Why It’s Best to Exercise in the Morning
Starting a new habit is tricky, but studies show that if you exercise in the morning, key hormones that help in building muscle and establishing new habits are peeking in those morning hours. This makes it more likely for you to see results and maintain a healthy routine.
A recent article in the news compared two groups of people exercising at different times in the day. The key here is that an important hormone, cortisol, which helps the body adapt to stressful conditions, is at its highest level in the morning. The study’s focus was on cortisol’s possible role in establishing memories and aiding in the learning process. Here participants were either doing morning exercises or exercises later in the day under the assumption that cortisol levels would be highest in the morning group.
Participants in the morning group had much higher retention in maintaining the habit over a long period of time compared to the group that exercised later in the day. Participants from the evening group revealed that they simply had a harder time remembering to do the exercise. Of course, cortisol may not be the only thing working in favor of the morning group. Daily stressors, family or work obligations can obviously cause people to forget an evening workout. But, isn’t that even more reason to get the exercise out of the way early?
There are many other reasons to start the day off with exercise. One being that testosterone is also higher in the morning. It would make sense to use this to your advantage in building lean muscle mass as opposed to exercising later when testosterone levels are lower. Exercise also increases blood flow and hence, oxygen to your tissues including the brain. This will help you better focus on tasks that follow your exercise. Studies also show that morning exercise helps boost metabolism, thereby leading to more calories burned throughout the day.
If nothing else, exercise elicits a release of natural happy, feel-good hormones called endorphins. Just a short 20-minute increase in heart rate will help your mood for the day. If you are one of those people who tends to put off your evening workouts to another day, try exercising in the morning and see what works best for you!
References
1.82E 14. “8 Benefits To Working Out In The Morning.” Bodybuilding.com, 23 Aug. 2017, www.bodybuilding.com/content/8-benefits-to-working-out-in-the-morning.html.
“7 Benefits of Morning Exercise, Plus 5 Secrets To Make It Happen!” Make Your Body Work, 21 Nov. 2015, makeyourbodywork.com/benefits-of-morning-exercise/.
Firman, Tehrene. “Want to create a healthy habit? Add it to your morning routine, study says.” Well Good, 31 Oct. 2017, www.wellandgood.com/good-advice/easier-to-make-morning-habits/.
Fournier, M, et al. “Effects of circadian cortisol on the development of a health habit.” Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association., U.S. National Library of Medicine, Nov. 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28650196.
“One Simple Way to Make a New Healthy Habit Stick.” Time, Time, time.com/4997507/ healthy-habit/.