kg. I was foolishly confused before about whether I had to squeeze in the afternoon training to be effective, and I wasted half a month moving around to make time. On the contrary, because I was always in a hurry during that time, I was very anxious during practice. When I couldn't stand firmly when doing deadlifts, I almost lost my back. Since then, I no longer worry about the time period.

To put it bluntly, worrying about the time period itself is the most useless internal friction. You always focus on the so-called "best fitness time", but it is easy to find excuses for yourself to be lazy: Oh, I can't make it in time for the afternoon, forget it. If you really want to move, taking 10 minutes during your lunch break to do two sets of squats or taking a detour after get off work for 20 minutes is better than lying on the sofa reading fitness tips. After all, being able to persist in fitness for a long time is always more useful than "getting stuck in practicing once at the most scientific time."